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21 Feb 2024 Bird/Wildlife Theme: Jim

Posted on by jrwilkinson

After focusing on primarily landscape photography, Jim has developed interest in improving his bird and wildlife photos. During a recent Safari Park visit, he experimented with the ‘get down to eye-level’ with the birds style. It was effective and will definitely become standard practice. He also visited Hawk Watch in Ramona and photographed the bird ‘ambassadors’. After Hawk Watch, he stalked a Red Tail Hawk in Ramona Grasslands during rainy weather. Using these plain sky images, did a quick demonstration of Photoshop’s sky replacement AI>

Tutorial: Nik Collections (Google Version)

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Disclaimer – Nik Collections is a product currently sold by DXO for $149. But versions have been around for a long time, originally developed in 1995 by Nik Multimedia & sold for $600/copy. Google acquired it in 2012, sold it for $150/copy, then distributed it for free in 2016. DXO bought it in 2017 and currently updates and improves it.
The free google version (courtesy of Techspot: Windows or Mac) is what I’ve been using successfully with the latest version (v13.1, Jan 2024) of Lightroom Classic. Some websites suggest there are bugs using the 2016 version with the latest Adobe products. So far, I’ve had good luck and results but your mileage may vary. I’ve only used the Silver Efex Pro 2 module, not the sharpener, analog, or other modules. For more information, google “Nik Collection free version”.

Black & White Presets

I’ve been interested in film simulations both color and b&w. But I have been somewhat disappointed in many I’ve tried, especially b&w. I like the idea of making my images less digital looking, adding film-like qualities. Many digital photographers have been resorting to mist or glimmer filters to take the ‘digital-edge’ off. These soften the highlights without affecting the shadows. So trying these filters and tinkering with the digital camera color science has been something I’m exploring.
When converting color images to black&white, I haven’t like the results when applying a film simulation. I loved Plus-X and Tri-X film, back-in-the-day. But the artificial grain added by their film simulation presets don’t work for me. So I’ve been trying Silver Efex Pro 2, part of Nik Collection, to convert my color images to black & white. As with any digital darkroom tool, Silver Efex Pro 2 gives me a base b&w image to work on. Nik Collection are a group of plugins for Lightroom and Photoshop. So the color image is exported by Lightroom (with or without Lightroom edits) into a Nik Collection toolbox. I prefer the Silver Efex Pro 2 modules. You cycle through the different presets then save back into Lightroom for further edits and final output. Some of Silver Efex’s presets are extreme but I often get a better result than Lightroom’s b&w presets. I’m sure I could end up with similar results using Lightroom but found Silver Efex to be a better starting point.

Example from Reflections/Komorebi (click each image & read the filename for the Silver Efex Preset used)

Meeting Minutes 2023

Posted on by jrwilkinson
  • December 20 2023 Meeting Notes: Gary shared details on his recent trip down under to Australia and New Zealand. His ‘winter’ photos were also of his recent trip, which is summer in the southern hemisphere.
    • Gary talked about his recent trip to Australia, Sydney in particular, and New Zealand. He shared photos of his trip.
    • Photos with the Winter theme and other subjects were shared and discussed
    • John wanted to discuss how to setup a Star of India portfolio on portfolio.adobe.com with a custom domain. If you are a Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber, you can setup up to 5 ‘free’ portfolio websites. Custom domain names cost ~$10-$15 for an annual domain registration.
    • Hawk Watch in Jan-Feb 2024 was discuss and a possible meetup to photograph rescued raptors and other birds.
    • A brief demo of adding photos to the UCSDPhIG Uploads Google Drive
    • A discussion of using Photoshop’s ‘puppet warp’ feature to straighten curved sections of a panoramic photo
  • Nov 15 2023 Meeting Notes: a brief discussion of recent trips, participants shared recent images following the travel theme for this month. Also, more photos from our moonrise meetup have been posted. The difficulty of balancing exposures of the moon and skyline were discussed while viewing the images. Moon photography is challenging and something we will continue to pursue.
  • Oct 18 2023: Theme for October is ‘Fall/Autumn’
    • Jim Wilkinson was unavailable to host so John Leighton did the honors
    • Photos were shared by participants
  • Sep 20 2023: Theme for September is “Animals – Birds/Zoo/Wildlife/Insects/Pets”
    • Photo-sharing took up the entire meeting from 2:15-4:15pm so all the discussions were photo-critique & technique related.
    • Photoshop 2024’s new generative fill was discussed with examples.
    • Lightroom shadow & highlight masking to improve images taken on bright sunny days was discussed.
    • Cell phone macro photography examples were presented and discussed.
    • Discussed planning a possible Alabama Hills Photography Excursion, Jim will research and propose details at a future meeting/email
    • We plan on setting a Hawk Watch group excursion in Jan or Feb, a Doodle Poll will be conducted to find the best weekend date.
    • Oct 28th Full moon at sunset excursion to Harbor Island or nearby is proposed and tentatively planned. A rendezvous spot will be forthcoming based on the Photographer’s Ephemeris or PhotoPills for the best spot to setup.
    • Photoshop Virtual Summit 5 is coming October 30-November 3 – Free and paid VIP Passes are available (Thanks Cathy)
  • Aug 16 2023: The theme for August was ‘Black&White’. Participants shared their favorite photos, some in black&white & some color favorites.
    • Photo-sharing took up the entire meeting from 2:10-4:10pm so all the discussions were photo-technique related.
    • Black&White conversion of color images were discussed. The best black&white photos having strong light and graphical elements.
    • Additionally, because of the recent (Aug 12-13 2023) Perseid Meteor Shower, astrophotography techniques were also discussed.
  • July 19 2023: The theme for July was ‘Water/4th of July‘. Participants shared up to 10 photos that followed the theme or non-theme-related.
    • Travel plans were discussed and potential outings – Del Mar horse races or horse workouts
    • Most of the discussion were related to the photos shared, particularly Gary’s Canada kayaking trip. Other topics were macro-photography related and my fav – film simulation presets.
  • Jun 21 2023: The theme for June was ‘Travel‘. Submission of up to 10 photos that followed the theme were shared. Other non-theme-related photos were also shared.
    • Photographing in weather and how it affects gear selection was discussed
    • Film simulations were also a short topic of interest (at least to Jim Wilkinson)
  • May 17 2023 2pm-4pm, hosted by John Leighton
  • Apr 19 2023 2pm-4pm, hosted by Jim Wilkinson
  • Mar 15 2023 2pm-3pm, hosted by John Leighton
  • Feb 15 2023 2pm-4pm
  • Continuing issues with our Google Drive share was discussed and anyone who has trouble can go back to emailing the photos to me.