So, sometime this year some planets in an unlikely event in the other side of our galaxy collided, and I met Edmund in a parking lot, in Los Feliz, California. Edmund and I have worked together and it dates back to Jellyvision in Chicago. He told me he participates in an improv theater/comedy called "Dark Gables" here in LA, so I decided to go. I went once and now I went again- because I wanted to take photographs - for him (and his colleagues) but also to challenge myself to take photographs in a new environment. And also I have to say they were way way better than the first time I went :-) It was very funny and my cultural background didn't get in the way of me laughing really hard....
Normally I do zero post processing, but this time I did some simply because I want to make the photos look better.. and some really could benefit from some cropping. I have decided to split them in two galleries- as post processed and non post processed so you can see what I did.
One more thing: I tried to use Olympus Studio... and while I have to say Olympus Studio still has the best raw conversion quality coming from my camera, the workflow made want to stick needles underneath my nails... It's really not that bad, until you realize you have 49 photos to do something to, converting from raw. NOT GOOD. Makes me realize more than ever "capture right the first time" out of the camera is the best.
Oh, and I would probably shoot jpegs next time.
For the batch that didn't require post processing I broke down and decided to try Raw Shooter Essentials now in its "premium form" in a 15-day trial. They added some goodies and I always kinda loved the program but there are two things Oly Studio does better:
#1. At the end of the day, the raw conversion from Oly Studio is for my camera, superior
#2. Oly Studio can raw-convert taking into account my camera settings- like contrast up/down, saturation, etc. I am not sure Raw Shooter does that (doesn't seem like it).
As for the shooting it was definitively very challenging and interesting at the same time. You have constant changes in white balance and exposure as lights come in and out... You have a low light environment... and I fought between which leans to use as the telephoto I have (50-400mm 35mm equiv) gave me nice portraits but not the whole environment.. so I hastily swapped lenses at the end...
I had also forgotten my tripod or monopod so I shoot "as handheld as I could." When my camera shutter started clicking at first I was a bit concerned to draw a bit too much attention, but nobody seemed to care. And yes, I was shooting in full manual mode (yeah, I did it).
Anyway, I still have two home works I am done with to post! This wasn't homework, just "fun" and I spent a good 5 hours on this! My god....
Here are some photo stats:
50 photos deleted
49 photos edited
32 photos "just right" or near so
As always, critique most welcome.
PS: I am *very* tired as I write this... and I still have to post TWO homeworks worth of photos.. I am still converting them... I may do that tonight - or maybe not.
PSS: Thanks to Paint Shop Pro not obeying proper script settings, these photos dont' have my usual (C) notice, but they are all (C) 2005 Ricardo Hernández-Machado so there :-)
UPDATE: Just like I did with the Halloween shots, now everything has been converted with Olympus Studio from Raw format. I couldn't stand the colors/quality/contrast of Raw Shooter... Make sure you flush your browser cache or do a proper refresh to see the new photos.
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