Great News! You Can Create RAW Panoramas with ACR 9.0

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Panorama of the Stivers Photo Auction.

Panorama of the Stivers Photo Auction. Click to see a much larger version.

You can create panoramic images with ACR 9.0 and this article tells you how.

The really great news is you can now open RAW camera files, stitch them together with ACR 9.0 (Adobe Camera Raw version 9) and output the panorama as a RAW file in the Adobe DNG format. Why is this such a big deal? This means you can go back any time, re-open the RAW file and tweak it again with all the advantages of RAW image processing. It is also a huge time saver from when we had to process each individual RAW file, output it as a PSD or TIF file, and then stitch them all together. I will walk you through the process of creating a RAW pano with ACR.

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ACR and RAW: Two of the Best Things You Can Do For Your Images

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Dawn, Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain. Before and After ACR.

Alpenglow on Hallet Peak and Flattop Mountain. Left side: Before processing with ACR. Right side: After processing with ACR. Click to see a larger version.

My eyes saw the wonderful alpenglow on the mountains, but it was barely there in the  JPEG file right out of the camera. The unprocessed RAW file looked just like the JPEG, but a RAW file has a lot more potential to bring out the color in the image. After the RAW file was processed with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) the image matched what I saw with my eyes. The color channels in a RAW file have 16 times the color tonality range of the color channels in a JPEG file. If you aren’t shooting RAW files and processing them with ACR, you aren’t getting all the color quality your camera is capable of producing.

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Adobe’s Improved “Process Version” for Adobe Camera Raw

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Vermilion Lakes Sunset, new and old ACR "process versions".

Vermilion Lakes Sunset, new (top) and old (bottom) ACR “process versions”. Click on the photo to see a larger image.

Adobe’s newest “process version” for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) provides better image processing for your RAW camera files. Photos you have processed with an older process version can look even better with the new version. For your images to look their very best you need to have the latest process version.

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The Best of the Best Photography Magazines

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Some of my favorite photography magazines.

My Favorite Photography Magazines

Photography is about inspiration as well as information. You can get both from a selection of well chosen photography magazines. There are a ton of choices out there and it seems like there are new ones every time I go to my favorite newsstand. But some are clearly better, more accurate, more useful, and with better images. The magazines that follow are, from my point of view, the best of the best photo magazines. But photography is a very personal thing so the best magazines for you will be different than the ones for someone else. Read through the descriptions below and the lists in the Links section at the end of the page.

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Stivers School for the Arts – Photography Exhibit and Auction

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Each year in the spring, Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton Ohio has an annual fund raising auction to support the photography department. Students at the school exhibit their work at the auction, plus a group of professional fine art photographers from around the world are invited to donate work for the auction. That is how I came to be involved. This was my first year.

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Nature Photography Workshop – OSU, Mansfield Ohio Campus

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Nature Collage

Nature Collage. Click to see a larger version.

CAPTURING NATURE’S WONDERS
Photography Workshop – OSU – Mansfield Ohio
May 9, 2015 – 9:00 am to 9:00 pm

I am excited. My next nature photography workshop in Ohio is fast approaching.

UPDATE: I just heard from the registrar and there are only two openings left for this workshop. If you want to get in you need to register ASAP.

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2015 Nature Photography Workshops – Registration Update

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Some of my 2015 workshops are almost full or full. Now is the time to sign up if you want to participate.

SUMMARY UPDATE April 14. The September Colorado workshop is now full. There are only two openings for the August Michigan workshop. There are only two openings for the May Ohio workshop. We still have some openings for the other workshops. Details below.

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Photography Exhibit and Auction, Stivers School for the Arts

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Art Exhibit and Auction, Stivers School for the Arts

Photography Exhibit and Auction, Stivers School for the Arts. Click to see a much larger image.

Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton Ohio has an annual photography exhibit and fund raising auction. I was invited to submit my work and this is my first year to participate. All the excitement was last night (April 10). This photo was created early in the evening before the gallery was packed with people. I will post more photos from the evening later on.

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Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo In Detroit

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Frida Kahlo and one of Diega Rivera's Murals

Frida Kahlo and one of Dieg0 Rivera’s Murals

DIEGO RIVERA AND FRIDA KAHLO IN DETRIOT.  Sunday, March 15, 2015 – Sunday, July 12, 2015.

“Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were an explosive couple. He carried a pistol. She carried a flask. He romanticized Detroit. She rejected it. But what they shared was a belief in communism, a thirst for tequila and a passion for each other. Discover how they left their mark on Detroit. And how Detroit left its mark on their art. Exclusively on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit brings together nearly 70 works of art that depict the evolution of these two extraordinary artists’ careers, including eight of Rivera’s epic preparatory drawings for the Detroit Industry murals and 23 pieces by Kahlo, whose work has never before been shown at the DIA.”

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How to Save A Sun Flared Image with ACR and a Soft Light Brush

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Original and Corrected Image

Original and Corrected Image. Click to see a larger version.

I was a guest at this wedding and seated in a location where the sun created a lot of contrast and flare. If I was the official photographer at the wedding I would have been at a different location, but I took the photo anyway, hoping to fix it later. I will take you through the process with some extra tips along the way.

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Winter Photography Series

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Last Light on El Capitan, Yosemite National Park

Last Light on El Capitan, Yosemite National Park

In addition to all of the usual photographic challenges, winter provides some extra complications, especially in terms of metering. So I began my series of articles on winter photography. This year I revised three prior articles and added six new ones. They will help you meet the unique challenges of winter photography.  So read the articles, get out there, have fun, and create some stunning images!

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Exposure Warning: Turn On The Blinkies

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Camera LCD Display With the "Blinkies" Turned On

Camera LCD Display With The Blinkies Turned On. Washed out pixels in the photo are flashing white and black.

Some camera’s come with a highlight overexposure warning, commonly called “the blinkies”. If you have overexposed, blown out pixels, those pixels in your image will flash white and black. A quick look at the LCD image will tell you if part of your image has white, washed out, featureless pixels. If your camera has a highlight overexposure warning, I suggest you turn it on. If you see the blinkies and you don’t want washed out pixels, tone down your exposure until the blinkies go away.

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Last Chance to Photograph Snowy Owls in the Northern U.S.

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Snowy Owl Sitings in the Northern U.S. - March 2015.

Snowy Owl Sitings in the Northern U.S. – March 2015. Click to see a larger version.

This is just a quick update to my snowy owl post from 2014. I hadn’t intended on an update but there are still snowy owl sightings as recently as yesterday (March 7) across the northern U.S. and southern Canada. This is a rare opportunity. Head north for the purple colors on this map and check out the locations for recent sightings. Set the map date for “March-May Current Year” (to limit the map to recent sitings). The owls are farther north than they were in January and February.

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POTD: Storm Clouds Rolling In

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Storm Clouds Rolling In

Storm Clouds Rolling In. (Click to see a larger version.)

Storm clouds rolling in over Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Photo Data: Canon 7D. Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 120 mm. 1/200 sec,  f/11,  ISO 100.

Update: My 2015 Photography Workshops Are Filling Up Fast

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Colorado Photography Workshop

Colorado Photography Workshop

My photography workshops for 2015 are filling up fast. Announced just two weeks ago, there are already 8 people signed up for the Colorado workshop in September. There are only two openings left. If you want to come to this workshop, contact the registrar ASAP before it fills up (link below).

The workshop in August at Lake Charlevoix near Boyne City, Michigan was announced just 3 days ago and there are already 4 people coming. Just 6 openings left. If this workshop is the one for you, contact the registrar soon (link below).

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World Wildlife Day

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Pika, Rock Cut, Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Pika storing up food for the winter. Rock Cut, Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Today is World Wildlife Day. Various species of wildlife are in danger around the world. You can make a difference. Donate to the organization of your choice.

If you don’t have a favorite organization to donate to, take a look at this article on the Top 10 Wildlife Conservation Organizations. The first two on the list happen to be my favorites.

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Photography Workshops in Michigan

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Photography Workshops in Michigan

Photography Workshops in Michigan

“Capturing Nature’s Wonders”
Photography Workshops in Michigan with Jim Doty, Jr.

I am pleased to announce we are adding a new weekend workshop in Northern Michigan this year. It will be August 14-16, 2015 at Park of the Pines on beautiful Lake Charlevoix near Boyne City, Michigan. I will also be doing a one day workshop May 16, 2015 near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Testing Your Camera’s Snow Exposure Latitude

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Cascade, Barry, and Coxe Glaciers

Cascade, Barry, and Coxe Glaciers, Prince William Sound, Alaska

Exposure compensation is one of the most important keys to good exposures, great images, and the best colors your digital camera is capable of producing. Knowing your camera’s snow exposure latitude is one of the keys to using exposure compensation in a winter scene. It is different for every camera model. You won’t find it in your camera’s manual but it is easy to determine with a simple test.

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Remembering Leonard Nimoy, The Photographer

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Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy

We all knew Leonard Nimoy as an actor, but in the art world he was also known as an accomplished photographer. He will be missed.

His best known photography exhibition, “Shekhina”, has been highly praised (links below). The exhibit has also been controversial due to the nude imagery so be advised before you click the link to read further down the page.

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