One day late. It happens most of the time now and it annoys me, but it seems I can’t help it. It is amazing how much time I spend post-processing my images. There are days when it’s quite clear that I have only one choice for the Image of the Day, but on days like yesterday there can easily be five or six, and processing them all takes its time.
I currently have the trial version of Nikon Capture NX installed, just to help me in cases I like the original JPEG that came out of the camera, but have to fine-tune it in only certain aspects, e.g. lighten up some shadows or darken and saturate a certain color. Is it only me or is this a general problem with Adobe Camera RAW to match exactly what the camera did?
Normally I don’t care about the original and matching it is no concern at all, but what if I do? This is where Capture NX shines. The default it produces, matches exactly what came out of the camera. Of course the program is terribly slow and the decision to write it in .NET/C# was a bad one (not that Java would have been better), but for those things I’ve mentioned, it is a real time saver. Well, of course they should have implemented at least a clone stamp. Or do I miss something?
Yesterday I have been slightly north of Mooswald (home of Franz Klammer, one of the most famous Austrian ski stars of the 1970s), at an incredible viewpoint overlooking Millstätter See, one of the three big Carinthian lakes. Afterwards I drove along Millstätter See to Millstatt, up north to Obermillstatt, to go for another waterfall called “Ortnerfall”. I had to ask my way around, one time for the general direction, and the second time, already in Obermillstatt at the farmhous “Ortner” (I figured there could be a connection and, small wonder, there was) for fine-tuning. I found it around sundown, it was rather small and a trickler, but picturesque anyway.
For a change, this time I used the Sigma 10-20 again and exposed for 25 seconds at f16 and ISO 100.
Can you recognize the thing in the lower left corner? It’s a head. I could not recognize from which kind of animal, I have no idea why there is only a head and nothing more, but that’s what it was.