Category: blog

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photo: Lightroom v Aperture

processed in Adobe Lightroom
Tiny Ben.

processed in Aperture
2007-07-06_DSC01959%20%281%29.jpg

Test shot of Ben using a borrowed Sony DSC-F828 in Night Shot mode, so in theory an infrared image, although he’s mostly lit by an off-screen iMac. I doubt the iMac emits much IR, but I think the camera has its own IR source – maybe I’m doing it an injustice.

I like the image regardless, I like the unusual tone and colours.

The top image is processed with Adobe Lightroom, the bottom with Apple’s Aperture. Apart from the obvious vignette in the Lightroom version, I still prefer the subtleties it can produce. I can’t seem to recreate the skin tone in Aperture, but to be fair, I should try a different test using Aperture first.

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Arnica

One man’s hurt is another man’s tickle

Does it actually work or does it just have a placebo affect?

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photo: Photoshop Lightroom

Downloaded a trial version of Adobe Lightshop – seems pretty similar to Aperture but don’t know either of them well enough to evaluate just yet.

I’m very attached to this image of the barley though …

[UPDATE]

I wasn’t aware that Lightshop has stuff like this built into it, which as far as I can gather, Aperture doesn’t. The link leads to a flash-based web gallery of a selection of images which is easy to generate from within Lightshop.

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photo: infrared and Nikon

Field of Dreams

Originally uploaded by Hugh_C.

Shona and myself took a little trip down to Dungarvan in Waterford primarily to eat at The Tannery, but also to kick back and relax. I took a few snaps before breakfast this morning, a glorious day with blue skies and big clouds, perfect for a bit of IR.

This is the first outing with the Hoya R72 and the Nikon, and the results are reasonably good. I’ve yet to crack the focusing thing though, since IR doesn’t focus in the same plane as visible light, and so I’m pretty much guessing. And seeing as you can’t see anything at all through the viewfinder, composition generally has to be salvaged in post production.

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editing: The Master’s Apprentice “Events”

Director: Julian Hills
Producer: Maya Derrington
Editor: Hugh Chaloner
Production Company: Tyrone Productions

In this episode, Orla (the apprentice) was matched with Ovation, an event management company based in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. In this clip, Orla reflects on the week that has been, and assesses her involvement in the activities which had been organised for a group of Canadian business people who had been visiting Ireland with a view to making it an international business conference and reward destination.

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The Master’s Apprentice: Castle Leslie

ghost.jpg

Another short excerpt from The Master’s Apprentice.

In this episode, Stephen (the apprentice) was sent to Co. Monaghan to learn from Noel McMeel, executive Head Chef at Castle Leslie, a man who has cooked in kitchens globally including the world famous Chez Panisse in California. In this clip, Stephen has been set the task of creating a starter of his own invention and presenting the finished dish to Noel.

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editing: The Master’s Apprentice “K Club”

Here’s a short excerpt from an episode of a six-part series I edited at The Farm for Tyrone Productions, recently aired on RTÉ. The series, The Master’s Apprentice, is loosely based round the hospitality industry, whereby a promising apprentice is matched to somebody at the top of their game in order to gain an insight to that person’s knowledge of the industry.

Director: Julian Hills
Producer: Maya Derrington
Editor: Hugh Chaloner
Production Company: Tyrone Productions

In this episode, Chris (the apprentice) was despatched to Kildare to learn from Michael Davern, the GM of the K Club, a man who had recently hosted the Ryder Cup among other achievements. In this clip, Chris has been sent to make his own appraisal of the hotel before presenting his report to Michael.

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photo: fake miniatures

Tiny Ben.

I have crack jackson jr. on flickr to thank for introducing me to the notion of fake miniatures. There are various techniques for simulating the miniaturisation – the one I’m trying out here uses selective focusing on either PShop or Gimp (I’m using the latter) to approximate the action of a tilt-shift lens. I’m new to the technique it’ll take a while to figure out how to do it. Not least is the problem of how to install plug-ins to the Gimp on OS X

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new lens: Nifty Fifty (AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D)

budding close

I stole the name from Julie O’Donnell on flickr, who probably stole it from somebody else so my guilt isn’t burdensome …

Anway, here’s the result of the new lens – an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D – a fast, cheap, light piece of glass that enables you to shoot in low-light conditions without a flash. I’m using it here for a very shallow DOF (depth of field) effect – notice how little of the lily is actually in focus. I’ve tried a few of these out on the kids, but it’s very hard to get the right bit of the image in focus on someone or something who’s moving as erratically as a two-year-old.