Do you really want to learn?
Andy Mumford is brilliant and has the highest pedagogic attitude you could ever find.





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Edit 2:
Well ufff? I went to the service and after bribing someone with my charming smile and promises of kinky sex, she called the technician and he told me that I would have to wait at least 15 days to get a new one, as they would have to order it from Germany.
The good news were mine wasn't broken, just severely scratched! As it doesn't show on the photographs, he put it back on.
So now I have a badly damaged and dirty fresnel but at least I can take photographs until I'm mentally ready to leave my camera there for 15 or 30 days...
It will be hard to look at such a dirty viewfinder and wonder at all times how the photograph will come out. Close your eyes until all you see is a semi blurred image and your eyelashes. That's how my viewfinder looks like.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME:
[link]
Trust me.

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Edit: !!!!! I screwed my camera's focus viewfinder trying to clean it following an internet tutorial!
Did you hear some howling? It was me... STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!
I'm off to Canon assistance right now.
With my luck it will take about one month to get it repaired!
I fucking hate this little country's services...

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Hi friends, watchers and random visitors.

The following words do not reflect an arrogance change on my behavior. Trust me on that one.

This is my DA home. You are all very welcome here at all times, the only thing I ask of you is to wipe your feet clean before entering.


I’ve been asked several times about my workflow, whether through private messages or photo comments. I have always wanted to be as helpful as I could, sharing all knowledge I acquired myself, as little as it may be.
I’ve answered as completely as I could, and still received some unpleasant jocose comments back from some of the people who asked for help. If you browse two or three of my photos, you may find an explanation there. The workflow is basically the same. Being helpful to someone and then acting like it was my obligation to do so is fucking unbelievable, so enough of that.

On the same note,
I take most of your input seriously and I learn with it so much. I keep valuing your technical feedback very much, though I confess that aesthetically my compositions/ photographs are pretty much as I want them to be. For instance, I didn’t even know I could have fun with apertures until commented on [link]

Another example: on [link]
Martin made an aesthetical suggestion that works like a charm (although I didn’t submit the change yet, I tried it immediately after I read the suggestion).


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About the workflow:

Keep in mind that I started into photography only in early January this year.

I always shoot CR2!
I use Photomatix Pro for HDRi, Artizen (rarely, but allows HDRi on one single jpeg), Lightroom for major developments and Paint Shop Pro X2 for layer edits and the text signature (I also have PS CS3, though I rarely use it, I don’t like it very much).

Lightroom: the best software ever created (only to find out CS3 has Lightroom integrated… spent unnecessary €. I do all my major work here. It’s here that I play with saturation levels and do all of my monochrome photographs. I also import my HDRi to Lightroom for tweaking. As my camera sensor has dust, I love how Lightroom heals the black spots also.
I also add the vignetting in Lightroom. I'm a sucker for a good vignetting!

Corel X2: First I duplicate the base layer (imported file from Lightroom) and set it to invisible, so if anything goes wrong I can always have a backup. Then I work with the one duplicated.
Now, If I want to darken a few parts of the photograph, I duplicate this layer again, and change its mode from normal to "multiply" and decrease its opacity level (to a desired level), so it doesn't cover the lower layer. Then I carefully erase the opposite of the parts I want darker.
If I want to brighten up a few parts, I duplicate the unchanged layer and set it to “screen”, again decreasing the opacity to a desired level,and then carefully erase the opposite of the parts desired brighter.
I’m pretty sure there are plenty of easier ways of doing this, but I learned by myself and this is what I’m comfortable doing.

Don't forget you can play with the hue map through each layer and adjust the saturation levels. I often duplicate a layer and convert it to black and white to give an extra feel to the sky, decreasing the opacity and deleting everything except the upper part of the photograph.

Thank you for reading.



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As to the comments left unanswered and favs left unthanked I do truly apologize, but I just don’t have the time to answer you all, as much as want to. I read them all! I understand it is becoming harder to do so to all of you, so don’t even think I will not understand if you don’t thank me for a fav. I know exactly how to discern arrogance from time constraints.



Cherish those who love you.