Tag: landscape photography

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2020-12-27: Trying out Capture One Express

I had an email from Fuji a couple of days ago advertising a new version of the free Capture One Express software, and decided to download it and give it a try. Since I can’t go anywhere to take photos, playing around with new software at least gives a different spin to what I have already been looking at for some time.

I’ve been pretty unsettled with my photo workflow; I used Lightroom for years, then switched to On1 Photo Raw, and then switched back to Lightroom. I have other photo software as well, such as Topaz Studio and Luminar, but found that neither suited my purposes as my basic editor, though both have their place as a secondary editor through Photoshop.

I’ve watched a 7 minute quick start video on Capture One and then decided to edit a couple images using that as my starting point, and a couple others from the same area in Lightroom to see what the difference would be. While the Capture One Express lacks some key features such as spot removal and watermarking capabilities, there are other options to do those tasks. What I was really interested in was what software made the images look the best they can. From my very brief test, it looks like it will be worth the time to explore Capture One in much more depth.

These images were all taken at the Potholes on the Panorama Route in South Africa. It’s an area with beautifully red tinted rocks and lots of small waterfalls. We were there just before noon so there were lots of deep shadows in areas and very high contrast.

One of the canyons, edited using Capture One Express.
A very similar image, edited using Lightroom. I personally think the depth of colour is more pleasing in the Capture One version.

These next two images weren’t in the exact same area, so there were actual differences in the colour tone of the rocks, it is not just an element of the processing software.

This image was edited in Capture One, and again the colour tone seems more vivid and true to life. Note I didn’t add any additional colour saturation to this image.
This image was edited using Lightroom, and the tone of the rocks here is naturally more subdued, but I still feel like the Capture One software brought more to the image than Lightroom did.

Comparing only two sets of images is definitely not enough to formulate any type of solid opinion on a new (to me) software product, but the results have me really excited to play around and see what I can create. Capture One Express, at first glance, has a much larger selection of Fuji film simulations compared to Lightroom, and I really like the look they give an image to start the editing process. For both of these images, I selected “Film Standard” curve in conjunction with the ICC profile that was pre-loaded for my camera.

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2020-10-26: Monochrome Monday

This image was shot with an infrared filter as a long exposure while staying at Lion Sands Tinga Lodge in South Africa last year. I hadn’t experimented with the filter too much before that, and it was a fun project to do during the middle of the day. I personally love how the fluffy clouds pop against the inky sky.

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2020-10-18: Inverted Landscapes

I felt a strong desire to create something different today, and was drawn to inverting the colours on some images, and then converting to black and white. The result isn’t quite the same as shooting with an infrared filter, and then converting to black and white, but there are some similarities in the ghostly white trees and vegetation.

These images were all shot during my time in Kenya, and they definitely inspire the hope that I will get back there one day and can play around with some infrared long exposure work. Till then, I can have some fun in Photoshop.

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2020-09-20: Selenkay Conservancy

For the last few weeks I have been revisiting my trip to East Africa in 2016. Today, I have some images from the Selenkay Conservancy and Amboseli National Park. The main reason I went to East Africa was to visit Uganda and trek to see gorillas, but since I was in the area, I added on five nights in Kenya. It was a place I had always wanted to travel to, and the add-on gave me a bit of a feel for the country; which I absolutely want to explore in greater detail in the future.

One thing I didn’t get to see in any real detail was Kilimanjaro. All of the amazing images from Amboseli of elephants with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background was not my experience, as it was quite hazy and I inly had a brief glimpse of the mountain. Hopefully next time!

I hope you enjoy my selection of images for the day. You can find some older posts from my trip here and here.

One of the homes in a Maasai village that I was able to visit during my stay.
A gerenuk stretching for tasty leaves on an acacia.
A gazelle and her calf.
A secretary bird strutting along.
A flock of flamingos at the Amboseli marsh.
A pair of gray crowned cranes.
A curious hyena cub
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2020-08-16: Panorama Route

This week passed by quickly, mostly with rainy weather, so I didn’t get out with my camera at all. Wanting to have something to share for my usual Sunday post, I opened up my catalogue of unedited images and landscape shots from the Panorama Route in South Africa caught my eye, so that’s what I have to share today.

This was a lovely day trip that we took from our base in White River at the tart of our last trip to South Africa. We decided to have a few down days before heading into the bush, to get over jet lag and relax a bit. This was a great way to spend a relaxing day, learning about the history of the area from our awesome guide while watching beautiful scenery pass us by, interspersed with a few stops with short walks to see the sites.

Initially we were a little concerned as one of our party had limited mobility and couldn’t join in any walks to sights, but the rondavels, and the waterfalls were easily visible right from the car parks. Unfortunately the portholes wasn’t something that could be seen from the vehicle, but we shared images in the evening when back at our hotel. So even if you can’t get out and walk around all the sites, its still a very worthwhile and enjoyable day out.

The three rondavels.
A canyon in the portholes.
Berlin Falls
Lisbon Falls
Some small waterfalls at the portholes.

Wishing you a fantastic week!

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2020-08-09: Sabi Sands Sunset

This weekend I completed my exams to finish out summer term, and now have the next month off (well, off of school, I still have a full time job to attend to). My brain is pretty much turned to mush after all the revising, so instead of adding more to my to do list, I found an edited photo waiting to post. A sunset seemed fitting, as an end to a rather hectic and stressful couple of months. I am looking forward to some downtime over the next few weeks, and an opportunity to do some more editing, and maybe even find a place that inspires me to get out shooting. And then, after labour day, the cycle will begin again.

Wishing you a peaceful, and relaxing week ahead 🙂

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