The Pros and (Mostly) Cons of Upgrading to a 4K Monitor

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I'm in the process of getting back into photography which will mean a new camera, more on that in a later post. But the first step for me was a new computer, one with the horsepower to handle a modern day camera and its RAW files. Along with the computer comes a new 4K monitor. 4K is great for media consumption, right? Your characters on your favorite show or movie really look detailed and realistic. Scenery looks wonderful. Everything looks great, right? Wrong. You know what doesn't look great? That photo I took in 2012 that I thought was sharp but is very much not. I transferred over my past catalogs of photos over to Lightroom Classic and eagerly began opening up some of my favorite photos. At first I was happy with how the colors looked and how the scene was composed. Then I noticed it was a little soft. Well I had just gotten a new contacts prescription so that must be it. Changed to my glasses and the photos were even blurrier! I went through photo after photo and most ca

HDR Waterfalls

It should be no surprise that I took some bracket shots of the waterfalls from the other day. I'm not so happy with the HDR shots as I was with the normal shots, which for me is a little strange, but I think the blame goes on me, I rushed the shots. Note to self, and other photographers, don't go to a shoot with someone who's not a photographer, you'll end up feeling rushed even if they're in the car chatting happily on the phone oblivious to your shooting.

The shot is a 3 shot HDR (High Dynamic Range) shot, that's all the rage right now. In the camera it was supposed to have EVs (exposure value) -2 (under exposed, so a darker shot revealing detail in the brighter parts of the picture), 0 (what the camera thought was the correct exposure for the shot), and +2 (over exposed to bring out detail in the shadows). Using CHDK I was using DNG files (Adobe's answer to manufacturer specific RAWs). I merged them together in Photomatix Pro, by far my favorite HDR program that I've tried. It's at this point where I realized I wasn't happy. Coming out of Photomatix the greens were more of a blue green, and the water was showing off the fact that I have dead pixels on the camera, which from what I understand isn't all that uncommon, but I forgot to tell CHDK to remap around them. So the dead pixels were noticeable.

So if I didn't like the shot, why am I posting it? Well after some time in Topaz Adjust (my new favorite photo fixer) and Topaz Detail I was able to control the alien looking foliage, clean up the water a bit, and bring out the the fact the sun was just starting to hit the falls (top left corner). Hope you like it, and feel free to leave a comment.

HDR Falls

Comments

  1. everything in this photo is so alive, and well, extravagant. nature a la baroque. love it.

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The Pros and (Mostly) Cons of Upgrading to a 4K Monitor