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

Fave 5 from 2011 Part 4: The End

I'm still having difficulty believing it's December already, and 2011 is now measured in days. With the end of another year you'll be assailed by all kinds of "Top (Fill in the blank) of 2011". I thought I'd look back at the over 1400 photos I took in 2011 and pick my top 5 to be revealed over the final weeks of 2011.

So I decided to count these two as one, mainly because they are of the same subject. This was one of my most fortuitous shots as everything worked out, the stillness of the water, the interesting clouds in the sky and a camera in the car. Nine times out of ten I'll have the first two but won't have a camera, or when I bring the camera all the other elements don't work out. This was an unplanned shot, which I think have been turning out better for me. Or I have lower expectations of these unplanned shots so i'm happily surprised after I see them.

I'm especially proud of these shots because I was able to shoot for my two favorite styles; dynamic black and white and HDR. The black and white is a one shot, single exposure with a little tweaking in Aperture before being converted in Silver Effex Pro 2. I really enjoy using Silver Effex and am constantly impressed with the quality of photo I get when using that program for my black and whites. The HDR is a three exposure handheld shot. I wanted to frame the end of the bridge but still showcase the graffiti. Photomatix Pro handled the HDR processing and I finished it up in Topaz Labs' Adjust. Currently these are the wallpapers on my computer screen.

Black and white reflections
Convergence Bridge in B&W


Color reflections
Convergence Bridge

The black and white version was featured earlier here. The color HDR shot was featured here, and a final shot from the set can be found here.

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