Some of my first photos with A6300

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Some more thoughts on Lightroom processing.

I have 6.14, and it does not have some of the controls you use, like Dehaze. That could affect all the other settings, but I'm not quite sure what it does.

Dehaze is an amazing tool. I started recently to use it. Normally is more useful in the positive side, at least in underwater photography. In topside photography it may provide an "desirable" effect. High levels are not useful. I am not clear if it could replace Clarity at some point.

Dehaze helps to eliminate some of the turbidity of water.

I see you using a lot of Clarity. I've learned to be very careful with it as it tends to emphasize things in a harsh way. I typically put in a very nominal amount (+2). I used to use more, but eventually mostly quit using it. It reminds me of oversharpening.

Yes, I use a lot of Clarity. It was one of my favorite tools before Dehaze. I use a lot of Vibrance too but now that I think about it I tend to use it less in close-ups. In close-ups I realize that I do use more Saturation or HSL to correct or emphasize (or not) colors or hues, for instance color of water.

A typical ballpark set of adjustments for a lot of my images will have something like this:

1. Contrast ends up at +10-25

I tipically ends below +20. Clarity doing the "selective" contrast adjustment in midtones.

2. Highlights pulled down 10-100% - highly dependent on reflective areas

Mostly I do the same. Rarely in + side

3. Shadows pulled up +10-50 - highly dependend on scene

I do play hard with shadows but only in some of the photos. In most I leave it at "0". When dark areas (mainly in close-up backgrounds are no really useful I pulled it down to -100. Like If shot at high shutter speed or high F-number. Sony A6300 has a max sync speed of 1/160 so black backgrounds depend more of aperture. Sometimes they are not so black so I try to emphasize it in LR.

4. clarity at +2

I do use clarity mostly below +20. But with +2, I practically see no difference. I start noticing changes from 6 or 7

5. saturation at +10-15

Mostly I do the same.

6. black point pulled down very carefully until histogram just kisses the left side. I use this as a dehaze technique, but it have to balance this with exposure and contrast adjustments.

I practically do not use Blacks or white points. Just in some cases of "try and see"

7. sharpening - most shots are left at the Lightroom default. Some are sharpened a bit more, but I feel like I only need sharpening on a 45mp image if I've somehow missed focus a bit.

I leave it untouched. But in some cases, I sharpen selectively using Adjustment Brush

You should definitely crop more.

In fact, I do crop but I like a lot to get an acceptable composition out of the camera. I do crop also to make different versions of a same photo or take a detail of an image to make another.

My originals are 24 Mp. When using +6 diopter I have a narrow (angle)  field of view and a very narrow DoF. +6 Diopter "forces" me to work at a distance shorter than 165 mm. So unless, it is a very tiny subject (like a goby) I do not crop a lot.

It is true that I tend to get as close as focusable to shoot a more "macro-like" photo and I could be on the max distance for diopter, have a (very) little more DoF and do some crop in post.

Without the diopter I can place the camera farther, have more DoF but I would have to crop too much to single out small critters.

Nice photos of yours.

Thanks very much for your comments and sugestions

Regards

Hector

Here are some examples:

Sea Rod - in this case I've pulled down highlights more than I'd like, and the tips have gone a bit blueish, but at least I can see the details:

Here's another one that came out better:

Here's an arrow crab showing the typical problem I have - getting the part sticking up from the head in focus as well as the claws:

Here's one that cropped up well, though the claws are covered by a Brittle Star. I worked with the white balance on this one, but I think the color is pretty close. More golden than most.

Here's a similar Lionfish crop to yours. I had to do a lot of work to tame the highlights here. I think I used the eyedropper tool on a white spot to set white balance.

Social Feather Dusters: I often have a lot of cropping choices. Perhaps I cut this one off a bit at the bottom.

One of the 'techniques' I use to get more depth of field is to stand back a bit and crop in. My cameras (36mp D810 and 45mp D850) have enough resolution to do this.

My late wife and I had planned a Cuba trip last year. I would have loved it. Always wanted to dive around Cuba.