Now that the COVID lockdown in the UK has been relaxed somewhat, I thought I would be out in the landscape much more. But two things have stopped me:
- I’ve focussed on finishing my Lightroom Photo editing course “Simply Lightroom Develop” (more on that in a moment).
- The weather here has been terrible.
Because of this, I haven’t taken many shots and so I’m back to working with my archives. If you follow my Instagram account you will have seen a few of these in recent days. What’s frustrated me more is that my old work seems to draw more praise than my current efforts.
Today I thought I would share another shot (not yet on Instagram) which I captured in 2009 on the Isle of Skye. I shot this handheld with a Canon EOS 400D and Sigma 10-20 lens at 14mm. I used a 2 stop soft ND Grad filter on the sky for an exposure of 1/25” at ISO100 and f/14.0.
It looks amazingly sharp, but it isn’t. Here’s a small section magnified to 200% for comparison so you can see.
The top image section is the original RAW file with some capture sharpening. The lens wasn’t that great and that there’s some camera shake going on.
Now compare it to the bottom image and the difference is quite significant. What made this improvement was Topaz Sharpener AI in full auto mode. There’s just been a new release of the software (currently on sale) and I was keen to try it out. All I can say is Wow!
I can’t wait to experiment further, and I will be producing a review soon.
Latest Course Launch
As I mentioned above, I’ve been working on a Lightroom course for a good few months now and this week it finally launched. It has over 3.5 hours of video and comes with supporting RAW files for the examples. It’s priced at £20 + any local taxes. There’s also a 50% discount until the end of August 2020 for Lenscraft Subscribers.
You can find out more about the course and watch the preview lessons on my Lenscraft website.
YouTube Video
And finally, I wanted to mention for all you Photoshop users out there that my latest video is live on YouTube. It explains how to watermark your photos and then create an action to batch process images in volume. Here’s the link (https://youtu.be/FxBu4ZiBwM4).
I hope you like this week’s image and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Yes, Wow is the right word to say. And the update this week allows masking too. Important to decide if Sharpen Mode, or Stabilize Mode or Focus Mode is the right mode to use.
And Gigapixel AI has been updated this week too, and now can be launched directly from Lightroom. This is a big improvement.
Good job!
Thanks. I hadn’t noticed the Gigapixel update. I will need to take a look. I’m loving the latest Topaz tools.
Nice shot, even though it’s from the past.
Thanks. I suspect I have quite a few buried in my archives.
Dear Robin
Thank you for mentioning Topaz DeNoise, which I’ve got.
It does some sharpening.
Would it still be a good idea to get Topaz Sharpener AI as well?
Best wishes from Bali,
Jonathan
From: The Lightweight Photographer Reply to: The Lightweight Photographer Date: Saturday, 25 July 2020 at 03:12 To: Subject: [New post] I’m Missing Landscape Photography
thelightweightphotographer posted: ” Now that the COVID lockdown in the UK has been relaxed somewhat, I thought I would be out in the landscape much more. But two things have stopped me: I’ve focussed on finishing my Lightroom Photo editing course “Simply Lightroom Develop” (more on that”
I also use Topaz DeNoise and it does apply some sharpening. Initially, I thought the results were good but I’ve compared it to sharpening the same image in Sharpen AI. Sharpen AI is much better and also does limited noise removal (but not as well as DeNoise). I would always recommend testing the trial version to compare it using the same image with DeNoise. Also, don’t relly on the image preview when sharpening. The results from applying the filter seem to be better than the preview. I hope this helps.
My experience with Topaz Sharpen AI is… Well, interesting. E.g. it saved one of my stitches of a building, where I had one image blured (camera movement). The image content were clear lines between roof spars and weathered colour. Topaz made beautiful correction, simply astonishing. Corrected image blended with the other images without flaw. On the other hand, I have had some images of thick woods with trees, bushes, lychens etc., where the results were not as good, but still better than Photoshop.
One has to experiment and find out, which method is optimal for which kind of images. All in all, I would not miss it for critical images!
I think that’s a fair summary. Have you tried the latest improvements which divide manmade and nature subjects. I’ve found it does make a difference.
No, did not notice yet. Sounds good, shall try. Thank you!