AHS shots online
My photos from yesterday's AHS launch are now up on the BHA website. In hindsight they could have done with some judicious editing - I sent over everything I thought good enough, so there are a few almost duplicates - but I'm happy anyway.
Lightroom 2.0 beta
Abode released a beta of Lightroom 2.0 this morning, which was quite the surprise. The feature list is impressive, but most interesting are:
- Much better Photoshop integration. Images can now be sent directly into CS3 without requiring an export. It can also send a group of pictures straight through to be merged into a panorama or HDR image. Now they've implemented this feature I really don't see the need for Bridge, Photoshop's built-in image browser.
- Localised masking. This is the big, attention-grabbing one - Lightroom can now edit specific areas of images. It's nicely implemented, although since it links so well into Photoshop I might just use that instead. Well, I say that. In practice it might be quicker to do lots in Lightroom - we'll see.
- Smart collections. These are a bit like iTunes' Smart Playlists. You can configure a bunch of rules, each with individual AND/OR inclusion settings, that give you a very nice way of focussing on specific images. So you can have a dynamically created set of recently-edited images, or anything with the keyword 'monkeys' taken last May, with a wide-angle lens. Etc..
- Dual-monitor support. I've got two monitors, so I can have the smaller one displaying an overview of an image as I change particular elements. Or it can show the grid of photos while I edit on the main monitor. My smaller monitor's colours are a bit dodgy, but it's still useful as a rough guide.
There's a fair bit more: export sharpening, better filters, a loupe in the details panel, and the interface has been overhauled and some of the existing features tweaked. A full guide is here.
Scott Kelby etc. have some introductory videos up, and their FAQ has some interesting details. They reckon the full version will be released June-ish, and there won't be any beta updates between now and then. No word on pricing yet.
I've been playing around with it today and they've certainly been listening to the feedback. Lots of things work just that bit better, but it's the Photoshop links that are the most useful for me. There are a couple of bugs, as is to be expected with betas, but nothing show-stopping yet. The program was pretty good already, but v2 adds enough that I can't see me not buying the upgrade.
Because I own version 1.3 I can invite people to be on the beta program for six months - otherwise you're limited to a 30-day trial - so let me know if you'd like an invite.
Flickr adds Picnik editing tools
Well, kinda. There's an edit button above each picture that sends you straight through to the Picnik system, anyway. Is cool. Obviously no match for Photoshop, but 90% of my edits are cropping and a bit of levels adjustment, which Picnik can handle without a problem. Also useful for mobile uploads.
Donnie Darko and Director’s Cuts
Last night I saw the director's cut of Donnie Darko. Bizarre. It's one of my favourite films, but this added a chunk of religiosity and sci-fi exposition, and I think I prefer the more enigmatic original. The score was also different, and sometimes came close to overpowering the dialogue (on a small tv, anyway). Abi hadn't seen it before and certainly enjoyed this telling, though, so maybe it doesn't detract much from the film.
It's unusual for me not to like a Director's cut. Watching a film for the fifth time is a different experience from the first, and extra scenes that would have made an initial viewing tedious can be fascinating, especially if it's a movie you love. I've liked the DCs of Armageddon, Gladiator and Superman. Blade Runner is another oft-quoted example, but I don't think I've seen the non-DC version. I like the longer versions of the LOTR trilogy too, even if they do last forever. Sometimes DCs can be mental: The Abyss is a classic - the Director's cut completely changes the story! And occasionally it goes the other way - the recent DVD DC of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is significantly shorter than the original.
Jurassic Park at 1600
Dear ITV,
The film 'Jurassic Park' involves dinosaurs eating people. I'm afraid it's built into the script, and there's no way to avoid it. If you're worried that children might get upset by dinosaurs eating people, maybe you shouldn't show the movie at four in the afternoon. Sure, perhaps have a go at editing out all the dramatic parts, but for future reference it's time to stop when the action scenes no longer make sense. It's also a little odd to get all puritanical over cartoon violence yet retain the word 'shit'.
Yours,
Andrew
Two Useful Plugins
A couple of WordPress plugins I've found very useful recently:
The Flickr Album plugin creates a very attractive page displaying photos from a Flickr account, but I actually think its additional feature of adding photos to the Write page for easy insertion into posts is more impressive. It offers you the full range of Flickr's resized images, too. I'm forever swapping between Flickr's photo pages and blog entries, copying and pasting the relevant HTML, and this saves a fair bit of time.
Also, Edit n Place allows editing of posts directly from the blog, skipping the admin interface. It actually works without making a horrible mess, unlike similar plugins I've used before. It interrupts the layout slightly for logged-in administrators, but this can be tweaked by editing the plugin directly (you may also take this opportunity to replace 'n' with 'in', if you're anal like me 
). The only problem I've found is that the hidden-to-non-administrators-link seems to be added to trackbacks, but for me its usefulness outweighs that issue. It's rare that nothing needs fixing / changing after I've hit 'Publish'.
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often meander around humanism and photography, but they're flighty and you can't trust them, so anything is possible.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
Your hair looks swish, by the way - have you done something new?
Recent Comments
- vicky: going up this weekend having done all the welsh peaks except 4 snowdon, cant wait
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: what, how can u live in the 21 c and say that, probably a sexist thing
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: da iawn laura, cant believe what im hearing, all this fuss, anyway love the site, and i agree, normal people who swear and curse clomb mountains cos we live in the...
on Climbing Snowdon. - Andrew: Did a few quick test shots to check the light levels, then balanced the camera on the arm of a bench, set it for a 20s exposure and hoped for the best
on ISS. - lynsey: Wow, how did you take that photograph?
on ISS.
