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I posted this photo on Google+ earlier today, letting people zoom in 100%. With the Zeiss Sonnar 35mm and Sony A7r, with its 36-megapixel sensor and no High Pass filter, it’s amazing how much detail you can get from your images.
In Japan, Cherry Blossoms are called Sakura. When they are in season, they are the most amazing thing you’ll ever see. I wasn’t expecting it to be as awesome as it was.
They are everywhere. Another photographer on Google+ referred to it as the Cherry Blossom Apocalypse. It is. The peddles are blowing everywhere in the wind, raining down on you, getting in your hair, and on the ground. It’s awesome.
My New Processing Technique With The Sony A7r
My processing techniques and the look of my photos change monthly, as I’m always trying new stuff and learning to achieve new looks. A lot of photographers find ‘their look’ and stick with it. I’ll probably figure out ‘my look’ one day, but I’m inspired by so many different photographers with different styles that it’s really hard.
My processing went something like this. And it only took 15 minutes.
Adobe Lightroom 5
For some lens profile correction. I also added a few contrast and exposure adjustments.
I exported it to Photoshop and then used these plugins.
Nik’s Define 2
For Noise Reduction, I used to use Topaz denoise a lot, trying to figure out which I liked better. But if I’m really OCD about noise reduction, I’ll use find edges on a channel mask to mask out my edges and reduce the noise everywhere else.
Nik’s Viveza 2
This is a great tool for basic color adjustments. It doesn’t do anything Photoshop Vanilla can’t do, but it’s a little faster than Photoshop’s tool set. In Viveza, I did Contrast, Saturation, and a few Color adjustments.
Color Efex Pro- My review here.
I used the Sky Light filter with a control point on the top right, Pro Contrast & Detail Extractor. I love Color Efex Pro. It can be a game changer if you don’t feel like mastering Photoshop completely.
Last Tweaks In Photoshop
Luminosity Masks for final exposure and detail tweaks + a high-pass filter set at .5 pixels with a linear light blending mode for sharpness.
Finish In Lightroom
Final tweaks to color since nothing beats the speed of color tweaking in Lightroom, then export. I always use Lightroom for exporting because you can control your metadata.
The Photo – Sakura Explosion
