Birnam Wood and The Hermitage

[Rob MacKillop]

All from last week's holiday in Birnam. All Leica Q2M with heliopan 3x -1.5 yellow filter.

In no particular order:

1. Birnam Path




2. Birnam Path




3. The Hermitage




4. The Hermitage




5. The Hermitage




6. The Hermitage




7. The Hermitage




​

 

[Chris Bennett]

Those are great, Rob. I love the way you caught the light in no. 3
We stopped off for a few days in Birnam in the middle of June, on the way back from a trip to Inverness. Loved the trip we made to The Hermitage, as it recalled my being there as a kid on a family visit. I recognise those scenes you've shot and may have some very similar compositions to you. Though yours are far better than my efforts, I must say!

 

[Dave Farnes]

That is a beautiful set, it really looks like a magical forest.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cheers, lads. Yes, it's a magical place. So much so, we are contemplating a caravan-style holiday home there. I'd happily go every weekend.

Glad you recognise it, Chris. Wonderful place!

 

[Pete Askew]

What more can I add. Another fantastic set, Rob.

I especially like the first and the slight IR look to it. Suits square too.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, Pete, I think this first is my best composition. Odd, though, when printing with the Canon Pro-300 the first does not print well, while the second looks superb. I tried different settings with Nik Sharpener, made some progress, but nothing I’m totally happy with. There’s an art to shooting for screen, and a different art for shooting for print, and I’m struggling to learn the difference. On it goes, still learning and exploring

 

[Pete Askew]

Yes, there's a more subtle gradation in tones in the first and that might well be harder to print using standard settings. Does the soft-proof option help?

 

[Rob MacKillop]

It might do if I used it! It’s something I have to get to grips with. My twelve-year old iMac is on its last legs, so I have a new one arriving this week. I’m not sure if I’ll still be able to use LR6 on it, and don’t want to go the subscription route. So I might be looking for a replacement, and have to research soft proofing options.

 

[Pete Askew]

LR6 won't work under Big Sur (or Catalina) I'm afraid.

I'm writing this on a 2008 MacPro running El Capitan and it is still fast enough for editing even video. However, of course I can't run the latest versions, but I do have a more modern MacPro ready to take over from it that will run Catalina at least when I find time to do the transfer.

On this machine I have a license for all of the Adobe apps and on my laptops I have the Photograher option. I was annoyed at first by the idea of a subscription, but at just under 10 pounds per month for both LR and PS it seems pretty good value. CaptureOne has an option for a perpetual license, but it is getting on for 300 pounds. I think if I wanted an alternative I'd go with PhotoLab from DxO especially given how much I like Nik filters: in fact I have a license for it as part of a package, but normally use LR/PS and Nik and occassionaly CaptureOne as it seems better suited to PhaseOne files.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks for that. I’ll look into alternatives. Exposure 6 and Affinity have been mentioned.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

@Pete Askew - the new and wonderful iMac has arrived with Big Sur as the OS. Lightroom 6 works well with it. So, I now have to decided if it is worth my installing Monterey...and losing LR6...Any advice?

Edit: I originally write Catalina in place of Monterey. Getting old!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

OK, this is WEIRD. When I first started on the new iMac, I opened up LR6, and it worked. I was able to make the usual changes to exposure, etc, and save it. So I was amazed that LR6 was actually working with Big Sur. But after an hour I tried opening it again - and it wouldn't open! Sigh! Deep sigh!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

After trying a few free trial versions, I think I’ll opt for Exposure X6, which is close to Lightroom in some respects, plus has some fun add ons.

I did this within a few minutes of downloading the trial version:



With more time I’d be able to refine it. Here’s the one I made earlier to n LR6:

 

[Rob MacKillop]

There’s no soft proofing, but there are other ways of doing that. The free Color Sync which comes with Macs is allegedly acceptable. We shall see.

 

[Pete Askew]

Looks good.