Photo Tour – Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre

Photo Tour – Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre

Last weekend I attended my first Tour Day at the Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre and I must say it was amazing and worth every bit of the low $15 booking fee 😃

Tour Day, KaarakinBlack Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Tour Day, KaarakinBlack Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Located in the Banyowla Regional Park in the Perth Hills on a former tourism wildlife park site their purpose is to protect and rehabilitate our native wild black cockatoo species here in Western Australia.

As the tour begins we are given an introduction to the organisation, the work they do and how they are working to restore the site to it’s original native state along with several other revegetation projects in WA.

First stop is the Kangaroo enclosure containing a community of Red & Western Grey Kangaroos left over from the old wildlife park. Sadly these Kangaroos have been isolated for decades, they are suffering from inbreeding and cannot be released back into the wild so they are cared for as best as possible.

Kangaroos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Kangaroos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Next came the Emu enclosure, where we found that our Tour Guide had a strangely close relationship with the resident Emu’s. Personally I don’t think I’d trust getting up close & personal with an Emu!

Emu, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Emu, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Finally we arrived at the Dingo enclosure, something I was really looking forward to and I wasn’t disappointed.

On the way into the Dingo enclosure is an aviary full of beautiful Finches.

Finches, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Finches, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Apparently the Dingoes are walked around the site daily for exercise and also to help prevent / detect any rogue foxes attempting to enter.

Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Dingoes have had a bit of a bad rap over the years, including being threatened with removal from the protected native wildlife list (thankfully overturned) but these guys are seriously cute …

Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Dingoes, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Finally we arrived at the Black Cockatoos and were taught about all the different aviaries designed for different purposes and how injured Cockies are prepared and returned to the wild whenever possible 🐾👍

Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Having been told how we had to respect the Black Cockatoos space and be respectful, we were then told that they had no intention of doing the same (being wild animals) 🤣

We then had our feet sprayed, removed jewelry and entered the Aviary to play with the Cockatoos, or maybe for them to play with us 😎

Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

If you’ve never been up close and personal with a group of Black Cockatoos then I highly recommend an experience like this.

They will swoop over you make loud raucous noises and randomly land on shoulders (or heads), and they are a lot bigger than most people would imagine.

Black Cockatoos are, however, incredible social and gentle birds. They will not harm you and you will fall in love straight away ❤

Unlike cuddling Koalas, which should never be allowed as it is stressful and dangerous for the animal, interacting with Black Cockatoos is a two way relationship.

It is also worth pointing out that these “educational” Cockatoos are very familiar with humans and can not be released back into the wild for health reasons. You will never get near a Cockatoo that is being prepared for release as they need to maintain their natural caution of humans.

Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia – MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Black Cockatoos, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Centre, Western Australia

Please remember that these magnificent Black Cockatoos are highly endangered, if you want to help protect WA’s Black Cockatoo population then support the local organisations that are working hard to keep these amazing birds alive:

Post Processing

These images were processed using a combination of Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 & ON1 Photo RAW 2019.

Visit Our Gallery

Visit our Gallery at Shop 136 Wanneroo Markets, 33 Prindiville Drive in Wangara to see more of our Fine Art Images & Photo Products.

Also available at the Gallery are Greeting Cards, Magnets, Keyrings, Mugs, Scarves, Tote Bags, Wall Tapestries, Lens Cloths, unique 3D Printed Gadgets & Gizmo’s and much more …

Cheers,
Dave 🐾

New Image Release – Black Cockatoo with Exploding Nuts

New Image Release – Black Cockatoo with Exploding Nuts

I got some great Black Cockatoo images from the recent open day at Native Animal Rescue here in Perth but I wasn’t expecting this!

This particular trio of images feature Obama, one of their resident Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos chewing on a gum nut. It wasn’t until I got home and checked out the images that I realised that his nut had exploded with perfect timing.

A Short Timelapse Video Experiment

The trio of images looked so good that I decided to experiment with a short Timelapse video showing just how seriously these guys take their gum nuts 😎 I just love how his claws open up in the second shot as the nut explodes.

I’ve been meaning to make some video’s for a while now and initially thought I should just do it in Photoshop. While I did successfully create a video very similar to the above in Photoshop I found it somewhat inefficient, especially when I just wanted to make small changes.

Eventually I remade the video in much less time using Premier Pro, and that included reminding myself exactly how Premier Pro worked. However, if Photoshop is all you have access to then it will work fine for simple videos like this one 👍

Here are the individual images …

Red Tailed Black Cockatoo, Exploding Nuts, Perth, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Obama the Red Tailed Black Cockatoo
Red Tailed Black Cockatoo, Exploding Nuts, Perth, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Obama the Red Tailed Black Cockatoo with Exploding Nut!
Red Tailed Black Cockatoo, Exploding Nuts, Perth, Western Australia - MADCAT Photography
Obama the Red Tailed Black Cockatoo

These 3 images are available now as Fine Art Prints or on any of our Photo Products. I’m thinking a Triptych of square canvases or Aluminium Prints would look amazing 😃

Please remember that these magnificent Black Cockatoos Cockatoos are highly endangered, if you want to help protect WA’s Black Cockatoo population then support the local organisations that are working hard to keep these amazing birds alive:

Post Processing

These images were processed using a combination of Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 & ON1 Photo RAW 2018.

The video was produced using Premier Pro CC.

Visit Our Gallery

Visit our Gallery at Shop 136 Wanneroo Markets, 33 Prindiville Drive in Wangara to see more of our Fine Art Images & Photo Products.

Also available at the Gallery are Greeting Cards, Magnets, Keyrings, Mugs, Scarves, Tote Bags, Wall Tapestries, Lens Cloths, unique 3D Printed Gadgets & Gizmo’s and much more …

Cheers,
Dave 🐾

New Image Release – Sturt’s Desert Peas in Kings Park

New Image Release – Sturt’s Desert Peas in Kings Park

Our latest Fine Art Image release is a beautiful shot of “Sturt’s Desert Peas” (Swainsona formosa) in Kings Park. These wildflowers are backlit by the afternoon sun giving the leaves a bright green luminance bordered by the white glow of the sun highlighting the fine hairs around the leaves.

This image is Availble for Purchase as a Fine Art Print / Canvas or on our range of Photo Products (Scarves, Tote Bags, Studio Pouches, Cushion Covers, Tapestries, Mugs & much more …) at MAD About Western Australia.

Sturt's Desert Pea, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Sturt’s Desert Pea, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia – Full Image

There are so many ways to present an image like this, in it’s original 2:3 format you can really appreciate the narrow depth of field isolating the Sturt’s Desert Peas by blurring the foreground and the trees in the background creating such a tranquil Forest Scene.

Sturt's Desert Pea, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Sturt’s Desert Pea, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia – Panoramic Image

We are always happy to provide custom formats for our images to suit your decor. Cropped as a Panorama the image focuses entirely on the Peas and looks amazing further cropped to 3 squares and hung as a Canvas Triptych.

Sturt’s Desert Peas, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia – Living Room Triptych

Sturt’s Desert Peas, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia – Living Room Triptych

Then again, if you’re looking for creativity I’m working on some new designs emulating the effect of printing on wood without all the drawbacks. Can’t wait to see how this artistic approach works out …

Sturt's Desert Pea, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia - Photographic Art on Wood

Sturt’s Desert Pea, Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia – Photographic Art on Wood

Post Processing

This image was created using a combination of Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 & ON1 Photo RAW 2018.

Buy Prints & Photo Products

Image Name: “Sturt’s Desert Peas”
Image Code: KPF1.3-V1
Location: Kings Park, Western Australia

Purchase Options:

Visit Our Gallery

Visit our Gallery at Shop 136 Wanneroo Markets, 33 Prindiville Drive in Wangara to see more of our Fine Art Images & Photo Products.

Also available at the Gallery are Greeting Cards, Magnets, Keyrings, unique 3D Printed Gadgets & Gizmo’s and much more …

Cheers,
Dave & Maggie

Make Mother’s Day a Natural Experience!

Make Mother’s Day a Natural Experience!

Would you like to make your Mum’s Mother’s Day a Natural Experience?

Show your Mum how much you love her with a Mother’s Day Gift from Mother Nature 

Mothers Day Gifts, Tawny Frogmouth, Native Animal Rescue, Perth, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Tawny Frogmouth from Native Animal Rescue, Perth, Western Australia

What’s your Mum’s favourite animal My Mum loves Owls, her house and garden are full of them 

Mothers Day Gifts, Barn Owl, Native Animal Rescue, Perth, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Barn Owl from Native Animal Rescue, Perth, Western Australia

Whether your Mum loves Owls, Blue Wrens, Koalas or any other of natures amazing creations we have a the perfect gift for her 

Mothers Day Gifts, Koala, Yanchep National Park, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Koala from Yanchep National Park, Western Australia

So why not come visit us at our new Gallery & Shop in Wanneroo Markets to see all the wonderful Mother’s Day gifts we have in stock 

Mothers Day Gifts, Blue Wren, Margaret River, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Blue Wren from Margaret River, Western Australia

Help us support Native Animal Rescue here in Perth, part proceeds from sales of NAR sourced images are donated back to help them support our local wildlife 

Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, Native Animal Rescue, Perth, Western Australia - Photographic Art

Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, Native Animal Rescue, Perth, Western Australia – Photographic Art

Buy Prints & Photo Products

Visit our Gallery & Shop at Wanneroo Markets:

Shop 136 Wanneroo Markets, 33 Prindiville Drive in Wangara. Open Fri to Sun & Public Holidays 9am to 5pm.

Buy Prints Online

Buy Photo Products Online

Did you know it’s a proven fact that being out in nature is great for your mental and physical health 
While you won’t get the full health benefit from our range of prints and photo gifts they are always a great reminder of where you’d rather be 👍🐬

Cheers,
Dave

Southern Boobook Owl in Mum’s Backyard

Southern Boobook Owl in Mum’s Backyard

Southern Boobook Owl Triptych, Mindarie, Perth, Photographic Art

Southern Boobook Owl Triptych, Mindarie, Western Australia

Bird photography can be a time consuming process but rewards can pay of at the least expected times. a few days a go I got a call from my mum to say she had spotted a small owl in her back garden. As an avid owl lover mum has owl ornaments and images all around her house & garden so maybe this little guy just felt at home in her garden …

Southern Boobook Owl Triptych, Mindarie, Perth, Photographic Art

Southern Boobook Owl Triptych, Mindarie, Western Australia

Anyway, we headed off to mum’s to check out this visitor of hers hoping that he would still be there … and he was. We found him nestled in the foliage of a small tree in the garden. Luckily for us the tree’s foliage was dense enough to keep him protected but with enough gaps that we could get a good view of him, it’s not often you get so lucky 🙂 Ironically the only reason mum spotted him was because the local birds were going crazy about his presence, fluttering around the tree and and making a rawkus noise. But then it is spring and no doubt they were a little concerned about their nests becoming potential dinner plates!

Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Perth, Photographic Art

Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

Maggie began looking into what type of owl he was while I started snapping away with my 70-200mm. The late afternoon sun was behind him making the light interesting and challenging. I knew the bright blue glimpses of sky would be blown out but the important thing was getting the owl exposed perfectly and retaining the brilliant green of the backlit foliage. The little guy was barely moving so shutter speed wasn’t so important but I still needed to keep it up high enough to prevent any camera shake. It was pretty dark inside that tree and after a bit of experimentation I compromised at manually setting my exposure to 1/160th, f7.1 & ISO 1000 and I was very happy with how that worked out. Noise levels were very low even with the shadows brightened up in Lightroom and the level of detail around his eyes was astounding as you can see from the exploded view below.

Lightroom Close Up of Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

Lightroom Close Up of Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

Although the owl was not moving all that much it was a windy day and the leaves  were blowing around all over the place making it tricky to frame the owl and causing the sunlight to randomly blow out parts of the owls body.

Blown Out Patches - Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

Blown Out Patches – Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

All up we were there for around 40 mins, I took 213 photos and got some crackers. Turns out he was a Southern Boobook Owl, quite common around here though not so much in backyards! One good tip for photographing animals is to always focus on the eyes. At 200mm in low light depth of field is often sacrificed for shutter speed and if the eyes are not pin sharp then the whole image can be ruined.

Focus on the Eyes - Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

Focus on the Eyes – Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia

As usual my initial processing was done in Lightroom followed by adding effects in the new ON1 Photo Raw 2018 with some final tweaking in Photoshop, the Master File is then imported back into Lightroom from where I can export it in any format as required. All 3 tools have their benefits and work well together to produce a final image that is extremely high quality and suitable for any purpose.

Southern Boobook Owl Triptych, Mindarie, Perth - Tabletop Print Suggestion

Southern Boobook Owl, Mindarie, Western Australia – Tabletop Print Suggestion

I haven’t really looked at the new version of ON1 Photo RAW 2018 short of using the effects module to create & apply presets. Keep an eye out for my upcoming review of this very interesting photo processing software package that is becoming serious competition for Lightroom.

Image Details

Location: Mindarie Backyard, Western Australia Date: 26th December 2017 Time: 3pm – 3:40pm Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mk11 Lens: EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM Camera Mode: Manual Exposure: 1/160 sec, f7.1 at ISO 1000

Post Processing

Buy Prints & Photo Products

Buy a Print of a Southern Boobook Owl (WAO1.1-V1)

Buy a Print of a Southern Boobook Owl (WAO1.1-V1)

Buy a Print of a Southern Boobook Owl (WAO1.2-V1)

Buy a Print of a Southern Boobook Owl (WAO1.2-V1)

Buy a Print of a Southern Boobook Owl (WAO1.3-V1)

Buy a Print of a Southern Boobook Owl (WAO1.3-V1)

Our Boobook Owl is also available on a wide range of Photo Products, Home Decor & Clothing at our Redbubble store:

It’s a proven fact that being out in nature is great for your mental and physical health. While you won’t get the full health benefit from our range of prints and photo gifts they are always a great reminder of where you’d rather be. So be sure to check out the rest of our range of Fine Art Prints at madcat.com.au and our unique photo gifts (scarves, wall tapestries, beach towels, tote bags and much more) at madaboutwa.com.au.

Cheers, Dave

The Ever Changing Colours of the Perth City Skyline – 2

The Ever Changing Colours of the Perth City Skyline – 2

Golden Hues, South Perth, Perth, Western Australia

Golden Hues, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia

We spent a lot more time in South Perth recently when my brother visited from the UK so I got the opportunity to view & capture many different colours & sunsets of the Perth City Skyline during November.

This second image in my Perth City Skyline series was taken at 5:15pm as the sun was starting to set. Again we were blessed with a nice amount of cloud coverage picking up some of the colours from the sunset however the difference in how those colours played out compared to my previous shot (see below), taken at a similar time of day, was mind blowing.

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline – Western Australian Landscape Photography

The light was less diffused and the colours much stronger making for a much more striking scene with rich golden hues reflecting off the buildings. You really never can tell how the natural colours of a West Australian sunset will evolve.

Original Stitched Image in Lightroom, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Original Stitched Image in Lightroom, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

As before I had my camera mounted on a tripod oriented vertically with my 70-200mm lens set to 70mm. This time I reduced the number of images I was taking by reducing the amount of overlap between each image to about 1/3rd resulting in only 5 images being needed to create the same size 35MP panorama. I also didn’t bother with exposure bracketing as the light variations were much more even.

One thing I love about Lightroom is that when you stitch your images together the resulting image is still in RAW format allowing all of the processing to be done after you have successfully created your stitched image,

Initial Processing in Lightroom, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Initial Processing in Lightroom, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

My current workflow involves initial processing in Lightroom followed by some adding some effects in ON1 Photo Raw with some final tweaking in Photoshop, the Master File is then imported back into Lightroom from where I can export it in any format as required. All 3 tools have their benefits and work well together to produce a final image that is extremely high quality and suitable for any purpose.

Effects Added in ON1 Photo Raw, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Effects Added in ON1 Photo Raw, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

ON1 Photo RAW has been a great addition to my workflow over the past year. I have built up a decent set of Effect Presets which I will be making available through my new online store in the near future. Each new image I process generally starts off from one of my existing Presets and evolves into a new set of effects and eventually a new Preset.  It’s such a simple way of creating amazing looking images.

Final Processing in Photoshop, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Final Processing in Photoshop, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Photoshop is where everything in the image is held together and the final tweaking is done. My Master File consists of the Lightroom image, the modified ON1 Photo RAW image & any additional changes I make in Photoshop to finish off the image. I am a big fan of non-destructive editing and like to be able to re-visit any part of my post-processing steps at any time in the future which is exactly what this workflow provides.

Final Image in Lightroom, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Final Image in Lightroom, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

Once my Master File is complete I flatten it, import it back into Lightroom & add appropriate keywords and meta-data. From within Lightroom where I can export it in whatever shape & format I require in the future. I have many export Presets saved in Lightroom so whether I’m creating a Fine Art Print, a Greeting Card or a Tote Bag I know I can go to Lightroom and create the exact file I need quickly & easliy.

2:1 Zoom into Elizabeth Quay, Perth City Skyline, Perth, Western Australia

2:1 Zoom into Elizabeth Quay, Perth, Western Australia

Finally a quick 2:1 zoom in Lightroom shows just how much detail is available in such a hi-res image, if you look closely you can even read the “Mini Golf” banner near the entrance to Elizabeth Quay

Image Details

Location: Perth City from South Perth
Date: 27th November 2017
Time: 5:14pm
No. of Images Stitched: 5
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mk11
Lens: EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM
Camera Mode: Manual
Exposure: 1/13 sec at f14

Post Processing

Buy Prints & Photo Products

It’s a proven fact that being out in nature is great for your mental and physical health.

While you won’t get the full health benefit from our range of prints and photo gifts they are always a great reminder of where you’d rather be.

So be sure to check out our range of Fine Art Prints at madcat.com.au and our unique photo gifts (scarves, wall tapestries, beach towels, tote bags and much more) at madaboutwa.com.au.

Cheers,
Dave

The Ever Changing Colours of the Perth City Skyline – 1

The Ever Changing Colours of the Perth City Skyline – 1

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia

We live in one of the cleanest & most beautiful cities in the world here in Perth and we think it’s time to showcase just how amazing the Perth City Skyline is.

We are currently in the enviable position of having access to a flat on Millpoint Road in South Perth with stunning views of the Perth City Skyline throughout the day. It never ceases to amaze me how much the colour & quality of light changes as the hours and days go by.

In this series of posts I’ll be showcasing unique images of the Perth City Skyline in all it’s glory and variety.

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia - Lightroom

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia – Lightroom

This first image was taken last week just before sunset. There were plenty of clouds in the sky with many gaps through which the sun streamed as it approached the horizon.

I had my camera mounted on a tripod oriented vertically with my 70-200mm lens set to 70mm. The plan was to take a series of images and stitch them together in Lightroom to make a very high resolution image, it turned out to be 35MP in this instance. I set my camera up to take 3 bracketed images for each shot as the dynamic range looked liked a potential problem. Ironically I ended up only using the first image from each set, the dynamic range of modern camera’s has come a long way but it never hurts to be safe 🙂

Blowup of Elizabeth Quay from the Final 35MP Image to Show the Detail

Blowup of Elizabeth Quay from the Final 35MP Image to Show the Detail

To the West of the city the golden sun was filtered through the clouds providing a surreal golden glow that slowly faded towards the East into the cooler blue tones. The difference from one side to the other was enormous and simply breathtaking.

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia - Original

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia – Original

Replicating such an effect can be very tricky in Post Processing, what starts out as a living atmospheric glow as light bounces of particles in the air all around you simply becomes a flat dull haze when the image is first loaded into Lightroom. You can see from the original image above there there was not a lot of “magic” to it at all.

As always Lightroom did a great job of the initial processing which I then transferred to ON1 Photo Raw to add some effects and then into Photoshop for some final touches and to create my “Master File” for this image.

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia - ON1 Photo RAW

Afternoon City Glow, Perth City Skyline, Western Australia – ON1 Photo RAW

Image Details

Location: Perth City from South Perth
Date: 4th July 2017
Time: 5:32pm
No. of Images Stitched: 7
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mk11
Lens: EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM
Camera Mode: Manual
Exposure: 1/25 sec at f11

Post Processing

Buy Prints & Photo Products

It’s a proven fact that being out in nature is great for your mental and physical health.

While you won’t get the full health benefit from our range of prints and photo gifts they are always a great reminder of where you’d rather be.

So be sure to check out our range of Fine Art Prints at madcat.com.au and our unique photo gifts (scarves, wall tapestries, beach towels, tote bags and much more) at madaboutwa.com.au.

Cheers,
Dave

How To Install Lightroom Presets & Brushes

How To Install Lightroom Presets & Brushes

Autumn Vines, Mindarie, Perth, Western Australia

Lightroom Presets & Brushes are great tools to help you speed up your workflow and improve your creativity. You can create them yourself or purchase / download them from various websites.

This guide will teach you how to install Presets & Brushes that you have downloaded.

For those of you that are more familiar with how Windows / Mac OSX works then the Quick and Dirty guides should be more than enough. For others the Detailed Walkthroughs will tell you everything you need to know.

Installing Lightroom Presets – The Simple Method

Golden Lake, Yanchep National Park, Yanchep, Western Australia

Installing Lightroom presets from within Lightroom is a very quick and simple process:

Quick and Dirty:

  1. Go to the Lightroom Develop module
  2. Right click in the Presets tab to create a new folder if required
  3. Right click on the Preset folder you wish to import your new Presets to and select “Import”
  4. Locate the Presets to import and click the “Import” button
  5. Done!

Detailed Walkthrough:

  1. Locate the folder containing the Presets that you want to install.
    If you have purchased online or downloaded free samples they will most likely be in a “zip” file

    Locate the Downloaded Presets

    Locate the Downloaded Presets

  2. Unzip the file you downloaded (if required):
    • Windows – Right click on the file, select “Extract All…”
    • Mac – Doubleclick on the file
    • Navigate to the unzipped folder containing the new Presets (they may be in a sub-folder). The Preset files will have a file extension of “.lrtemplate”

    Locate the Extracted Preset Folder

    Locate the Extracted Preset Folder

  3. Copy the location of the Preset folder to the clipboard
    • Windows – Right click on the Windows Explorer address bar and select “Copy address as text”
    • Mac – Right click on the Finder folder then hold down the Option key and select “Copy <folder name> as Pathname”
  4. Run Lightroom and enter the “Develop” module
  5. At this point you can either:
    • Select an existing Preset folder to install your presets into
    • or …
    • Right click anywhere in the Presets tab on the left and select “New Folder”

    Create a New Preset Folder in Lightroom

    Create a New Preset Folder in Lightroom

    Name your folder something meaningful. I generally start with the name of the supplier and then the name of the collection if there will be more than 1 i.e. “Sleeklens – Through The Woods” so that all presets from the same supplier will be grouped together with each set in it’s own folder. But that’s just me, go with whatever floats your boat 🙂

  6. Right click on the chosen folder and select “Import” …

    Import New Presets in Lightroom

    Import New Presets in Lightroom

  7. Locate the Presets you wish to install. If you copied the folder path in step 3 then paste it into the import window:
    • Windows – Right click on the address bar and select “Edit address”, right click again and select “Paste” then press “Enter”
    • Mac – Press “CMD+SHIFT+G” then “CMD+V” and click on “Go”
  8. Select the Presets to import and click “Import”
  9. Your Presets are now ready to use
  10. Done!

Installing Lightroom Presets – Behind the Scenes

Ebb and Flow, Noble Falls, Perth, Western Australia

If you want to understand what happens Behind the Scenes when you install presets or want to know how to do it manually it’s not really that much harder:

Quick and Dirty:

  1. Run Lightroom
  2. Open the “Preferences” dialog
    • Windows – Select “Preferences” in the “Edit” menu
    • Mac – Select “Preferences” in the “Lightroom” menu
  3. Go to the “Presets” tab and click on “Show Lightroom Presets Folder …”.
    A file explorer or finder window will open in the Adobe configuration area
  4. From here navigate into the “Lightroom\Develop Presets” folder
    • Note, if you have selected “Store presests with this catalog in the Presets tab of the Preferences dialog box then you will have to navigate into the folder containing your catalog and then into “Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets” instead
  5. Create a new folder and copy your new Presets into it
  6. Restart Lightroom and your new Presets will be available in the “Develop” module
  7. Done!

Detailed Walkthrough:

If you need a detailed walkthrough then you probably shouldn’t be doing anything behind the scenes!

Installing Lightroom Brushes

Rustic Cafe, Swan Valley, Perth, Western Australia

For reasons known only to Adobe there is no interface in Lightroom to import new Brushes. You can create them yourself from the Local Adjustments area but if you want to add new ones you have purchased or downloaded then you’ll have to do it manually.

Ironically, the method for installing new Brushes is almost identical to the “Behind the Scenes” method for installing Presets that I described above!

Quick and Dirty:

  1. Run Lightroom
  2. Open the “Preferences” dialog box
    • Windows – Select “Preferences” in the “Edit” menu (or press CTRL+,)
    • Mac – Select “Preferences” in the “Lightroom” menu (or press CMD+,)
  3. Go to the “Presets” tab and click on “Show Lightroom Presets Folder …”.
    A file explorer or finder window will open in the Adobe configuration area
  4. From here navigate into the “Lightroom\Local Adjustment Presets” folder
  5. Create a new folder and copy your new Brushes into it
  6. Restart Lightroom and your new Brushes will be available in the “Develop” module
  7. Done!

Detailed Walkthrough:

I know what you’re thinking, a few paragraphs ago I was telling you that you shouldn’t be going Behind the Scenes to install Presets if you needed a detailed walkthrough!

Now I’m telling you that this is the ONLY way to install new Brushes and here is a detailed walkthough … Don’t Panic it’s not that hard and if you follow the instructions below you’ll be fine, honest!

  1. Locate the folder containing the Brushes that you want to install.
    If you have purchased online or downloaded free samples they will most likely be in a “zip” file

    Locate the Downloaded Presets

    Locate the Downloaded Presets

  2. Unzip the file you downloaded (if required):
    • Windows – Right click on the file and select “Extract All…”
    • Mac – Doubleclick on the file
    • Navigate to the unzipped folder containing the new Brushes (they may be in a sub-folder). The Brush files will have a file extension of “.lrtemplate”

    Locate the Extracted Brushes Folder

    Locate the Extracted Brushes Folder

  3. Run Lightroom
  4. Open the “Preferences” dialog box
    • Windows – Select “Preferences” in the “Edit” menu (or press CTRL+,)
    • Mac – Select “Preferences” in the “Lightroom” menu (or press CMD+,)

    Lightroom Preferences - Preset Tab

    Lightroom Preferences – Preset Tab

  5. Go to the “Presets” tab and click on “Show Lightroom Presets Folder …”.
    A file explorer or finder window will open in the Adobe configuration area
  6. From here navigate into the “Lightroom\Local Adjustment Presets” folder

    Locate the Lightroom Local Adjustment Folder

    Locate the Lightroom Local Adjustment Folder

    • Note, if you have selected “Store presests with this catalog in the Presets tab of the Preferences dialog box then you will have to navigate into the folder containing your catalog and then into the “Lightroom Settings/Local Adjustment Presets” folder instead
  7. Create a new folder
    • Windows – Right click on the “Local Adjustment Presets” folder and select New->Folder
    • Mac – Right click inside the “Local Adjustment Presets” folder and select “New Folder”
    • Name your folder something meaningful. This is not as useful as it is with Presets as Lightroom will not display the folder name but it helps with managing your Brushes.
      As with the Presets I generally start with the name of the supplier and then the name of the collection if there will be more than 1 i.e. “Sleeklens – Through The Woods” but that’s just me, go with whatever tickles your fancy 🙂
  8. Go to the file explorer or finder containing your new Brushes (see step 2)
    • Select the Brushes (CTRL+A / CMD+A)
    • Copy the Brushes to the clipboard (CTRL+C / CMD+C)
    • Paste the Brushes into the folder you have just created (CTRL+V / CMD+V)
  9. Restart Lightroom and your new Brushes will be available in the Local Adjustments area in the “Develop” module
  10. Done!

Now that you know how to install new Lightroom Presets and Brushes the World is your Oyster!

There are numerous free Lightroom Presets and Brushes out there to play around with, here are a few suggestions that we recommend:

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