Lightroom 4.3 RC supports retina displays

The just released LR 4.3 RC now supports retina displays (i.e HiDPI) in Develop as well as the minor support that was already there in Library. It's just gorgeous. Aperture already had this support but I prefer Lightroom myself. Check it out in the link above! Lightroom now also fully supports the D600 with camera profiles. Much appreciated!

Eldorado canyon sunset

Eldo sunset. Buy a print.
Extreme resolution composite from 9 images from D600, Nikkor 24-85mm at 50mm, f/11, 1/15s, ISO 100

Eldorado Canyon is a hidden gem just south of Boulder. I went out this evening to play with my new D600 and shot a few images of which this is one that I stitched from 9 images taken using my normal method for high resolution composites resulting in a about 180MP image that I finished off in Lightroom 4. On a large print you will be able to count 10's of climbers scattered all over the rocks.

Detecting retina displays

Was just reading up on how to detect retina (HiDPI) displays and I am trying this out on this post.

For you nerds, I added a javascript function to my blog's CSS that looks like: <script type='text/javascript'> var retina = window.devicePixelRatio > 1 ? true : false; </script> Then in the post's body I use a statement like <p id="wavesimage"></p> <SCRIPT type="text/javascript"> if (retina) { var sandhtml = '<a href="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/Great-Sand-Dunes-National-Park/5800393_KkCSbn#!i=1545566790&k=r6gmsz3&lb=1&s=A" title="Waves"><img src="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/Great-Sand-Dunes-National-Park/i-r6gmsz3/0/798x1200/DSC0869-798x1200.jpg" width=399 height=600 title="Waves" alt="Waves"></a>'; } else { var sandhtml = '<a href="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/Great-Sand-Dunes-National-Park/5800393_KkCSbn#!i=1545566790&k=r6gmsz3&lb=1&s=A" title="Waves"><img src="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/Great-Sand-Dunes-National-Park/i-r6gmsz3/0/L/DSC0869-L.jpg" title="Waves" alt="Waves"></a>'; } document.getElementById("wavesimage").innerHTML=sandhtml; </SCRIPT> This post was inspired by what I read here. It seems to work. This is becoming more and more relevant with all the high res displays on mobile platforms as well as the retina displays that Apple is pushing.

Lightroom does support retina displays! (but only partially)

I broke down and bought myself a new retina Mac Book Pro a while ago. This is an amazing machine and that display is absolutely stunning. One thing that I thought is that Lightroom needed an update to support the retina display (Aperture and iPhoto already support it and they look fantastic) so I wasn't expecting that much from Lightroom. However after browsing for a while through my library I started noticing that the Library previews were really sharp. Taking a screenshot and blowing it up confirms that Library actually is using the full retina resolution, regardless of what setting you use for the display scaling. That is superb. Unfortunately Develop doesn't yet know about the retina display so there you still get the low resolution which makes for a big difference in feel for the image. I did notice that it is probably a good idea to turn up the size of your standard previews to get the full benefit. Here is the proof using 1:1 screenshots.
Left: Library fit view. Right: Develop fit view.

Ironically you will see the difference between these two better on a non-retina display as the browser doesn't automatically scale 1:1 but you get the gist.

Update: for retina owners, here the same screenshots at what should be 1:1 if you use "best for retina"

Retina

Normal in line image:


Retina quality (2x resolution). Will look no different than the above on normal displays but will look much more detailed on a high res display. The slight size difference comes from my smugmug site not having the image at every size.


I was reading a little on how to start supporting high resolution displays (i.e. retina displays in Apple parlance). Not easy as all solutions involve some server-side scripting that doesn't work if you use blogging services such as this site. Of course you can simply throw up high res images for everybody as I do above but that increases bandwidth for everybody.

El Capitan sunset

During the few days over Christmas I spent with my family in Yosemite, we had just gorgeous weather every day. Unfortunately for photography that is not ideal. There also was not a flake of snow in sight. Nevertheless I got some nice images out of the trip. The below is a sunset image looking at El Capitan and Bridal Veil falls. I believe this view is called "Gates of the Valley". When I got here in the evening before sunset it looked like nothing was going to happen as some high clouds were turning everything dull and gray. However, for two minutes or so right at sunset, the sun peeked below those clouds. I shot of a few guide images using my Tokina 11-16mm and then created a composite using my nodal ninja rotator and a 35 mm lens. The light had already faded before I was able to change my setup to get a high res image, so the red is more soft than it was in the guide images and the contrast lower. Also in this image, the red is like a little band of light instead of the entire top of the rock. I like it this way.

El Capitan sunset. Buy a print. Google+ post. Flickr image.
High resolution composite stitched from 9 images from a Nikon D300. Nikkor 35 mm f1.8 DX at f/11, 0.5s, ISO 200. 1 stop grad ND applied in software.

As a comparison, here is a guide image that I shot right before the high resolution composite above.


Red, White, and Blue. Buy a print.
Nikon D300. Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 14 mm, f/11, 0.6s, ISO 200. 2 stop graduated ND.

The red was much brighter here than in the high resolution image taken a minute later or so. A nice example of how much timing matters in landscape photography.

80 MP medium format backs

I've been reading with great interest the field report of the new super high resolution Phase One medium format back done by Michael over at Luminous Landscape. This monster gives 80MP real resolution and Michael thinks it is equivalent to drum-scanned 8x10" film. This would be extraordinary if true. Looking at the 1:1 crop and counting pixels, the resolution appears to be similar to or slightly better than what I get stitching (see here, here or here) multiple images from my crop DSLR using my very cheapest kit lens. Of course getting that kind of quality in a single shot is far more convenient than my el cheapo solution as you can compose the shot far better. When I compose, I usually make a guide shot with an equivalent wider angle lens to the final stitched image's viewing angle. This works to a degree but is not perfect. I cannot exactly compose this way. My stitching solution also has trouble with very long lenses as the rotation between frames becomes very small so it works best for wide angles. All in all the new medium format backs are very interesting products. Of course I can't really afford such a machine (44k$ for just this new back, no body and lenses included!) which is probably why I don't get these cameras sent to me by Phase One or any of the other makers for testing. I'd be happy to put one through its paces though! Michael mentions stitching multiple shots from this camera. That concept just blows my mind.

Interesting article in OP

There is an interesting article in OP. It describes famous photographer Jack Dykinga's method of using a DSLR with a PC control lens to generate high resolution digital landscape images. It's a very nice article well worth a read. This is basically the method I and many others have been using for years now and it is great to see it used by an icon of landscape photography. I wrote about the method here, here, here, here, and in many other places. Even OP has linked to my writings!. I use a slightly different method as Dykinga because I simply do not have the money to buy a PC lens (they're around $1500 and a >20 MP DSLR (8k$ in the Nikon system that I prefer). So I rotate the camera using a wooden jig I fabricated based on some instructions I found on the web. I can actually do Scheimpflug movements this way shifting the "plane" of focus and the horizon, about which I will write more in the future. That said, doing these high resolution images with a DSLR is nothing new, and even OP has written about it before in several articles. I make fantastically large prints (wall-sized) using this method that are impeccably sharp and you would be hard pressed to distinguish these from larger format film. It is harder to visualize the final image in the field though, but that is something that I have found actually to work in my benefit as it makes me far more deliberate in my shooting. In the end, the only thing that matters is the final image. How you technically got there is quite irrelevant.