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25 September 2015

When we review a new software release like Adobe Elements 14, we go through the new features using our own images and movies, rather than the assets provided by the company. Usually we've already worked over the images in some other application and can appreciate making the edits again in new software.

For Elements 14, we converted an old Elements 12 catalog. When Elements 13 came out, we had to run it on our travel laptop because it was running a more up-to-date version of the operating system than our working system. But they're both in sync now, so we went back to the working system for Elements 14.

About the Images

The Fujifilm X10 is a 12-megapixel digicam with a 4x optical zoom that captures Raw files as well as JPEGs. It suffered a sensor problem known as the white orb issue that was subsequently addressed by the company with a recall.

We didn't think very much of it but, three years later, we're still fond of the images. The first and last ones were captured as JPEGs while the middles ones were Raw+JPEG captures.

Everything was processed in Lightroom. We don't usually add Saturation (especially for sunny days) but we did add a pinch to these. We also enhanced a couple with a backward S-curve, darkening the highlights and lightening the shadows. The outdoor cafe is a good example of that and also of the additional Saturation, which helped bring out the things on the tables.

That's why we were using three year old images.

But we really liked them. It had been a sunny day and we had a Fujifilm X10 to test, so we walked from just south of the Ferry Building to North Beach, shooting whatever caught our eye.

And a lot caught our eye. The usual scenics, sure, but also a few details you might miss jogging down the Embarcadero or dodging through the crowds on Columbus Ave.

In the Elements 14 review, we used a shot of City Lights Bookstore for a test shot. We can't tell you how many times we passed by there, smiled at the posters hung in the four top windows and for several days after failed to remember all four. Three we could remember, but never the fourth.

So we were pretty happy to find that photo in the set.

But we love the shot of the public pier, too. There is usually something tacky about new construction that tries to appear old. But the pier's green iron and wooden planks hits just the right note. And it vanishes into the Bay like Masaccio's perspective lines.

A window here, a rope there, elegant building trim in an alley way, famous front doors, sidewalk cafes.... The images seem to have fallen from poems whose pages had floated down to the street from those windows at City Lights Bookstore.

We had been enjoying a special day without realizing it.


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