andy cogbill .com

Close-up of a cucumber in Dad’s garden. This is the second image (the first was yesterday’s) processed with my new workflow, which I will detail here for the sake of science.

Before — that is to say, before yesterday — I used to open my RAW images in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and usually the default settings looked pretty good, at which point I’d drag the Exposure, Saturation, and White Balance sliders to match what I wanted out of the image. But NOW I have reinvented my workflow: Instead of default settings in ACR, I put everything at zero. Then, while watching the histogram, I adjust the exposure to where I want it (the eyedropper tool usually helps with this, too, as I use it to set the whites to be white and the blacks to be black). THEN I go straight to the Curves tool. That’s all I need to do — Curves takes care of contrast, brightness, saturation, and everything else and it’s all infinitely adjustable.

So, yes. Enough geek talk. I am loving the Curves tool, but my enthusiasm might also be a counter attack on the joy that isn’t packing. I’m currently in the first stages of mass organization and, quite frankly, I’ve almomst had enough. I’ve done all the fun stuff — computer accessories, cell phone and iPod chargers, etc. All that’s left is clothes and I would really, really like if I could just not do it. Argh.

I leave on Thursday at 11 AM. And I just found out that my room is not 12 feet by 12 feet — it’s 8.5 by 10. Convenient how they waited until after I signed the lease to clarify that. Nothing like living in a closet to commence my NYC experience.