More Lightroom Tweaking (The Calm Before The Storm)

I have been itching to make a mid-week post, albeit a brief one. Work is taking its toll, with lots of late evenings and all I can muster after getting back home is to take off my work clothes and head to bed!

I try to be a good student though, and re-edit some of the pictures I have taken in the past with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 when I have spare time. You can see a couple of them now, taken from a concert in Stockholm, Sweden last year. I am astounded by the differences, and wonder why I wasn't able to get this effect with Apple Aperture back then. You really never stop learning!

I really like Lightroom 4's module-based interface. The photographs here just really needed a white balance adjustment and a very small amount of noise reduction. These were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II so even at ISO 3200 the images are still very clean and detailed. I wasn't able to make good before-and-after scenarios with pictures taken during the daytime, they were almost always spot on, thanks to the Canon! So if you are still looking for a full-frame camera that won't break the bank, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II would still get my heartiest recommendation.

So why did I call this post "The Calm Before The Storm"? Well since I have been working very hard these past 3 months my incoming paycheck, plus the small amount I have saved so far, just might be enough for me to post a preorder on the Nikon D800! I won't know yet until tomorrow afternoon and I am not expecting anything (chickens, eggs, you get the point). I still might need the funds from the sale of my Pentax K-5 (I put it up for sale now and have some potential buyers), and my tax refund. But the tax refund won't be here before June. So I just have to be proactive and just preorder the camera for now, without the lens. Some lucky people have already received their D800s and the internet is slowly but surely starting to flood with reviews and sample pictures. And the thing that scares me the most: all the initial reviews have been nothing but praise. Even high ISO shots look amazing when resampled to a smaller resolution. And the normal ISO shots are nothing short of amazing. Nikon has truly made a wonder of a camera and more and more people will want to buy one. And this means longer back orders!

I am not even sure how long the wait list is here in Norway, but I will just have to jump right in. Otherwise I probably won't be able to get one before the end of summer! I feel a slight panic inside me, so I have to preorder as soon as possible, or I won't get any peace!

I would usually feel a lot of guilt pangs when investing a huge amount of money like this one. But not this time. I have worked so hard, and saved up, balanced my finances for this very reason, for this very moment. So now I feel that I deserve it. I deserve to own a Nikon D800 for myself, expensive though it may be. But like I've said before, if it's your passion, you can't really put a price on it.