Samsung NX300 and Tutankhamun

Before all the hullabaloo I was able to get to the Tutankhamun Exhibition at Silverstar Casino recently and it is truly an amazing experience.  The exhibition has been extended to 12 April 2015.

The rules of the exhibition state that you are allowed to take photos but ONLY for personal use and if you do not interfere with the viewing of others.  Also no tripods, flashes or backpacks allowed.

So naturally I took along two cameras lol.  I took my Canon 650D with 50mm (low light lens) and my Samsung NX300 with 18-55mm kit lens (I wanted a wider angle as the 50mm doesn't having zooming capabilities).  Both fit into my small shoulder bag.

The photos posted here have been taken with the Samsung NX300 and 18-55mm.  A member of my photographic community will be working with my one photo (the same composition taken with the NX300 will be posted here) and when available on his site I will post the link here.  He's the reason I started playing a little more with Lightroom 4.

I'll admit I'm not an expert where LR4 is concerned because I have been working with PSE the entire time.  But thought I'd give it a try.  Other than adding my watermark in PSE, all other editing has been done in Lightroom 4 (including using the Cloning Brush).

You will see that with some photos the ISO was 3200, which is quite high but working with the Luminance and Detail slider under Noise Reduction helps to reduce the noise greatly.  Just go easy with the Luminance slider as it will start to soften the details the higher you go.  Work with the Detail and the Contrast slider to bring back more detail.

Also, most of the photos were taken using the Smart Shooting Mode. Although I won't remember which feature (EXIF data shows these features as Normal) I think I used the Rich Tones feature the most.

ISO 3200, 1/25 seconds, f4.5

ISO 1600, 1/50, f4

ISO 3200, 1/20, f5

ISO 3200, 1/30, f5.6

ISO 3200, 1/30, f5.6, here the statue was on a stand which I cloned out in LR4. A very common image but still an experience.  See below for settings in LR4.

ISO 3200 1/40, f3.5

ISO 3200, 1/30, f4.5 - taken in Manual Mode, RAW, no tripod or flash

ISO 3200, 1/50, f4

Learn to use your Lightroom 4 software that came with your Samsung NX300 because it's a pretty powerful program that gives far more flexibility with exposure, shadows, colour etc than Photoshop Elements (but does not allow for layers and composites).

Settings used for the Tutankhamun Head Statue:

The colour on my screen, which has been calibrated, is more golden and darker than it may appear in your browser.

Under Basic:
Temp: +2
Tint: 0
Exposure: +12
Contrast: 0
Highlights: 0
Shadows: -40
White: 0
Blacks: -52
Clarity: +7
Vibrance: +10
Saturation: 0

Tone Curve was left on Linear and customised:

HSL/Color/B&W:

Color was selected with the following adjustments:

Red - no adjustment
Orange - Saturation -9, Luminance +13
Yellow: Saturation -13, Luminance +4
Green to Magenta - no adjustment

Split Toning

Highlights - Hue was set to 60 and the Saturation set to 21
Shadows - Hue 43, Saturation 27
Balance was set to +10

I like to add some blue to some images that have an orange hue to take away some of the warmth.

Detail

I don't really like to add sharpening unless I work with Topaz Clarity as sharpening can increase the noise in a photo.  As it is the ISO is quite high in this photo so noise is also increased.  But under Detail I prefer to use the Luminance and Detail Slider.

Sharpening amount is set to 0.  Don't worry about the greyed out settings beneath it.

Noise reduction settings:
Luminance: 32
Detail: 56
Contrast: 0
Colour: 0, greyed out Detail is also 0

I didn't use Lens Correction, Effects, or Camera Calibration settings.