What I am Working On: A New Project

Just a reminder that I’ve moved! Click on over to visit me there.
Cheers, Amy

I have a new project in the works:

ISO 160 3.9mm f/1.8 1/60sec

What you see in the photo is the start, part of my thought process. I’m going to give image transfers to wood a try. I took a short class and have ordered the materials I need. My first tries will be small, 4×6 size. They will be in color. The images above were a test run on my home printer in black and white. The next step is to make color copies on a laser printer.

The photo above originally was an IG post:

View this post on Instagram
Beginning. A new photography project underway. #photography #art #hipstamatic
A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on

I’ll be posting some more about the project as it comes along. I’m hoping to like the technique enough to make some larger versions to put on a wall in our…

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11-22mm Lens, Canon 50D, Photo Editing, Photography

All Kinds of Things Going On

So join in the fun!

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might have noticed that I was gone for a while. I’ve moved from Cambridge UK to St. Louis Missouri. Also, this blog is moving. My new location is Photography Journal Blog Volume 2. I’d love to have you follow me over there. My first blog’s media library is almost full so now and since moving seems to be my theme this year, I decided to make the leap.

The new blog has a very similar title because it will have similar content. I’ll still be blogging about photography, various projects I am working on and a lot about my editing process. I’ve rejoined the St Louis Camera Club and was pleased to have received an Honourable Mention in a recent competition:

ISO 1250 22mm f/9 1/40sec

I’ve written about this photo before and if you would like a refresh on how I created it, you can find that here.

Daily Record Weekly Wrap-up, iPhone, Photography

Daily Photo Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 69

It feels like it has been a long time since I wrote a weekly wrap-up post, but it has only been a week. This week was the travel portion of our move, England to the US. Now we wait for our household goods to catch up with us. This week’s images were taken in both locations and of course, in the air:

As Shot

Hipstamatic

Welcome to this week’s installment of my daily photographic record. Posts in this series will be photos from the week before, roughly Friday through Friday. This, once a week, wrap-up post will publish on Sunday. The photos for this post will be in a gallery format, they will have all been taken on my phone. The captions on the photos will be an indication of the photo-editing software used to edit them, or simply “as-shot” for those that are unedited.

Writing a weekly wrap up with a gallery is a way for me to gather my thoughts on what has caught my attention in the previous week. It will be a way of filtering through what I am thinking about photographically. I’ll also be able to come back to these posts and look at what trends emerge over time.

As with all my posts, your comments are welcome. I appreciate your interaction with my work here on this blog. It is my intention to publish in this series on Sunday. Every Sunday that is possible. Looking at my year, I already know there are some weeks where I will not be close enough to my technology to make a post possible. In an effort to keep this project pleasant for myself, I won’t be attempting catch-up posts.

Hope to see you in the comments below and in this space next week!

Cheers!

Daily Record Weekly Wrap-up, hipstamatic, iPhone, Photography

Daily Photo Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 68

I was happy to be able to wander this week. I was also happy that two of my images worked well in monochrome, that’s a style I don’t work in as much, so I’m always pleased when I have a nice result:

Hipstamatic

As Shot

Hipstamatic

Hope to see you in the comments below and in this space next week!

Cheers!

Flowers, hipstamatic, Instagram, iPhone, Lens Artists Photo Challenge, Luminar, Nature, Photo Challenges, Photo Editing, Photography, What I Am Working On

What I Am Working On: Cropping and Layers

The file I was working with this morning illustrates how edits can really change a photo, and one of the most powerful tools is the cropping tool:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/377sec 4.2mm

This first edit was created in the app Hipstamatic using the randomize feature which means that the filters were chosen for me. The second edit was also created in Hipstamatic, but I chose the various filters and it was the version that I added to my Instagram feed:

View this post on Instagram

Busy. #bee #flowers #thingsiseeonmywalks

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jun 17, 2020 at 7:27am PDT

I go back and forth between these two and I think there are elements to both that I like but that neither is exactly right. This morning’s edit which I created using the original file in Luminar 3 is this one:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/377sec 4.2mm

This edit keeps the original ratio of the photograph and is more top-heavy than the square version. When I was working on this edit, the crop was the second edit in my workflow. I started with basic edits like luminosity and adjusting the blacks and whites. Then on a separate layer, I did the crop. Then on an additional layer, I added then tweaked a custom Luminar look that I have saved as a preset. It turned out that when I got to that point, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the crop. Because the crop was on its own layer, it was easy to click on and edit just that layer.

So, there are two important points here I think, first is that the crop set to different ratios can really change the photo’s story and second that putting the crop on its own layer can make your editing process much easier.

Your thoughts on cropping in general or in this specific case are welcome below. This post was inspired by the Lens Artist Challenge, One Single Flower.

Cheers!

Birds, iPhone, Luminar, Photo a week Challenge, Photo Challenges, Photo Editing, Photography

At the Water’s Edge

The images for this post were taken while I was out on my morning run. Run is a term I use loosely as I am not very fast and am known to stop if I see something that catches my eye. The image I stopped for at this point was one of the swans. I did take several photos of the swans, but standing there I felt the more interesting story was this man who had stopped to spend some time with them:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/392sec 4.2mm

I took the photo and then moved on. Obviously, social distancing meant I wasn’t going to get too close to him but the real reason is that he seemed deep in his own moment and I didn’t want to disturb that.

This second image is a heron who was so still that I almost ran right up to him:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/100sec 4.2mm

I couldn’t believe how close I got. I took several photos, slunk past him, then took several more including this one above.

Because I took these photos on the same morning run, just a few minutes apart, I decided to edit them in a similar way. Both have been cropped, and then had minor adjustments for clarity and exposure. The first image I also straightened a bit. I’ve then applied a custom Luminar Look that I had made as a preset. It fit as is perfectly on the first image, but required a bit of tweaking on the second one.

A version of the second photo I also posted to Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

The real reason I go on an early morning #run #heron #cambridge

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jun 12, 2020 at 1:10am PDT

It’s fair to say that my run stats for this morning weren’t stellar. That happens sometimes. Your thoughts and comments on the images are welcome below. This post has been added to A Photo A Week Challenge, Water.

Cheers!

Daily Record Weekly Wrap-up, hipstamatic, iPhone, Photography

Daily Photo Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 67

This week felt a little bit all over the place in terms of my photography. I would say this week was more about the documentation of what is around me that really processing what I am seeing:

Hipstamatic

Hope to see you in the comments below and in this space next week!

Cheers!

iPhone, Lens Artists Photo Challenge, Luminar, Photo Challenges, Photo Editing, Photography, What I Am Working On

What I Am Working On: The Road Ahead

So, technically it’s not a road, it’s a path. Also, I’m not exactly on it:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/50sec 4.2mm

But I do love this spot. A green space in the middle of the city with such gorgeous trees, what’s not to love? I’ve been walking through this park a lot in the last week, it helps me clear my head a bit. There’s a lot going on in the world and in my life. Being near this path reminds me that it is actually about the journey, it’s not important that I don’t have all the details worked out yet. The photo though, I like it, so I edited it a bit:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/50sec 4.2mm

First was the crop, it helps to bring the path and the trees a bit more into focus. I’ve added a custom vintage film look that I created within Luminar. To me, that settles the image a bit more into the way this setting lives in my mind. It’s a bit more rich and deep in my mind than in real life. That’s me bringing my journey on the path along and placing it in the photo.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome below. This post was written in response to the Len-Artists Photo Challenge, Long and Winding Road.

Cheers!

iPhone, made with Luminar, Photo a week Challenge, Photography

Made with Luminar: Starting Point

I think it is very helpful to think of photo editing presets as a starting point. This image is a case in point:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/962sec 4.2mm

After a few basic edits for the original file, I applied the Luminar Look, Intersection. I liked it but it wasn’t interpreting the scene the way I had intended. I thought it was a good starting point though. By changing some of the settings within the preset I arrived here, a photo that is fairly dark with streaks of light. That was my vision for this image. I’m using the little bit of light to represent hope in what is a pretty dark time. This photo was shot on a Saturday night at a time where it is usually loud and bustling. The virus has changed the vibe a lot.

Your thoughts are welcome below and this post has been added to A Photo a Week Challenge, Light and Dark.

The Made with Luminar Series

This image is part of a project I am calling Made with Luminar. What the images in this series have in common is the software used to edit them, Luminar 3. As with my usual blog posts particulars of the camera settings can be found in the caption below the image. I’ll then explain what other filters and edits have been applied, often mentioning what layer and therefore order that they were applied. The text of these posts includes any Luminar “Looks” that have been applied to the photo. Each look is a series of presets that are applied to the photo. Where applicable I will mention what changes I have made to any of the looks. A full explanation of looks is available here on their website, https://skylum.com/luminar/user-guides/chapter-14-working-with-luminar-looks

You can assume basic edits have been applied. My most common edits are cropping, detail enhancement, and vignette. Specific questions or thoughts on the image are welcome in the comment section below.

Cheers!