What I Am Working On: Editing Small Details

I was working with this file:

ISO 800 f/11 1/30sec 21mm

In prior work sessions, I had worked with other similar files, creating a few different color interpretations. For this one, I had in mind a black and white version. Something a bit glamorous I was thinking (yup that is what I was thinking) for this photo. On the first layer, I did my basic edits, cropping and luminosity were two of them. Then I created a second layer and went searching for a look in Luminar that would closely match what I was thinking. I found it in the look called “Old Hollywood Glamor”.  Close to perfect but not exactly, so I created a third layer. This layer was really about details. Little changes that made a big difference. The first thing I did was to use the small detail enhancer and I bumped the slider up to 23. But really I only wanted those details in the petals of the snowdrops, so I used a brush to paint that in and leave the rest of the file untouched. Then I experimented with the vignette, a lot. I changed it’s location, size, and amount all several times.  Here is the final version:

ISO 800 f/11 1/30sec 21mm

If you are new to editing and reading this post, I’d like you to take away the idea that sometimes small things like a vignette can make big changes in your final photo. Vignette controls are often simple and easy to understand how to use. It makes for a good confidence builder as you are mastering the basics and then moving on to more complex editing.

Regardless of your ability and level of experience with editing, your thoughts on this version are welcome in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Flower of the Day. Picfair version is here.

January Squares: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Ah, winter, who doesn’t love winter? Me. When snowdrops begin to appear it signals the beginning of the end:

ISO 400 f/11 55mm 1/100sec

This edited photo of snowdrops is available on my Picfair portfolio. As shown, it has been edited in Luminar with a film fade look applied. For the square version, I simply applied a crop:

ISO 400 f/11 55mm 1/100sec

This post is the last in my January Squares series. I’ve really enjoyed this challenge, so thanks to you all who have followed along or checked in over the month. My biggest thanks though is to Becky who graciously hosted this challenge. The challenge will run again in April, with the theme being announced in March. If you would like information about how the challenge works check here.

I posted all my images for this challenge also on Instagram, today’s is here:

View this post on Instagram

Spring is coming. #fridayfeeling #spring #snowdrops #januarylight

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jan 30, 2020 at 10:30pm PST

Added to Day 31 of January Squares, also to Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Cheers!

 

Favorite Photos of 2019

It’s fun to go back through the year’s blog posts and look at what I worked on. For this week’s Lens-Artists challenge participants were encouraged to pick some favorites for the past year. I went through the year and from last January picked this image:

ISO 200 22mm f/16 1/400sec

The original blog post it appeared in is here, but I chose it as a favorite because the edits are minimal and the composition simple, two elements that often turn up in my work.

This past year I also launched a weekly wrap up of daily photos taken with my iPhone. From that series, this is a recent favorite:

As Shot

The original post is here, but this is a favorite photo because I liked the image just as it was and felt no need to edit it.

Many of the photos on this blog end up in some variation on my Instagram or Picfair accounts. From 2019, these were my top 9 on Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

It’s my #topnine2019

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Dec 27, 2019 at 6:18am PST

Images in this post that are also on Picfair include the lighthouse and the pig.

So, what’s in the works for Photography Journal Blog in 2020? I’ve enjoyed the Daily Photo Weekly Wrap-Up posts, so look for those to continue. I will also continue to write about my process of editing photos, I like writing out what I have done as a way of thinking about what I have or haven’t accomplished in any given edit. For January, look for two new additions. The first is I will be attempting Becky’s Square Challenge, January’s theme is light and you can read about it and join in here. The second is a 52-week Smartphone Challenge hosted at Island in the Net. I misunderstood the original post and accidentally got a head start of that one, but I will be joining in on the right weeks starting in mid-January.

Overall, I’m hoping for a robust year here on the blog. It will be a challenge! Thanks very much for reading and all the best for 2020 to everyone!

Cheers!

Old Man of Coniston

ISO 640 f/10 1/800sec 20mm

Old Man Coniston, Lake District UK,

I walked up an October day.

Nice photo-op, about halfway up;

but the view from the top?

I just can’t really say because

it was cloud covered that day.

 

Added to Six Word Saturday. Picfair version here.

Cheers!

Detail in Dublin

 

ISO 800 f/11 1/100sec 18mm

Think they mind my circling path?

If they did, they didn’t say.

Snap and continue on my way.

ISO 800 f/11 1/250sec 39mm

Picfair version here.

Added to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Candid and Six-Word Saturday.

Cheers!

What I Am Working On: Editing the Landscape

I do a lot of photo editing and it is easy to get into the habit of using the same filters every time.  In order to encourage myself to try different things, I watch a lot of tutorial videos on Youtube. I feel free to adopt some suggestions and leave others, but I think it is important to understand that most photo editing software has lots of options and so knowing what is even available is important.  One of the files I was working on the week was this photo, taken at Mt. Snowdon in Wales in 2016:

ISO 800 f/13 1/800sec 50mm

It was a fabulous view, even if this particular file doesn’t really seem to suggest that. I was also watching this tutorial on Youtube. It’s specific to editing a landscape in Luminar which is the software I am using, but I would say that the suggestions made can be applied in other editing software as well. One of the first suggestions was to use the dehaze slider. Now that happens to be a slider I almost never use but for this file, it seemed like a really good starting place. For this edit below, I then went on to use the sky filter, the foliage enhancer, the HSL panel for luminance, and the small details slider for sharpening. The final edit was this one:

ISO 800 f/13 1/800sec 50mm

I think this edit is a pretty close representation of what I saw that day. From there I decided to do a more creative edit. This particular edit has two additional layers, the first was the Luminar look, Overlook, added with modifications and the second layer is an AI filter and vignette. Here is that version:

ISO 800 f/13 1/800sec 50mm

I like it also but will readily admit it is not what I saw. The Picfair version of it is here.

So which version is better? which do you prefer? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Back Catalog.

 

Wordless Wednesday, One photo, Three interpretations

ISO 500 f/4.5 1/125sec 50mm

Picfair version here.

ISO 500 f/4.5 1/125sec 50mm

Picfair version here.

 

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Monday morning here I am. #orchid #flowers #mondaymotivation #madewithluminar

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Oct 7, 2019 at 12:23am PDT

Added to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Filling the Frame and Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Cheers!

Made with Luminar: A Place in my Heart

It’s been almost two years since I was in Tanzania and I still find it difficult to exactly express why this trip was so important to me. Even harder is to distil that thought into a single image. I have many files from that trip that I have chosen to keep but have not been through the editing process yet. The lens artist photo challenge for this week prompted me to go through them and this is the image that floated to the top of my imagination:

ISO 400 f/18 1/200sec 73mm

The vast landscape that was teeming with life. The humor of being caught in a wildlife traffic jam. The color of the landscape itself. These are all things that appeal to me in this image. For this particular image though, it is the inquisitive zebra that is the story. My edits reflect this. The crop and placement of the vignette are the most simplistic edits I have applied to accomplish this. The other technique I used was after applying a filter that gave this photo a bit of a vintage memory look, I used a brush at 20% to remove the filter a bit on the zebras in the foreground.  The final edit is this:

ISO 400 f/18 1/200sec 73mm

What do you think of this edit? Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section. Because this was also a part of my Made with Luminar series, the next part of this post will spell out some of the details of the edit.

This photo was created for and added in response to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Pick a Place. The Picfair version is here.

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. The text of these posts include the 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 other 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.

Luminar Look applied: Past Days. The texture within the look was reduced and the filter is set to 74% application. A mask was added and the filter was brushed out with a 20% opacity brush over the zebras in the foreground. A few more spots of the texture in the sky were erased.

Cheers!

Made With Luminar: Snowdrops in the Morning

ISO 400 f/11 1/160sec 55mm

Luminar Look applied, Morning fog, filter lowered to 70% and brushed out completely in parts of the flower.

Picfair version here.

Added to Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge.

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. The text of these posts include the 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 other 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!

Made With Luminar: Snowdrops with Film Fade

This image is the first of a new series that I am starting on the blog. It is a result of a new workflow routine that I have been experimenting with. I have been trying out new filter combinations within the Luminar software that I am using and this series will be a way of documenting that.  If you are interested in filters, I’ll be naming the ones used. If you just like to look at photos, feel free to just enjoy these posts in that way.

ISO 400 f/11 55mm 1/100sec

Luminar Look applied, Expired L12, with an adjustment of the LUT mapping from 15 to 7.

Added to Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge.

Picfair version here.

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. The text of these posts include the 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 other 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!