What I Am Working On: How to Lose My Work

I think I am going to file this too: never do this again.

It all started out well enough, I was looking at this file, taken at Hadrian’s Wall:

ISO 800 22mm f/14 1/800sec

It’s nice but needs a bit of work. So, from that I created this version:

ISO 800 22mm f/14 1/800sec

Before dealing with the exposure, I applied a crop. I’ve used the rule of thirds overlay for this because, as I suspected, there was a stronger composition lurking within the original file. Then I considered the exposure; this image was created using the shadows slider to lighten the shadows, then I moved the black and white sliders around until the image looked good to me. I sharpened the photo by increasing the details sliders just a bit.

Then I created this black and white version:

ISO 800 22mm f/14 1/800sec

That is now lost for all time. I state in a very dramatic fashion.  Here’s what I did wrong. After making this version and saving off a blog-sized copy, I went back in the history to the color version and did the steps to add a watermark. I saved off my blog-sized copy of that. Then when I dropped the history tab again to go back to the black and white version, all that history was gone.

Two things, somehow that seems like that shouldn’t have happened and at the same time, I feel like I should have known that would happen. So yes, I should have saved a full-size version of that black and white prior to mucking about in the history. In Luminar, the way I am doing that (when I am doing things properly) is to export it to my hard drive labeled as a version. In my formatting on my drive, this version would have been: file number + Lum + BW.

Instead, I have just a smaller, blog version. So, I am writing this cautionary blog post to remind myself to do it differently next time.

What do you think of my color version versus the black and white? I have to say that I personally prefer the color, in my opinion, there is a bit of something that just didn’t translate into the black and white. Feel free to leave a comment below.

My Instagram version is here:

View this post on Instagram

Hadrian’s Wall near Haltwhistle. I’m thinking about wide open spaces this morning. #thingsiseewhilewalking #mondaymotivation #madewithluminar #hadrianswall

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Mar 11, 2019 at 1:44am PDT

Cheers!

Color version is on Picfair.

Added to Cee’s Black and White Challenge, Fences and Gates.

Fenced In

I enjoy walking through cemeteries, and this one had several graves with metal fences:

ISO 2000 13mm f/16 1/160sec

The biggest challenge of shooting on this particular day was the light. It was what sometimes is referred to as “harsh”. Where the sun was making it through the trees, it was strong and bright. But even on a day like this, there were areas that were dark. For this particular shot, I waited for a sunbeam and shot into the sun. Against the photography “rules”? sure, but it lit up the spiderweb and I thought that was an important element in this photo.  I created two versions from the original file, the color above and the black and white below.

ISO 2000 13mm f/16 1/160sec

When it came to editing, I made the color image smoother, highlighting the warm tones of the sunny image. The black and white I created a more stark version, contrasting the light in the image with its darker subject matter.

This is the original file, taken at Cimetière des Quatre-Nations in Caen, France:

ISO 2000 13mm f/16 1/160sec

You can see that the other choice I made here was to crop the image. Another version of this image went in my Instagram feed so it has a square crop.

 

View this post on Instagram

#graveyard shot Four Nations Cemetery #caen #travel

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jul 26, 2018 at 10:14am PDT

I chose to put the black and white version in my Picfair portfolio. These various versions are different from one another, but do you have a favorite? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Fences and Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge, Open.

St. Joan of Arc

The photo for this post was taken just outside Église Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc in Rouen, France. The church is modern and beautiful:

ISO 320 14mm f/13 1/125sec

For this edit, I wanted to create a simpler version of the original file. I started by cropping the photo. I wanted to crop out the glimpse of the town, but retain an indication of this statue being outside. So, the people were out, but the pigeons were to stay.

ISO 320 14mm f/13 1/125sec

I created this mostly black and white by using the saturation sliders to remove the color. I couldn’t resist leaving just a bit of the purple in though. To me, that hint of color makes the image more interesting. To subtly bring attention to the pigeons the vignette that I applied stops right by them, making that spot one of contrast and hopefully drawing your eye.

What do you think of this mostly monochrome image? do you like the hint of color? did you notice the pigeons? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge, Statues and Live Laugh RV, Black and White.

Brand New Robins in Black and White

I’m pretty excited to have a robin’s nest right outside my kitchen window.  I had been tracking the nest for days and thrilled to see that two have hatched. In addition to taking color photos I was interested to see what these birds would look like in black and white:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/2.7 1/400

At the time this photo was taken the babies had been hatched for at least 9 hours.  I had taken their picture earlier in the day and they were already bigger and had more feathers than my earlier shots.

I edited this photo in Photoshop.  I cropped the image then converted it to black and white, then I sharpened it.  Here is the original color version as it was straight out of the camera:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/2.7 1/400

What do you think?  It is more common to see an image like this in color, but do you like the black and white treatment? Feel free to leave a comment below

I wrote this post in part as a response to the theme of “small subjects” over at Cee’s Black and White Challenge. I’m not sure if I would have thought to convert this image to black and white if I had not seen her challenge, so I’d like to thank her for the idea.

Cheers!

Calla Lily in Black and White

It’s been a fairly busy week for me in my Photoshop class.  I was preparing for the ACA exam for Photoshop.  I passed it today. I was happy to pass on the first try, but to be honest I have some issues with “standardized” testing, and have some questions as to how much they really prove.

In terms of photography, I am thinking about a new project in Photoshop.  At this point the assignment is in a pretty vague spot.  So, instead of worrying too much about the details I am taking some photos and just thinking generally about some of the effects and filters from Photoshop that might apply.  With that in mind, I made this image this afternoon:

ISO 200 50mm 0ev f/8 1/80

For the project I am not sure if I will be working in black and white or color.  So, for this exercise I decided to convert the image to black and white and work from there.

One of the things I was thinking about when I was creating this image was the background.  I wanted it to be wavy and somewhat textured.  So what I did was create a duplicate layer and then applied the Oil Paint filter to it.  From there I put a mask on the Oil Paint filter layer and painted back in some of the realistic detail in the lily itself.

It’s an interesting effect, what do you think?  I’ll be trying some other things in the coming week, but I am thinking my final project will incorporate the oil filter in some way.  Here is the original image:

ISO 200 50mm 0ev f/8 1/80

I was inspired to try this in black and white in part because Open Topic is the theme for Cee’s Black & White Challenge. Since my project is just beginning and not even fully defined yet, I thought that certainly is open-ended.

Cheers!

 

 

Found In Nature

Signs of Spring, you can find them here if you are looking hard enough.  I’m on the lookout, so I have noticed the increased number of birds that I can see outside my kitchen window in the morning.  This little sparrow really likes the cover of a pile of sticks we are collecting from a recent storm:

ISO 1600 19mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100

I’ll show you the original in a moment but I decided to convert this image to black and white for Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Found in Nature  I used my point and shoot to get this image. This little bird was pretty still, so I was pretty confident the camera would get a decent shot.

I opened the original in Camera Raw and increased the exposure and the clarity.  Then I converted it to black and white.  From there I opened it in Photoshop, cropped and sharpened it a bit.

Here is the original:

ISO 1600 19mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100

One of the reasons I cropped the photo was to make the bird look like it was in a more natural setting.  I also wanted to make him a little more obvious, since he gets lost a bit in the black and white.  What do you think?  Does black and white work here?

Cheers!