Made with Luminar: Increasing the Chill

In a recent post featuring a photo from the Kilmainham Gaol Museum, I talked about the use of color to convey a mood. Today’s post is related, just approaching the edit in a different way.  Here is the original file:

ISO 3200 f/11 1/13sec 21mm

The edits made below were to make this already chilling jail seem colder:

ISO 3200 f/11 1/13sec 21mm

You can let me know in the comments section if you think this is successful.  The first edit was to crop, straighten, and remove the lens distortion from this image. I also dropped the highlights slider. That was all on the first layer. On layer 2 I’ve applied the LUT, Cool Blue B&W, and adjusted the amount to 62. On layer 3 the filter Matte look was applied with an amount of 42 and a fade of 20. Layer 4 has the Accent AI filter and a vignette.

This edit was inspired by the Len-Artist Challenge, Cold.

 

Cheers!

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.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition

In my Photoshop class we are working on a project that is supposed to channel the art of photogravure.  Photographs done in this style are often soft images with a sepia tone and a textured look to them.  To say that is really simplifying things, and the link I provided goes into much more detail and gives many examples if you are interested in taking a peek.

This week I have been busy creating a series of images that hopefully reflect that style.  Here is one:

ISO 200 18mm 0ev f/5.6 1/400

I will show you the original image at the bottom of this post so you can see where I started. It was very cold this week, but I went for a quick walk in a local park looking for an image like this that I could work with.  This photo I shot with my point and shoot camera, because I knew that it could capture an image like this one well.  I also knew that my final print for my project will be a small one, no larger than 8×10.

When I got home, I opened this image in Photoshop.  I created a duplicate layer and then used the Filter-Blur-Field blur to create focus on the plant but blur the background. Then I created a Gradient Map layer. My gradient goes from dark maroon to blue to pale yellow.  Then on another layer I brought in  a background I had that is a journal page.  So those are my three layers, they are stacked in the order that I mentioned them. The plant is in a normal blending mode with an opacity of 45%.  The Gradient Map layer is also in normal blending mode but set at 67%. The journal layer is set to blending mode multiply and 80% opacity.

Here is the original image I was working from:

ISO 200 18mm 0ev f/5.6 1/400

The theme this week for the WordPress photo challenge is juxtaposition, and my take on this theme is to create a single image out of the snowy scene and a journal page, something that you might not think of as being complimentary.  Do you think this combination works? What do you think of my editing? Feel free to leave a comment below. This photo has also been added to my Picfair portfolio.

Cheers!

Weekly Travel Theme: Silver

I’ve been traveling a bit lately and it is cold here in the Midwest.  I took this photo from a hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana:

ISO 2500 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/40

That’s actually a lake in the foreground, but it is frozen and snow covered now.  I’ll show you the original photo at the end of this post. I shot the original with the white balance set on cloudy, because it was cloudy and I knew would accentuate the blue in the scene.  It was cold, and I thought I would like the way the blue would turn out.  As it happens, I wasn’t crazy about it.  

I mention the white balance first because when I opened the original in Camera Raw, it was the first thing I changed.  From there I opened the photo in Photoshop.  Then I straightened the photo using the level within the crop tool.  From there I added a gradient map layer.  The gradient map is what allowed me to add the silver cast to this photo.  With the gradient map open, I chose two shades of silver.  That actually made the photo too dark. So, I changed the blending mode and dropped the opacity.  I would normally apply some sort of sharpening technique as a last step, but I decided I wanted the photo to have a slightly dreamy feel, and I thought sharpening might kill that effect.

Here is the original:

ISO 2500 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/40

Quite a different feel to the two different photos don’t you think?  Do you like the silver that I have added? Silver is the theme this week at Where’s My Backpack? Perfect for a cold scene like this.  Feel free to leave a comment below and I hope this finds you warm.

Cheers!

 

A Quiet Moment for your Monday

I took this shot a few weeks ago for my digital photography class.  The assignment was to show a fore-, middle-, and background:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/30

Even though it was pretty cold when I shot this photo, I found it very soothing.  I hope you do as well.

The only “technical” thing I did with this shot was use a tripod.  In this case the tripod not only made it possible to have a lower shutter speed but also made it easier to compose the shot in camera.

Cheers!

Freezing on Friday

Well, we got some snow and ice yesterday.  That meant that my bird feeders were busier than usual.

ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/200

ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/4 1/200

I used my Canon 50D with a 50mm lens to get these shots.  I did stay inside, we have some nice windows by the bird feeders so that we can enjoy the birds without bothering them too much.  I shot both using AWB, but then edited them later in Aperture.  Both pictures have been cropped.  The bird looking to the sky has been bumped up one exposure stop in post editing.  The bird under the bush I just used the auto adjust function for white balance.

Today is forecasted to be another cold one here, so I am expecting a lot of bird visitors.

Cheers!

Sepia in Spring

It has been cold here and while that is fine since it is winter, I do find myself looking forward to warmer weather and longer sunlit days.  A few days ago I was looking back through some photos from the spring and I found one I hadn’t yet edited.

ISO 800 100mm 0ev f/5.6 1/60

I have a series of pictures of this bee and I have been trying to edit them in different ways.  Here is one edited version:

ISO 800 100mm 0ev f/5.6 1/60

This version I edited in Aperture.  I cropped it, put it in a sepia tone, and sharpened it.  I like this version, not really sure if I love it.  I think this photo shows one of the downsides to not having a macro lens.  With a macro lens, this picture would be sharper, even before editing.  My kit lens did a decent job though.  I think the 50mm lens I have wouldn’t have worked because I was having trouble getting any closer to the bee.

So, what do you think? do you like sepia for this particular subject matter? Your comments are welcome in the comments section.

Cheers!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise

The surprise I got last night when I went to fix dinner was… no power!  The Mayans are right, the apocalypse is on!  The ironic part of that is this week I spent a lot of time in the comment section of this post  by rarasaur (it’s a great blog) trying to decide what I would wear to the apocalypse.  However, having now lived through 20 hours of no power, overnight, it was cold! I have decided I will wear layers to the apocalypse.

I was most thankful to see this sight this morning at the end of our street:

Woo hoo, this is where I usually put my camera data, but who cares? turn on the power!

We survived our mini-apocolypse by lighting a fire in the fireplace and putting a thin foam like padding over the entrances to our living room:

Entrance to the front hall

Entrance to the kitchen

It was quite cosy.  We even brought in Bubbles.  That would be the Beta Fish than lives with us.  They don’t particularly like the cold, so we have to keep an eye on his water temperature:

Bubbles by the fire

We survived our apocalypse, we even thought of a few more items to put in the survival kits we keep, so great!  I would also like to say that my choice of clothing, “layers”, was awesome.  I rounded off my fashionable outfit by having a cold, that just kind of made the look.

Cheers!

Fun with Frost

It was chilly here this morning, so I went out to take a frost photo:

ISO 100 50mm -1ev f/2.8 1/200

This was a exposure bracketed photo that I then edited in Photomatix.  I was trying to get as much detail of the frost as possible.

Cheers!