Travel Theme: Height

When I saw that height was the theme this week at Where’s My Backpack?  I went back to my photos from this summer in St. Paul Minnesota.  As part of our tour of the capitol building we went out on the roof.  I got some fun shots, one of which I have already posted.  From another angle, you can also see the Cathedral of St. Paul:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/8 1/250

I have included the link to the Cathedral because after we were finished hanging out on the roof of the Capitol, we went and took a very interesting tour of the Cathedral.

Because I am studying for my Photoshop midterm exam this week, you should guess that that photo above has been edited.  I will show you the original exposure in a moment and you will see how hazy the light was that day.  In terms of editing, first I created two additional levels layers for this photo.  One I adjusted for the sky to make it more dynamic.  The second I adjusted for the Cathedral, to lighten it.  Once I was happy with that, I put a film filter on the photo.  I used DXO FilmPack 3 for that.  For this photo I picked Kodak elite extra color 100 setting, because I really liked the color boost.  Then I did some final sharpening in Photoshop.

I wrote about DXO FilmPack 3 last week because it is being offered free until October 31st.  I am including the link again in case you missed it.  I’m really enjoying it and maybe you would too.

Here is my original photo:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/8 1/250

What do you think?  Do you like my edited version?  Feel free to leave a comment below.  If you don’t want to talk about my editing, feel free to leave me good luck and encouragement on my exam, I’d appreciate it!

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Saturation

This week I am  working on creating a panorama for my Photoshop class.  It is a series of gravestones that includes this image:

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/400

In the panorama there will be a panning to the left to reveal other gravestones.  But as I was looking at the image and thinking about this week’s photo challenge theme saturated, I was thinking about not only the amount of color but the actual color and the texture.

I also, just a few days ago, downloaded some free software from DXO and Sony.  It is DXO FilmPack 3 which is free to download until October 31, 2013.  I had installed it and have it  running as a plug-in in both Aperture and Photoshop. The software allows you to give your digital image the feel of film.  So, here is that same photo with a Kodak Elite Chrome 400 filter:

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/400

Completely different isn’t it?  What do you think?  I like it, but I think for my panorama project I will stick with the green version.  I’m also thinking that I am going to be able to find a lot of uses for this software.  I will also say, that I think it is fairly easy to use.  I didn’t really dig into it, but I got it up and running really quickly which is something that I always appreciate.

I’ll also tell you that I found this software thanks to another blogger, Lignum Draco.  I have included a link to a recent post of his that I enjoyed.  He does mostly street photography, which is something I almost never do.  I enjoy looking at the work of photographers whose images are a lot different than mine.  You never know where you will find inspiration or free software, so I’d like to thank him for blogging and sharing his work.

Thoughts about my images? Do you also look to the work of others for inspiration? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!