The Swans

I live near several small lakes, one of which has a swan family:

ISO 640 78mm f/16 1/500sec

This image is one of the first I captured of the whole family. I first posted about this family last week and my aim there was to keep the images as true to the original scene as possible. For this post, I am wandering out to a bit more creative territory. First a black and white edit:

ISO 640 78mm f/16 1/500sec

The first thing I did with this edit was to crop it. I wanted to really bring the swan in the foreground to an almost uncomfortable closeness. This swan was acting in a very protective manner and I think the crop helps tell that part of the story. I then brought the highlights in the image down and the shadows up. I wanted this black and white version to be a bit smoother than its original as shot exposure. I then added a vignette, darkening the corners.

I like this image and the crop, so I decided to create another color version:

ISO 640 78mm f/16 1/500sec

For this version, I started with a preset that was suggestive of a film camera. I kept the brightness of the original exposure though. It has a completely different color cast to it than the original. The luminance sliders for yellow, green, aqua and blue have all been boosted, and the color temp of the overall photo was also increased.

I’m sorry to say that one of the swans went missing shortly after these photos were taken. I posted the sad news on my Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

And then there were just two #cygnets #thingsiseewhilewalking #nofilter

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jun 29, 2018 at 7:22am PDT

 

How do you like the edits? Do you have a favorite? Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge.

Picfair versions: Black & White and Color.

 

Spider (so click away now if they’re not your thing)

One of the challenges I face when I am running is to keep running.  I’m not always successful, but in this case it means that I got this photo:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/710

I’ll admit if I had seen this spider in my home, I’d have probably squealed like a girl and ran away before dealing with it. On a run however, when I am just passing the web and spider by, I find it beautiful.  On this particular morning there were a lot of spiders out working.  This one I stopped for because I thought the light in the web was just about perfect.  Here is the original shot:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/710

In the edited version I really focused on the warmth that was in the original.  I used Lightroom for my editing. One of the first things I did was increase the temperature slider.  I liked the effect that had on the spider’s legs and on the sun rays. I’ve also used a graduated filter to bring a bit of interest to the sky.

The fun thing about this photo was that I took it with my iPhone, I was happy with the result. What do you think? Do you try to ignore spiders when you are out and about? Do you prefer the original or the edited version?  Feel free to leave a comment below. I’ve added this photo to my Picfair portfolio and to the Daily Post Challenge.

Cheers!