When I was out on a walk this past Sunday, I thought I would look for photos that spoke to the change of season. Autumn is asserting itself in a beautiful way my part of the world right now:
ISO 800 f/2.7 1/20sec 4.3mm
Even just looking on the ground you can see it. But sometimes it helps to look up as well:
Added to A Photo a Week Challenge, Changing Seasons.
Cheers!
When it comes to photo editing, sometimes you have to be careful. While I do mean that you have to take care with your work, I also am talking about your time. Once you have started working on an image, when is it finished? That is something that I find myself thinking about a lot. I spent sometime outside this week taking advantage of the beautiful weather, and looking for nice outdoor images. When I came across this scene I thought it would look nice with some editing:
ISO 800 70mm 0ev f/5.6 1/1000
When I got to the editing process even though the first thing that struck me was that the image would need straightened, that was actually close to my last step.
I had bracketed this image because of the shadows, with the thought that I would make an HDR version in Photomatix. In this case I made a color and black and white image. Then in Photoshop I combined the two images using the the color version as the base layer and masking in the black and white where I wanted it. Then I cropped the image and sharpened it:
ISO 800 70mm 0ev f/5.6 1/1000
Combining color and black and white is not something I do a whole lot of but I have fun with occasionally. A few days later, I was doing some research on a graphic design project and I came across this article on using the apply image function in Photoshop. While it didn’t help what I was working on at that moment, it did make me think again about trying that as a basis for editing the scene I had been working on earlier in the week. So I gave it a try:
ISO 800 70mm 0ev f/5.6 1/1000
As the tutorial I linked to suggests, the apply image feature actually has a lot to offer once you start exploring the dialogue box that opens up. This version above ended up being the my favorite of the edited versions, so far that is…
What do you think, is there a version that you prefer? Do you find yourself getting lost in the process of photo editing? It can be both fabulous and maddening, don’t you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
As I was thinking about how to respond to this week’s photo challenge, serenity, it occurred to me that I would say serenity is an idea that shows up a lot in my photography. For this week, I chose this image:
ISO 100 185mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100
The image itself was taken this past fall. I stopped, looked up, and saw this lovely pattern of light that I thought would turn out well in a photograph. This final edited version is actually a fusion of two identical images shot using different exposures and then edited in Photomatix Pro. Here are the two originals:
ISO 100 185mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100
ISO 100 185mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100
I felt that creating an HDR image would bring out the jewel tones in the leaves and the bokeh effect in the background of the image. When I took the original photos, it was a bright day so I had lowered my ISO to 100. It was also a bit breezy, and in this case I wanted the leaves to be still, so that is the reason for the fast shutter speed. I settled on an f-stop of 5.6 after a couple of other tries, because I felt like that was the right balance of bokeh in the background and clarity in the leaves.
As for serenity, it’s been a bit elusive in my life lately. I’ve missed the last few photo challenges. It’s nice to be back, and I’m looking forward to getting caught up on my comments and visits to other blogs. As for serenity in a photo, this particular image works for me but what do you think? your comments are welcome below.
Cheers!
One of the things that I love about the change of seasons is the transition flowers go through. I chose to photograph two wildflowers that are in the yard. One looks like it is done for the season and the other hasn’t gotten the memo regarding the frost we have had.
ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/3.2 1/100
This is my flower that is done for the season. When I was shooting this flower and the one you will see below I set my f-stop to 3.2 because that was enough to capture the detail of the flower and blur out the background. Because the f-stop setting like that will let in a lot of light I used a high shutter speed and a low ISO to keep the images from being overexposed. Both images were edited using Camera Raw. I converted them both to greyscale and then applied some split toning. For this first flower I have my color settings on blue but at a low saturation. I felt like this helped convey the cold of the approaching season.
This flower, processed in a similar way but with different settings:
ISO 160 50mm f/3.2 1/100
Here I used a combination of yellow and orange and a high saturation. I was hoping to convey the fading warmth that this flower is pretty successfully hanging on to.
This post was written in part as a response to Sonel’s Split-Toning Challenge. Her theme for this week was change of season. If you are interested in split-toning at all I would encourage you to visit her blog, she has a lot of helpful hints and she uses a variety of different programs to edit her images.
What do you think of my flowers? Kind of hard to believe they are right next to one another in the yard isn’t it?
Cheers!
I was out hiking and taking some photos of the fall leaves:
ISO 500 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100
These leaves I shot and then wanted to bring out their golden tones. In Photoshop I made some changes to the hue and saturation. I then changed the blending mode to darker color. I also sharpened the image. Here is the original:
ISO 500 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100
This post was written in response to Prompts for the Promptless at Queen Creative. The prompt this week was Kintsukuri which is a Japanese noun meaning “to repair with gold”; the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. However, the original idea came from Braith an’lithe, which is a beautiful blog as well.
So, what do you think of my golden leaves? Is it fall where you are? if so, how are the fall colors this year?
Cheers!
You never know what you might come across when you are out hiking. In this case, I was deep in the woods. The travel theme this week at Where’s My Backpack? is deep, so I figured I was in the right place. Turns out, I was in the right spot for a little mystery:
ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/160
I’m not sure which question I had first; was it, why is there a stone building here? or which storm?, we get a lot of them and I was just curious to know which storm the sign was referring too. I was at the Babler State Park in Missouri on a Monday so the visitor’s center was closed, so my questions will have to wait for another visit. And I will be going back, it is a nice park with hiking, biking, and equestrian trails.
Here is my original photo:
ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/160
I don’t know about you, but when I first looked at it, I thought the color was just wrong to go with the theme of deep. I wanted the richer orange color you see in the finished version. To get the look I was going for, I opened the photo in camera raw, and in the basic settings I adjusted the temperature setting to be a bit warmer. Then in Photoshop, I opened up a film plug-in and applied a Fuji Provia 100F filter. I thought that the little bit of texture that the filter added helped with the deep theme. I also sharpened it a bit.
What do you think? Does the first one say “deep” to you more than the second? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
The WordPress photo challenge for this week is changing seasons. I have put together a few photos from different times from this past summer and fall of a local park:
Cheers!
This past week I was working on a color assignment for my digital photography class as well as a natural symmetry themed contest. This photo fits in both of those categories:
ISO 100 50mm f/2.2 1/160
I tried a bracketed exposure for this shot of -1,0,1 for editing in Photomatix. Once I had put the photos in Photomatix, I picked a version which I felt was pretty natural looking because part of what I was wanting viewers to see was the way the red was basically imitating the overall shape of the whole leaf. When I was composing and editing the shot I was trying to blur the background as much as possible. I liked the green color, but didn’t want any competing detail.
Any thoughts? feel free to leave them in the comment section.
Cheers!
This is a photo I took of the pumpkin that my youngest chose to adorn our front step:
ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/5 85s
A lot of personality, kind of like the kid in question. Anyway, this is an 85 second exposure because it was early in the morning, and this is a bit of a dark corner. I had the white balance set on cloudy because I was hoping to warm up the photo a bit. Once it was on my Mac I edited it a bit in Aperture. Here is the same photo in black and white:
I personally prefer the black and white version but what do you think? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Cheers!
It is getting cooler and the leaves are turning. It was raining and I got this shot in front of my house:
ISO 320 70mm f/5 1/13
I love the color of fall!
Cheers!
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