Packing

Plans for our move continue to go ahead. We are in the packing phase right at the moment, as you can tell from this collection of things just somewhat randomly sitting in the living room:

ISO 500 f/2.2 1/17sec 4.2mm

In addition to the random collection, I also shot the photo in a bit unbalanced way. Showing the off-kilter that is moving. The photo has the Luminar Look, Quay Desat, added to it.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.

This photo was shot for and in response too, Tuesday Photo Challenge, Return. Frank’s photo this week shows what will be another part of the move for me, a flight to the United States. But that is still to come, for now, it’s back to packing.

Cheers!

Horses by my House

Just a small tribute post to the horses that occupy the walking paths near my house. I’ll be honest, I’ve never enjoyed horseback riding, but I do enjoy seeing them out and about:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/2331 sec 4.15mm

As Shot, Panorama mode

ISO 25 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/3497 sec

ISO 25 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/3497 sec

Hipstamatic

 

Bonus shot over on my Instagram feed:

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Me: It’s #friyay Horse: But did you bring apples? #nearmyhouse #hipstamatic #horse #twitter

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Apr 3, 2020 at 1:53am PDT

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Animals.

Your comments are always welcome below.

Cheers!

What I Am Working On: Repurposing

I love when I come across these repurposed phone boxes:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/1304sec 4.2mm

Others I have seen are book lending or libraries and a town information booth.  This particular photo was taken on what ended up being my last walk with a rambling group I am in. It was shot on my iPhone. Edited in Luminar, I have applied the Luminar Look, “Divine”, then boosted the matte slider and edited the vignette to my liking.

This post is a response to One Word Sunday, Communication and Tuesday Photo Challenge, Connection.

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.

Cheers!

What I Am Working On: Capturing the Action

Storm Ciara has been through our neighbourhood this past week. Lots of rain and high winds here. I’ve been doing my usual walking at times when things seem a bit settled. Even at those times, it has still been quite windy, leading to photos like this one:

ISO 25 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/1304sec

This file was shot with my iPhone in long exposure mode. I originally wrote about this technique and how to achieve it on my SE model of iPhone here.  I then edited this photo further in Hipstamatic:

ISO 25 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/1304sec

I have created a lot of similar variants of the landscape this week. Here is another from my Instagram:

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Bit Blowy. #stormciara #longexposure #hipstamatic

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Feb 10, 2020 at 11:31am PST

On Sunday, there will be more in my weekly wrap-up, both “as-shot” and edited in various ways. I’ve had plenty of time to work on the editing while listening to the rain pound on the roof and the winds test the limits of the local trees. Your thoughts on my images are welcome in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Action.

 

 

Made With Luminar: Cat

I’ve taken a little detour, back to an older photo:

ISO 2000 f/14 200mm 1/6000sec

This original file was shot in December 2017 in Serengeti National Park. We sat an watched these lions for a while so I have a lot of files. Many are very similar and I have not yet edited them all. I enjoy every once in a while going back through them and picking out one to edit.

The edit:

ISO 2000 f/14 200mm 1/6000sec

I’ve used Luminar for this edit. One extra edit that I don’t often do, particularly in my nature images is use the clone and stamp brush. With that brush, I removed a branch that was between me and the female lion and showed in the original photo near her rear paw. I then added the Luminar look, Camden.

Instagram take:

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Hanging out with Mom. #caturday #lion #safari #tanzania #serengetinationalpark

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jan 31, 2020 at 10:58pm PST

 

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.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Cat.

January Squares: Grounded

I come across some interesting things while I am out walking. On this walk it was a small private airstrip:

ISO 250 f/11 24mm 1/1000 sec

These two small planes looked pretty much ready for flight. There were a few others with tarps and whatnot that looked like some prep would be needed before they took to the sky. It was a beautiful day and I really like the expanse of this original scene. I decided though to tell a different story with this particular edit:

ISO 25 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/506sec

Much more about just this one plane. The Luminar look applied to it is called Aerial Dramatic. Though when applied to this photo I think gave it a feeling of nostalgia and a hint of abandonment. I’d be curious to know if it struck you with that same feeling?

My Instagram version is here:

View this post on Instagram

Grounded. #januarylight #flight

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jan 16, 2020 at 2:13am PST

I’ve added this to Day 16 of January Squares and also to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Transport.

Cheers!

January Squares: Knowledge, A Light in the World

Work on one of my photography projects this week includes files I have from the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Books and manuscripts can serve several functions but one of these is a portal to the past. Take this for example:

ISO 320 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/17sec

It’s an illustration of an anteater found in a 17th Century Persian text called “History of the West Indies”. It’s adorable and the manuscript itself is beautiful, a real work of art. The gold tones in manuscripts like this have always reminded me of the way that I think of knowledge as light.

For this particular edit, I’ve increased the yellow and orange tones and added a vignette:

ISO 320 f/2.2 4.15mm 1/17sec

The original photo was taken with my iPhone and the edits are done in Luminar 3.

The Instagram version is here:

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Knowledge is a Light. #januarylight #library #manuscript #dublin #anteater #17thcentury

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jan 8, 2020 at 10:40pm PST

 

This is my entry to Day 9 of January Squares and also Tuesday Photo Challenge, Portal.

Cheers!

Made with Luminar: Fountain on a Hill

The Fontana dell’Acqua Paolo is sometimes just called “the big fountain” with good reason. It’s pretty big. That creates a photography challenge.  It’s also built on a hill which can make it a challenge to get a photo that looks straight. My original file looks like this:

ISO 640 f/9 1/1250sec 13mm

I’ve used the straighten function within the crop tool and the lens distortion feature in Luminar 3 to deal with that issue:

ISO 640 f/9 1/1250sec 13mm

From there I went to some more creative edits. The Luminar Look applied here is Analog Film. That made for a nice starting point, but it was a dramatic filter, too dramatic for this photo so I’ve made several changes most of which involved moving sliders down. I then added a layer with the filters golden hour, accent ai, and vignette. I’ve used all the filters sparingly. I was looking to boost the natural drama of the fountain in the late afternoon light. Feel free to let me know what you think of the outcome in the comment section below.

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. The text of these posts include the 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 other 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.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Slope.

 

 

Made with Luminar: From a Great Height

Well, this was a fun shot to get:

ISO 1000 f/10 1/100sec 29mm

It’s a shot from the top of St. Albans Cathedral. We were lucky, it had been raining earlier that morning and it started to rain again after the tour, so our timing was perfect for their tower tour. After we came back down, we did the floor tour as well. Both were really interesting and complimented each other well.  Here is my final edit of the photo:

ISO 1000 f/10 1/100sec 29mm

In Luminar a LUT called “Chrono Steel” was added at 64% and also the Golden Hour filter.

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. The text of these posts includes the 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 other 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.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Steep.

What I Am Working On: Editing the Landscape

I do a lot of photo editing and it is easy to get into the habit of using the same filters every time.  In order to encourage myself to try different things, I watch a lot of tutorial videos on Youtube. I feel free to adopt some suggestions and leave others, but I think it is important to understand that most photo editing software has lots of options and so knowing what is even available is important.  One of the files I was working on the week was this photo, taken at Mt. Snowdon in Wales in 2016:

ISO 800 f/13 1/800sec 50mm

It was a fabulous view, even if this particular file doesn’t really seem to suggest that. I was also watching this tutorial on Youtube. It’s specific to editing a landscape in Luminar which is the software I am using, but I would say that the suggestions made can be applied in other editing software as well. One of the first suggestions was to use the dehaze slider. Now that happens to be a slider I almost never use but for this file, it seemed like a really good starting place. For this edit below, I then went on to use the sky filter, the foliage enhancer, the HSL panel for luminance, and the small details slider for sharpening. The final edit was this one:

ISO 800 f/13 1/800sec 50mm

I think this edit is a pretty close representation of what I saw that day. From there I decided to do a more creative edit. This particular edit has two additional layers, the first was the Luminar look, Overlook, added with modifications and the second layer is an AI filter and vignette. Here is that version:

ISO 800 f/13 1/800sec 50mm

I like it also but will readily admit it is not what I saw. The Picfair version of it is here.

So which version is better? which do you prefer? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Back Catalog.