What I Am Working On: Creative Use of A Vignette

When it comes to learning how to use photo-editing software, I think YouTube can be a good source of information. There is a lot out there, plenty of videos to look through, in my opinion, that’s both the strength and weakness of YouTube. This video is an example of that, there are some tips that I will use and others that I will not. For the purpose of this blog post, I am writing about using the vignette filter as a way to isolate an object in a photo. The particular tip I am referencing is at about the ten-minute mark of the video.  I decided to experiment using this photo:

ISO 400 18mm f/11 1/50sec

This grave marker is pretty visually interesting so I would like it to stand out a bit more. The tip in the video demonstrates putting a rather pronounced vignette on your photo, then erasing the vignette on the area you would like to highlight.  My final version is this:

ISO 400 18mm f/11 1/50sec

I’m both satisfied with this and not. First, it is an easy edit, and sometimes simple techniques can be pretty powerful, so I like the underlying theory. It seems to me that this would be a more impactful editing method for subjects that are more offset than this one, so if I were to edit this file again using the technique, I would re-think the crop first and then work from there. Overall though, I have saved this video and written this post because I see this a technique that I would use.

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, One.

 

Light Burst

It was a beautiful day here yesterday and I was at the Cambridge American Cemetery. I took a lot of photos in part because the light was so interesting. In particular, I took several frames of this grave, from all different angles.  When I got home and took a look at all the variations, I decided that this one interested me the most:

ISO 400 18mm f/11 1/800sec

In my edit, I cropped it a bit first. There were some elements on the right-hand side of the frame that was a bit distracting. I also tried a crop that straightened the photo a bit but for this interpretation, I decided that I liked it a bit off kilter. I knew I wanted to create a black and white version and thought that the tilted view would work with that treatment. Here is the outcome of that:

ISO 400 18mm f/11 1/800sec

When I am out shooting, I often take photos with my iPhone as well. Here is another black and white version of the scene that I created on my phone with the help of Hipstamatic:

View this post on Instagram

Some gave all. #wwii #americanbattlemonumentscommission #cambridge

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Feb 22, 2019 at 8:31am PST

Three of the servicemen who are buried here were honored in a flypast that took place in Sheffield yesterday. A brief story and video on that are here. The story is quite moving, it is worth a few moments of your time if you are interested.

What do you think of my edit? Can you believe that bright sun, right here in England? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Added to A Photo A Week, Black & White.

Graveyard

ISO 400 18mm f/8 1/100

When I’m traipsing though the graveyard~

Just for fun.

Sometimes I find a sublime tombstone~

Like this one.

A beautiful marker, dominates its row~

Please comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Black & White.

Added to Six Word Saturday.

Picfair version here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Time

I enjoy walking through graveyards, but that was not what I was doing this past week when I saw this grave marker:

ISO 800 120mm 0ev f/11 1/125

I was walking through a garden at the time, and this grave marker just happened to be in it.  I was happy to have my longer lens with me so as not to be tempted to trample in the garden even in its off season.  I bracketed this photo and later created the HDR version that you see above.  I also used several filters in Photoshop that, while I think still look realistic, dramatically changed the photo.  Here is the original:

ISO 800 120mm 0ev f/11 1/125

You will see that I cropped the photo as well, mostly to remove the plant label, but also to get rid of some of the sky which I felt wasn’t particularly helping this photo.  I had never been to this garden, but as I was walking though I thought that it was a place I would like to come back another time. I love visiting gardens as they go through their yearly cycle of blooming and dying.  I feel the same way about graveyards, which tend to be gardens in their own right.  It might seem dark and creepy to some but to me it is the opposite.

How about you, do you have a favorite place to visit in all the seasons?  What do you think of my edits?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

HDR on a Friday

I do like HDR photography.  It can be used in a variety of ways to create some really unique images.  My photo today though is using HDR to just capture as much detail as possible:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/400

This photo was taken at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.  I just thought this was a beautiful marker.  What I wanted to capture was as much of its detail as possible.  I used a bracketed exposure on my camera.  So, I have three photos that are the same except one is lighter, one is darker, and one is in the middle.  I put these three exposures together using Photomatix.  Photomatix then offers a bunch of options and there is a lot you can tweak in the image.  For this image I am using a setting that provides detail while still looking like a standard photo.  What do you think? Feel free to comment below.

I am thinking of going back to Bellefontaine to try to get some infrared images.  I will be using an IR filter on my camera.  Do you do this type of photography?  have some tips for me? please leave them in the comments.