April Squares: Top Shots, Luxembourg American Cemetery

ISO 320 f/11 1/320sec 18mm

Day 23, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: May 28, 2019. Taken at Luxembourg American Cemetery maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Thoughts on the Edit: All the military cemeteries I have visited over the last four years have been beautifully maintained, which is why in this edit, I have left a workers cart in the background. The staff are always busy working in the background making these places beautiful places for reflection. I’ve added the Luminar Look, Soft Colors, to this file, removing certain effects that were a bit too strong for this photo.

April Squares, an Explanation:

When Becky announced that the April Squares theme was going to be “top”, I thought it over and then sent her a message, then pitched my idea. She was open to my theme within the theme and the result is my response to the April Squares challenge.

I move a lot and I have a move pending. I’ve lived here in England for about four years and will be heading to the United States. Exact dates to be determined, given the current world situation, details have yet to be worked out. My April Squares is a “top shots” reflection on the last four years. Each square represents some moment or place that was meaningful to me. They are in chronological order moving forward in time. I’m attempting to post every day. All photos will be edited in Luminar 3. I hope you enjoy following along, I’ve enjoyed the process of creating. Your comments and thoughts are welcome below.

Cheers!

What I Am Working On: Two Tools, One Task

I was working on this file:

ISO 320 f/11 1/320sec 24mm

I had done a few steps of basic editing when I saw the flag peeking out from behind the grave marker. Interesting how sometimes details like this can be missed at first. I wanted to remove it from my final edit. The really good news is that removing objects from photos has gotten easier and much more natural-looking over the years. In this case, I used both the erase and clone and stamp tools in Luminar. I find the erase tool is good for removal and clone and stamp works well for the clean up of any mess the eraser leaves behind. I would also suggest that you do work like this on the biggest screen you have and make use of the zoom tool as well so that you can get a really good look at what you are doing. The final edit is this one:

ISO 320 f/11 1/320sec 24mm

This final edit has the Luminar Look, Camden Fade, applied to it. The photo was shot at Luxembourg American Cemetery. It is a beautiful spot, a good place to reflect on the sacrifices of those who fought in World War II. Your thoughts on the edit are welcome below. This post was inspired by the Lens-Artist Photo Challenge, Reflections.

Cheers!

January Squares: A Light for Your Path

This photo was taken on a visit to the Luxembourg American Cemetery:

ISO 320 f/11 18mm 1/1250sec

I liked this image as a color image, but I was interested in making alterations to the color as a way of making the photo more impactful. This photo was shot with my Canon 80D which means that there is a lot of data there to work with. The edits I did are in Luminar:

ISO 320 f/11 18mm 1/1250sec

I started with the crop. This took a bit of fiddling, there were several decisions to be made in terms of what to include or exclude from this edit. I’ve then applied a look called Blue Sky, which is mostly black and white except for muted blue tones. In order to bring the gold back into the photo, I applied a mask and painted just the front of the grave marker. I’ll also mention that I did not apply a vignette to this particular edit which is unusual for me.

The Instagram version is here:

View this post on Instagram

For those who light the path for others by their example. #medalofhonor #wwii #lestweforget #luxembourg

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jan 19, 2020 at 10:33pm PST

Added to January Squares, Day 20. I’ve also chosen the American holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to post this photo as a nod to choosing to do the right thing and to stand for others even at great personal cost.

Cheers!