What I Am Working On: Subtle Edits

This photo was taken on July 24, 2016. A lovely summer day at the White Cliffs of Dover:

ISO 160 f/6.3 1/600sec 50mm

I pulled it out to edit it this morning. I love this landscape, I find it timeless and calming. I wanted to hang on to those feelings when it came to the edit. What I find interesting is that sometimes subtle edits can be pretty complex behind the scenes. My final edit below has six layers. Separating out edits onto different layers is something that I do frequently particularly with photos like this. The logic behind that being that if there is a particular piece of editing, say the clarity, that was working but now isn’t in combination with other edits applied, it is easier to go back and make that single adjustment if it’s on its own layer. I’ve added the Luminar Look, Touch of Gold Faded, onto this file.  I liked the idea of that particular look, but it was too strong for this particular image so I altered the sliders within that look to something more subtle. That is the beauty of presets, they can be a really helpful starting point.

The edited version:

ISO 160 f/6.3 1/600sec 50mm

Your thoughts or questions are welcome below.

Added to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, All Wet.

Cheers!

April Squares: Top Shots, Snowdrops

ISO 250 f/11 0.1sec 27mm

Day 30, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: January 30, 2020. Anglesey Abbey a National Trust site with much to see. This particular shot was taken on a visit where I had secured myself a spot of a behind the scenes tour of their snowdrop collection. It was a great tour that I would highly recommend.

Thoughts on the Edit: Luminar Look, Retro Film, added.

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!

April Squares: Top Shots, Wicken Fen Nature Reserve

 

ISO 500 f/11 1/1250sec 20mm

Day 24, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: July 11, 2019. Wicken Fen Nature Reserve. This windmill is on wooden boardwalk path not far from the visitor’s center. If you visit the reserve, take the time to go on a walk a bit further afield, it’s a beautiful reserve teeming with wildlife.

Thoughts on the Edit: I’ve added the Luminar Look, Intersection, at 64%. I chose this particular file to edit because the original exposure was really quite bad, but I had shot in RAW format, so there was plenty of wiggle room on the edit.

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!

April Squares: Top Shots, Pigs in a Pile

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/358sec 4.2mm

Day 8, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: September 24, 2017. Wimpole Estate and Farm. Yesterday I mentioned English Heritage, up today, National Trust.  In addition to a house, Wimpole also has a farm and plenty of open space. This photo was taken on a visit where they were hosting a 1940’s weekend.

Thoughts on the Edit: The photo has the Luminar Look, Elegant, applied at 64%. The full photo includes the mother pig sleeping nearby, although she is cropped out for this interpretation.

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 A View

This photo was taken from a window of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall:

ISO 400 f/11 18mm 1/320 sec

Of all the castle’s we have been through, this was the one I could imagine living in. Believe it or not, it actually felt kind of homey to me, usually, I’m not a fan of a huge fan of castles other than to look through them.  It helped that it was a beautiful day. Really not typical British weather. I thought this terraced garden was quite beautiful too. When it came to editing though, I wanted to tone the image down a bit:

ISO 400 f/11 18mm 1/320 sec

The first step towards that was to drop the highlights, the whites and the blacks. I’ve added a custom preset look as well. It’s my homemade variation on a vintage look. I liked the effect it had on the green and blue tones in the image. The process of creating the vintage look I wrote about in this post.

This post was written as a response to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, A Room with a View. Your comments and questions are welcome below.

Cheers!

 

Seals

Although my 70-200mm lens in a bit heavy, there are several reasons why I love it. One is the opportunity to get a close shot of nature with minimum disruption to my wild subjects, in this case, the seals near Blakeney Point. There are two types of seals in the area, this first photo is of a Grey Seal:

ISO 1250 195mm f/16 1/500 sec

Here is the original shot.

ISO 1250 195mm f/16 1/500 sec

This next photo is of the Common Seal:

ISO 1250 170mm f/16 1/640sec

Here is the original of that shot:

ISO 1250 170mm f/16 1/640sec

These photos were taken from a boat and my lens was set at 195mm and 170mm for the photos. In addition to having a long lens another trick to making the seals look closer than they were is to crop the images.  In the case of the first photo, the crop is fairly small. I didn’t want to lose the shore or too much of the water as I thought they were important parts of the photo. I was more aggressive with the second photo in a couple of ways. The first is the crop, I’ve removed the blood-streaked seal completely. Secondly, I have changed the tone of the photo completely. While I warmed the first photo a bit, for this second one I wanted to change it completely, make it look like I had taken the shot in completely different light conditions. It’s a different look, but you still can tell how well these seals blend with their surroundings.

What do you think of my photos and their edits? Do you have a favorite? Feel free to leave a comment below.

A variation of that first image made it into my Instagram feed:

View this post on Instagram

A great way to start off long summer days? Watching #seals come and go from #Blakeney Nature Reserve #NTchallenge @nationaltrust

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jun 23, 2018 at 11:56pm PDT

Picfair: Grey Seal and Common Seal

Added to Travel With Intent: Afar and Thursday Special: Marine.

Cheers!

 

Thursday Doors: Secret Garden, Secret Door

I was enjoying a day out at Buckland Abbey and came across this lovely door:

ISO 250 50mm 1/200 f/8.0

It’s an entrance to a secret garden that is on the grounds.  Beautiful, but not really easy to photograph, lots of dark shadows.  Here is one of the original shots:

ISO 250 50mm 1/200 f/8.0

The color of the flowers in the original is lovely but a bit overpowering. As for the dark shadows, I decided to go ahead and make friends with that element of the photo.  I was working in Photoshop here, but used the add-on Analog Efex Pro as a starting point.  I ended up liking a filter that had a bit a blue tone to it.  I also straightened the photo.

I posted an Instagram version here:

View this post on Instagram

From the beautiful #gardens at #bucklandabbey @nationaltrust

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jun 29, 2017 at 7:39am PDT

and have the full-size original in my Picfair portfolio.

While I often edit to make a photo look more like the actual scene, in this case I liked the darker tones. I think it makes the photo a bit more mellow and serene.  Has this ever happened to you, an element of an original photo that you find bothersome ends up being its strength?  Do you like the darker tones of this image? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Cheers!

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Local

If you follow this blog you know that I moved over the summer. Again. I move a lot. So I wouldn’t say that I really have experienced being a local. What I like about moving though is the chance to act like a local in a lot of different places. And it’s this faking being a local that brought me to this kitchen:

ISO 800 4.3mm f/2.7 1/800

This nice little kitchen set-up was at Anglesey Abbey which is a National Trust property.  We joined National Trust when we arrived here in England with the thought that we would spend a lot of the next year visiting different sites then the next year we would join English Heritage and base our travels on their properties. A quick look at the two websites will tell you that I’m in trouble, and may have to stay in England a bit longer than anticipated to get through visiting all the places I would like to see.  I’m also thinking I may have to have a membership at both.

But that’s not what I was thinking when I took the original photo of this kitchen:

ISO 800 4.3mm f/2.7 1/800

I was thinking, you could visit England and easily not visit this particular place.  You’d be missing something, but honestly, there are so many more well knowns spots that you’d probably visit instead.  To me a place like this is what you visit when you are a local.

When I walked into the kitchen and saw this set up I immediately thought of the film filter I was going to use. I had an idea of what I wanted the final Picfair version to look like. I knew what color cast I wanted and the grain and vignette I was going to add.  Those things I did in Lightroom.  I also removed a few spots on the wall, counter, and teacup.  I used the spot healing brush in Photoshop to do that.  I know Lightroom has healing brushes, but I just prefer the result when I use the ones in Photoshop.

What do you think of the edit? it does change the feel of the photo quite a bit I think. Are there places in your local area that you feel like might be missed by tourists?  Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Edge

I was walking the grounds at Wimpole Estate this past weekend and took this photo of the gardens that are behind the house:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/1700

While I think it is pretty, the word that comes to mind for this scene is ostentatious.  I can’t help feeling that part of the reason for the estate was to show off wealth.  The edges in this garden though, were perfect.  You might notice that there was no one walking in the gardens.  That is actually a result of editing.  Here is the original:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/1700

There are two children running around there.  I removed them using a combination of the spot healing brush, the healing brush and the clone stamp.  Why did I bother you might ask? The answer would be because I could.  I don’t usually remove people from my photos and I thought this would be an excellent chance to practice.  I also made some slight adjustments to the overall photo, the original just felt a little too bright and had a little too much contrast. Those edits I made in Lightroom. I increased the tone is the shadows, desaturated the yellows, and bumped up the hue of the greens.  One edit that I tried and then discarded was putting a graduated filter on the photo.  I ended up not liking what that filter did to the tone of this particular photo.

How do you feel about removing items or people from photos?  Let me know what you think of my attempt. I have to admit it makes me a bit uneasy.  Feel free to leave your thoughts on this type of editing below.  If you have a favorite technique for removal and have blogged about it, or have written about why you do or do not do this type of editing, feel free to leave a link to your post.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Mirror

When I sit down to edit photos, the actual editing is usually not the first step.  Chances are that I have been thinking about the photo for awhile. It is my habit to flip through my photos after I have downloaded them and then go and do something else before starting the process.  I find it helpful to be thinking about the photos before the actual editing starts:

ISO 400 50mm f/18 1/200

I find that the first thing I think about is if I want the photo to mirror what I saw or if it will be some other interpretation of the scene.  In this case because what drew me to take the photo in the first place was the way that this insect was similar to the flower, I decided to edit keeping the photo true to the original. I cropped the photo, sharpened it, and put a vignette on it to darken the edges.  For comparison here is the original version:

ISO 400 50mm f/18 1/200

In my mind, this type of editing is for clarity.  It is my hope to bring out the details of what I saw in the scene, a reflection of the reality of that moment.  The steps I described above are the steps I usually take when clarity is my intent.

Do you have a set way of editing for a certain effect?  Do you think the steps I took helped clarify the image? Do they make the image more appealing to you?  Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!