April Squares: Top Shots, Musée d’Orsay

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/319sec 4.2mm

Day 14, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: February 14, 2018. Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France. Before you go thinking, how romantic Paris on Valentine’s Day! I’ll let you know that it was over a term break. School scheduling dominated our travel dates while living in England. Also, just in case you get the wrong idea from this photo’s location, I know almost nothing about art other than if I like a certain work or not. Musée d’Orsay ended up being my favorite overall art museum in Europe. Bonus, the building itself is stunning.

Thoughts on the Edit: The original file had very little color, however I boosted what was there and then used the detail enhancer slider to boost the small details. I then added a custom look that I had created that replicates a black and white pinhole camera. I’ve found that for certain black and white edits, exaggerating things like color first before converting to black and white can make for a very nice final edit, even if the color edit on its own seems gaudy.

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!

Wordless Wednesday: Paris

 

ISO 200 22mm f/11 1/125sec

Added to: A Photo a Week Challenge: Street Lights.

Thursday Doors: Jour et Nuit

Day and Night, that’s the translation of the little sign next to these doors in Paris. They are the doors you can’t park in front of, something I thought Norm who runs the Thursday Doors community would appreciate, so I took the photo:

ISO 200 22mm f/13 1/30sec

When I was looking at the scene, I was also thinking about an upcoming selective color challenge. The blue sky reflected in the windows, I thought that would be fun to accentuate by desaturating the image but leaving the blue:

ISO 200 22mm f/13 1/30sec

It turns out that I didn’t want to leave the red out either. This edited version which leaves in the red and blue gives the photo a bit of a jewel-toned feel that appeals to me.  When the original image was sitting waiting to be edited, I also thought I would crop it using the straighten feature. I gave that a try and was surprised at how much I did not like the straightened version. So, my final edit is cropped but not straightened.

Have you had that happen to you, an edit you think is going to be straightforward and an obvious choice backfires on you? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Out of this World

While I was in Paris I saw a lot of photos showing the Eiffel Tower under construction. These days it comes to mind as part of the Paris landscape but to folks in 1889, it must have seemed like something from out of this world. Honestly, I don’t think it is all that pretty but I do find it pretty unique:

ISO 200 10mm f/11 1/125

That is my edited version, the original is below.

ISO 200 10mm f/11 1/125

I took plenty of photos near the tower, but this is the angle that appealed to me the most. I liked the cloudless, brilliant sky. As it was February, the shots that include more of the garden are a bit dull, since it was cold and had been overly rainy in Paris the few weeks before this photo was taken.

The edited version has a film filter on it. I wanted to keep the jeweled look of the sky but mute the overall tones in the photo. Doing this also took some of the rust off the tower. The rust was part of the reason my youngest was pretty disappointed in the Eiffel Tower.  I documented her reaction on Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

My youngest upon seeing the #eiffeltower #spoileralert she liked the #arcdetriomphe better #paris #travel

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Feb 16, 2018 at 9:42am PST

It turns out she had seen too many Photoshopped versions online, so the real thing was a bit of a letdown.

As you can tell from this post, I am just adding to that problem. Has that ever happened to you, you see photos online of a place that looks out of this world and then when you see it in person you can’t help but feel a bit, meh? Do you like my not-true-to-life version?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sweet

Just imagine, a sunny day in February in Paris, pretty sweet, particularly if you consider the lousy weather they have had there lately. But there I was, on a beautiful day:

ISO 200 15mm f/14 1/125

This color version is fairly close to the scene as shot.  I have cropped it a bit. When I was editing I was interested in seeing a black and white version:

ISO 200 15mm f/14 1/125

And also a slightly different take on the color tones:

ISO 200 15mm f/14 1/125

I’m not sure I have a favorite here. The first I like because it is very close to the view I saw, including the vibrant blue sky. I like the black and white version because it adds a feeling of timelessness to the image. The bottom color version I like the way the gold and blue tones work together.

Do you have a favorite version of these three? I’d appreciate your thoughts in the comments below.

Cheers!