What I Am Working On: Using a Brush

Among my files that I am working on this week is this one:

ISO 1000 f/11 1/25sec 55mm

This qualifies as a snapshot. I had just a moment to catch the “who me?” expression on the bird’s face just as he was standing near the warning sign. What I wanted to do was make the story more front and center. A crop was an obvious choice. I thought also I might like this in black and white.  The edit is here:

ISO 1000 f/11 1/25sec 55mm

I’ll call this a black and white with a cheat. I did a layer with my initial edits like the crop and some clarity. Then I did another layer with a the black and white edits. This particular black and white is done with a yellow filter, that ended up being the interpretation that I prefered. Then I added a final layer. I took a brush to that layer, made it the size of the bird’s eye and set the opacity to 35%. I was erasing just a bit off the black and white layer, just on the eye. So the final edit has a hint of color to the bird’s eye. I use the brush fairly regularly in my editing process. I don’t always think about setting its opacity, but that is a small but impactful way to make use of the tool. My final edit was a vignette that is centered on the eye, further accenting the look the bird was giving me.

What do you think of the final image, does the story pop more? Do you like the touch of color? Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge, Signs.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Read the Sign and it will be Fine

ISO 160 4.15mm f/2.2 1/35sec

 

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Beware of#dog But it’s not what you might think. #thingsiseewhilewalking #sundayvibes

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Oct 14, 2018 at 6:07am PDT

 

A part of Wordless Wednesday and One Word Sunday, Humour.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Follow the Signs

Sometimes when you are out hiking trial markers are very helpful, other times less so:

ISO 125 4mm f/2.8 1/120

I took this photo over the summer while on a backpacking trail at Hawn State Park in Missouri.  When we are carrying all the stuff needed for backpacking I tend to just carry my phone and use the camera that it has.  In this case, that was all I needed, just a snapshot to show a funny sign.

Signing in can be very important when it comes to backpacking.  We also stop and register at the trailhead when we will be gone for a few days:

ISO 80 4mm f/2.8 1/24

Fo this photo, which was also taken with my phone, I have edited it using a Iris-blur filter in Photoshop.  This obscures the details of the people signing in and I have set the focus point on the act of signing in.

When out on the trail sometimes it is difficult to find creatures like this frog, because they are attempting to give no sign of their presence:

ISO 64 4mm f/2.8 1/24

Even sharpened a bit in Photoshop, this photo is still a bit blurry and is a situation where I wish I had one of my more sophisticated cameras with me.  This frog was beautifully blended with the background, and my camera phone really doesn’t do him justice.

How do you decided which camera to take on a trip? For me, a lot of that comes down to weight and how much else I am going to be carrying.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

According to these signs, we are in the middle of World War II:

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/20

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/13

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/20

These signs are taken from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago where they have a German submarine, a U-505, on display.  This exhibit was really interesting, and I would highly recommend it.  I thought it was going to take us a half hour to walk through, it ended up taking closer to two.

Getting the photos of these signs was tough, the lighting was pretty dim overall, but then there were bright lights on the posters.  I used my lowest f-stop setting to let in as much light as possible, so f/1.8.  I also increased my ISO to 800.  The shutter speeds used were still pretty slow, so I braced myself against the wall to be as still as possible.  Looking at the photos now, I am thinking that I should have tried the ISO a little higher to see if I could get a faster shutter speed.

This post was written in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge at WordPress.  The theme this week is: The Sign Says.

Your comments are most welcome below.

Cheers!