Cheers!
Wordless Wednesday, Prague in Winter
Category Archives: Canon 50D
Wordless Wednesday: Highland Cow
Cheers!
April Squares: Bright Spots
For the April Squares challenge this month, Becky has chosen the theme “Bright”. My entries this month will all be called Bright Spots. My photos in this series are selected from a project I am currently working on. I have received a digital photo frame as a gift, and I have been going through my archives for photos to include. What fun it has been to do that, a bright spot in my life for sure. I’ll include a bit about each photo entry. Here is today’s entry:
This original file was taken in Zion National Park several years ago at sunrise.
The first edit included a crop and using the erase tool to take care of some visible dust spots:
Another first edit was to change the camera profile. Here is a screen shot of where that change can be made in Luminar AI:
The check indicates that it was set to Luminar Default, but I switched it to Camera Landscape which gave the colors a bit more of a rich feel. I also created a layer mask and have increase the exposure and shadows in the foreground only. I think it is important to note that I set that mask to 20% opacity in the mid-ground and 50% in the closest part of the image. I’m attempting to bring back some but not all detail. The focus of this photo is really intended to be that sunburst.
I really also wanted to create a square version as I think this scene is well suited to that:
I’m having a bit of fun with the color here as well by adding a LUT called, Analog look 5, which is basically a film filter.
I like these various edits, but each for a different reason. Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.
Cheers!
Added to Day 27 of April Squares.
April Squares, Bright Spots
For the April Squares challenge this month, Becky has chosen the theme “Bright”. My entries this month will all be called Bright Spots. My photos in this series are selected from a project I am currently working on. I have received a digital photo frame as a gift, and I have been going through my archives for photos to include. What fun it has been to do that, a bright spot in my life for sure. I’ll include a bit about each photo entry. Here is today’s entry:
On the drive between Bryce and Zion National Parks, I spotted this:
For a fun square edit I’ve added the Template, Sunset, set at 80%. I then added a light leaks texture:
Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.
Added to Day 20 of April Squares.
Cheers!
April Squares: Bright Spots
For the April Squares challenge this month, Becky has chosen the theme “Bright”. My entries this month will all be called Bright Spots. My photos in this series are selected from a project I am currently working on. I have received a digital photo frame as a gift, and I have been going through my archives for photos to include. What fun it has been to do that, a bright spot in my life for sure. I’ll include a bit about each photo entry. Here is today’s entry:
Who can resist a cute prairie dog? Answer: A lot of people who consider them pest.
They are cute though:
This original image I’ll be working with to enter in to my photography club’s photo contest in the nature category. Those edits will be require that I not use many filters, so first I decided to create a fun square edit:
This edit has the Luminar template, Faded, added to it. I then added a canvas texture set to 20%. While this will not be appropriate for my camera club, I think it is fun. Your thoughts are welcome below.
Cheers!
Added to Day 16 of Bright Squares.
Wordless Wednesday: Hey There
Cheers!
April Squares: Bright Spots
For the April Squares challenge this month, Becky has chosen the theme “Bright”. My entries this month will all be called Bright Spots. My photos in this series are selected from a project I am currently working on. I have received a digital photo frame as a gift, and I have been going through my archives for photos to include. What fun it has been to do that, a bright spot in my life for sure. I’ll include a bit about each photo entry. Here is today’s entry:
This original image, is quite nice but obviously underexposed:
My first edit was to apply the template, Fast Fix, and also crop the image just a bit:
I’m happy with this edit to go in the digital photo frame I am working on, but I was curious about creating a different version with a square crop:
It brings into focus just part of the landscape, so has a different feel than the original crop. I’ve also added a vignette. Your thoughts on these edits are welcome below.
Cheers!
Added to Day 13 of the Bright Squares challenge.
April Squares: Bright Spots
For the April Squares challenge this month, Becky has chosen the theme “Bright”. My entries this month will all be called Bright Spots. My photos in this series are selected from a project I am currently working on. I have received a digital photo frame as a gift, and I have been going through my archives for photos to include. What fun it has been to do that, a bright spot in my life for sure. I’ll include a bit about each photo entry. Here is today’s entry:
My original file looked like this:
For the square edit, I have added the LUT, Bakersfield, and also a vignette:
I chose that LUT because it was very similar to the tones of the original image but emphasized the soft feel of the scene. The crop took care of the distracting wire.
Added to Day 8 of the April Squares challenge.
Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.
Cheers!
April Square: Bright Spots
For the April Squares challenge this month, Becky has chosen the theme “Bright”. My entries this month will all be called Bright Spots. My photos in this series are selected from a project I am currently working on. I have received a digital photo frame as a gift, and I have been going through my archives for photos to include. What fun it has been to do that, a bright spot in my life for sure. I’ll include a bit about each photo entry. Here is today’s entry:
Taken in August of 2010 on a whale watching trip off the Bay of Fundy. This photo has the Luminar AI template, Cold Currents added to it. Your thoughts are welcome below.
Part of April Squares, Bright.
Cheers!
What I Am Working On: Revisiting Old Photos
This post touches on a few things that I think are important to consider when it comes to post-processing. The first is that as you gain more experience, your editing skills and knowledge base will improve. Because I think this is true, I would argue this is a reason you should keep one original file in its best available format of most of your photos. This is an example of this:
This was shot in October 2011. Not only was my Canon 50D relatively new to me, it was also my first DSLR, had a kit lens, and my knowledge of photo editing software was just in its infancy.
The photo was shot in the RAW format though, which means there is a lot of information in the file, I just needed to learn how to extract it. Now, almost a decade later, I know right off the bat there are at least three simple starting point fixes. The first is adjusting the white balance using the eyedropper tool. The second is to increase the exposure and lighten the shadows. Here is a screenshot with those edits in place:
Another thing I have learned about photo editing is that it really does open up a lot of possibilities and it’s often fun to play around and come up with something that is both creative and still aesthetically pleasing. In this case, I made a black and white image of a subject that is more frequently shown in color and I also created a custom crop:
Neither of these changes would work on every photo I edit, but I would argue that they do work here. I’m glad I kept this file all those years. Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.
Added to CBWC, Flight.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog: Volume 2 