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:

ISO 800 f/16 170mm 1/2,000sec

My first edit was to apply the template, Fast Fix, and also crop the image just a bit:

ISO 800 f/16 170mm 1/2,000sec

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:

ISO 800 f/16 170mm 1/2,000sec

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.

Wordless Wednesday: South West Coast Path

ISO 400 f/11 11mm 1/400sec

Cheers!

Wordless Wednesday: Kinder Scout

ISO 800 10mm f/8 1/320sec

Cheers!

Monochrome Monday: Winter Walk

ISO 20 f/1.8 1/131sec 4mm

This image was shot on my iPhone. It’s a long exposure shot with the “noir” color filter. I’ve edited it in Luminar 3. A crop and my custom look that I call “Vintage Touch-Up” have been applied.

Just a fun little creation that I hope you enjoy.

Cheers!

Made With Luminar: Playing it Cool

ISO 400 f/11 1/800sec 18mm

Shot on the South West Coast Path in April 2019. I’ve used the Luminar Look, Cool Tones, set at 100% but then I added a mask, set the brush at 50% and erased the look out of part of the sky. I then set the brush to 25% and erased the look out of part of the foreground. The mask is very subtle, but sometimes it’s these little differences that are important to the overall image.

The Made with Luminar Series

This image is part of a project I am calling Made with Luminar. What the images in this series have in common is the software used to edit them, Luminar 3. As with my usual blog posts particulars of the camera settings can be found in the caption below the image. I’ll then explain what other filters and edits have been applied, often mentioning what layer and therefore order that they were applied. The text of these posts include any Luminar “Looks” that have been applied to the photo. Each look is a series of presets that are applied to the photo. Where applicable I will mention what changes I have made to any of the looks. A full explanation of looks is available here on their website, https://skylum.com/luminar/user-guides/chapter-14-working-with-luminar-looks

You can assume basic edits have been applied. My most common edits are cropping, detail enhancement, and vignette. Specific questions or thoughts on the image are welcome in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Made With Luminar: Tintagel Coast

This shot was taken near Tintagel Castle in 2019:

ISO 400 f/11 1/250sec 18mm

For the edit I was interested in cleaning it up a bit and making it pop. Nothing too crazy, but I started with a crop and removed a few birds that looked more like specks than distinct birds. I’ve added the Luminar Look, Dramatic Landscape, set to 100%. While I kept that filter at 100%, I did tone it down a bit by decreasing some of the contrast and vignette it had added. Here is the result:

ISO 400 f/11 1/250sec 18mm

The Made with Luminar Series

This image is part of a project I am calling Made with Luminar. What the images in this series have in common is the software used to edit them, Luminar 3. As with my usual blog posts particulars of the camera settings can be found in the caption below the image. I’ll then explain what other filters and edits have been applied, often mentioning what layer and therefore order that they were applied. The text of these posts include any Luminar “Looks” that have been applied to the photo. Each look is a series of presets that are applied to the photo. Where applicable I will mention what changes I have made to any of the looks. A full explanation of looks is available here on their website, https://skylum.com/luminar/user-guides/chapter-14-working-with-luminar-looks

You can assume basic edits have been applied. My most common edits are cropping, detail enhancement, and vignette. Specific questions or thoughts on the image are welcome in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Added to Lost in Translation, Pick a Word, Craggy. Picfair version is here.

Wordless Wednesday, Walking Near Croydon

ISO 250 f/11 1/400sec 27mm

Cheers!

What I Am Working On: Negative Space

Today I was working on this file from Lake Manyara National Park:

ISO 800 f/9 70mm 1/3200sec

It was a beautiful and expansive landscape. I created two versions of this file, a color and a black and white. Before I applied specific edits I started with a few general things that applied to both versions. I adjusted the shadows and highlights and the white and blacks. Then I moved on to adding Luminar Looks. I have recently downloaded a few looks that imitate Fuji film looks. For my color edit I used Fuji Classic Chrome:

ISO 800 f/9 70mm 1/3200sec

For the black and white version I used Acros +Y:

ISO 800 f/9 70mm 1/3200sec

I’ve also created my own look that I call “Vintage Touch-Up”, It adds matte, grain, and vignette filters that can then be adjusted. I applied this look to both of files. This is one of those times where I am happy with all the versions, but that might have to do with the fact that I really liked this view.

Cheers!

This post was created in response to the Lens-Artist Photo Challenge, Negative Space.