Les Fleurs

Spring is here- so I’m continuing on with flowers today. Here is a lensbaby daisy photo in black and white. I recently updated Lightroom and decided to use one of the new “artistic profiles” for this image. I’m not thrilled with where they have placed these in the adjustment panel (or even that they are IN the panel. . .), but I do like the improved ability to preview changes- and also adding Dehaze to the basic panel (where it belongs!).

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Fall Color in Black and White

I went out with Lonnie for a walk in Watson Woods in order to take photos for an assignment for my photo group. The fall colors were beautiful- just what I was looking for in my image. I’ve been limiting my computer (and iPhone) time due to symptoms in my arm, elbow, and shoulder from overuse, so I decided to limit my editing time to 10-20 minute blocks, rather than my usual several hours to several days per image (that combined with genealogy is what caused this problem in the first place). I did a lot in Lightroom, including using my Camera Vivid preset (thank you, Carol!), so that it was already quite saturated when I went to Photoshop. The edits I did after that seemed to increase the saturation even more, so then I applied an inverted image layer at low opacity (thanks to what I’ve learned in my photo group and to Blake Rudis, who developed this color correction process) to take out some of the yellows and oranges. When I brought it brought it back into Lightroom, I wondered what it would look like in black and white- and I found I liked that version even better! I think I must have been inspired by my friend, Carol again, who also turned a fall color photo to black and white. Rule breakers!

I took the photo to begin with because the girl reminded me of Caitlin, my daughter. And now in black and white it seems to have  a spooky feeling- which makes me think of Stranger Things, which we have been binge-watching on Netflix. Scary!

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Back to the blur. . .

The last few months, I’ve found myself missing blur and soft focus.  As a result, my Lensbaby Velvet 56 has been on my camera for the last week, and I’m going to put the Edge 80 (my fave!) on there next. Manual focus is always a challenge, but I find taking soft and dreamy photos is my comfort zone. I love the blur!

 

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Cloud Week 3

Here is my current favorite cloud photo. I captured this one through the car window as we were driving to Moab; I think we were already in Utah by this point. It reminds me of a giant flying saucer hovering over the road. Can you tell I was a child in the 1950’s?

 

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Indecisive

I sometimes get bored editing landscapes- a little clarity and contrast, maybe a little vibrance, some dodging and burning, some sharpening- and done.  Since joining the photo group, I’ve tended to use Nik Color Efex Pro or sometimes Silver Efex (both photoshop plug-ins) to edit my landscapes – because that’s what they all use in class. Now I am trying to use Luminar, because Google, who bought the program, is no longer supporting or updating the older programs. And we all use the TK Actions panel as well.

I decided to try doing a black and white in Luminar- but I ended up having to do a lot more more afterward in Photoshop, because I couldn’t figure out how to get the look I wanted.  And when I was done getting the look, I decided I really wanted a color image after all.

Here is the black and white, edited in Lightroom, Luminar, and Photoshop. This was taken in the Matanuska Valley in Alaska.

And here is another view from a slightly different angle (and with a different focal length) of the same scene, edited mostly in Lightroom, with just a little work in Photoshop.

Sometimes you CAN have it both ways!

And now that I see them together, I think I like the black and white better after all. Maybe.

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I think his name was John. . .

When we visited Yarnell with Joan and Rudy last week, Rudy spent some time talking to and photographing this delightful gentleman outside a local eatery. I snapped a quick shot and went inside, because I was hungry. Rudy ended up with a wonderful portrait, and I got this candid shot.

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