3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

photo editing

My Daughters Last Homecoming

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My daughter is a Senior in high school and this is the last homecoming dance, so I was a little preoccupied when taking photos before the dance. Good thing I shoot in RAW and could fix my over exposures.

Pictures before the Homecoming Dance
Pictures before the Homecoming Dance

Post production was done in Lightroom 4 where I decreased the exposure and added some warmth. I then used the adjustment brush on my daughters hair to increase the clarity in her hairstyle.

This is just one of my favorite photos from Homecoming weekend. This year is a serious of “lasts”, the last Applejack parade, the last Homecoming, the last Christmas concert, and my last graduation. It’s bittersweet, but I’m going to enjoy and soak in all these “last” moments while I can.

Photo Editing An Overcast Day in Lightroom

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For this edition of #FixitFriday photo editing I’m going to work on some of my favorite photos from last summer and in the process relive my Block Island dream trip.

My camera that year was a glorified point and shoot Fuji 1500S and I had not learned how to read histograms in camera.  I only had the option of JPS and can only dream of the possibilities if I had the RAW option. Most of the time the skies were overcast and cloudy, good when avoiding a sun burn, but I found it to be a photography challenge. The camera meter was reading the glare coming from the water and surrounding ocean. The result were photos that leaned toward the dark side, the cloudy skies were flat and drab. Although I reworked them a bit in Photoshop CS2 I still didn’t get good results.

Now that I use Adobe Lightroom  as my primary photo editing software program I have a much wider range of options with clarity, decreasing noise, saturation and tonal adjustments. I can instantly see before and after views and it is all non destructive to the original image. I love Lightroom, it is a wonderful photo editing program, every time I open an image I wasn’t quite happy with I find I can make it better even a jpg file. I can finally make a photo look like how I experienced the the scene in real life.

My goal with photo editing is realism. I’m not trying to create photo art, or make a photo look fake or something it wasn’t. The human eye can interpret a scene a the beach with so much more clarity and detail than a camera. Sometimes it takes some post production here and there with photography to return the photograph into an accurate depiction of reality.

Photo editing in Lightroom 4
Lightroom 4 screen shot (click for larger image)

I always shot on aperture priority and as a result many of my images were underexposed. These dark images took more editing than just increasing the exposure, I opened up the shadows, and eliminated the camera noise in the Lightroom detail option by moving the noise slider to the right.

On the left side of the Adobe Lightroom screen shot there are User Presets. Presets are saved adjustments you can use again for an image of the same type. For example overexposed images in bright sun is called “Dim the Summer  Sun” or “Bright and Sharp” for an underexposed image. Once a preset is saved it can adjusted and resaved under the same name. Presets save time when you have a batch of images under the same lighting that require the same adjustment.

Below is the straight out of camera shot and the resulting end photo in Lightroom.

SOOC (straight out of camera)
SOOC (straight out of camera)

Edited version, what do you think?

Edited Block Island photo in Lightroom 4
Edited Block Island photo in Lightroom 4

What is the Best Program For Editing Photos?

If you were to ask me what my favorite photo editing program is I would have to say Lightroom. There are many features I love about the program but my favorite is Lightrooms high dynamic range in opening up shadows and not blowing out my highlights. I also love the ability to edit a batch of photos in seconds with the settings from my previous photo.

But I still use Photoshop for my graphic designs involving text and layers. Adobe has a wonderful subscription program where for only $10 per month you can use both Photoshop and Lightroom creative Cloud all you want with no obligation.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (Photoshop CC + Lightroom) [Digital Membership]Adobe Photoshop Elements 13The Photoshop Workbook: Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and TechniquesPhotoshop Elements 13 For Dummies (For Dummies Series)

 

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Photo Friday: Lilly Pads in Lightroom

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Lightroom 4  is my new friend and I’m pulling out old photos that needed some more work. I used to have a feature Photoshop Friday, but it’s now named Photo Friday. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of photos to “fix” or improve. I have thousands on my hard drive.

Pond Lilies in Summer
Pond Lilies in Summer

I love how the result and am even further excited about being able to decrease the jpg noise from my old Fuji Fine Pix S1500 camera. My old camera took good pictures, and I pushed the limit with it, but now I’m using a Canon Rebel shooting  RAW and I can see a huge difference.  This is one setting I’m putting into my presets.

Below is the straight out the camera photo. Look for yourself the difference.

Pond Lilies in Summer SOOC
Pond Lilies in Summer SOOC

Click on the image below to see the larger tutorial Lightroom4 screen.

Decreasing noise in Lightroom 4
Decreasing noise in Lightroom 4 (click on image for larger view)
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Using Lightroom 4: Black and White Conversion

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Using Lightroom to Create Black & White Images

I am a person who sees in color and therefore my photographs are in color, but sometimes color is distracting and facial expressions and emotion get lost in the “clutter”. Black and white photography highlights the face, the eyes and expressive personalities. It doesn’t just work for people, but black and white photography works for animals as well.

Take for example this gorilla from the Omaha Zoo.

Gorilla at the Omaha Zoo
Gorilla at the Omaha Zoo

I’ve seen some amazing black and white photographs on the photography section of the WordPress blog.  So, I thought I would try my hand at using Adobe Lightroom to see if I could achieve the same thing. I love Adobe Lightroom, it’s easy to learn and no matter how many times you edit your photo you can go back to the original without worrying about losing data.

Stand Alone Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6 Program | PC/Mac Disc$10/month Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (Photoshop CC + Lightroom) subscription

It’s not as simple as clicking the black and white button. I also adjusted some of the underlying color tones and increased the clarity to bring out the details and shadows.

Black and White Lightroom Example
Click for bigger image and more detail

This is a time I wish my WordPress template was wider for images. If you click on the image you can see some of the changes in a bigger format.

The original black and white threw too many shadows around his eyes, but the adjustment lighten brush solved that problem.  I also used the adjustment brush to sharpen his nose, darken highlights in the fur and increase the clarity in the creases. There really was a lot I did to this image, so much so I couldn’t list them all.

Many photographers learn by watching YouTube videos but sometimes there is nothing like settling down with a book for inspiration. If you have a friend who loves photography and is creative these make great Christmas or birthday gifts.

Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised EditionThe Art of Black and White Photography: Techniques for Creating Superb Images in a Digital Workflow

Photo info: This gorilla lives at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, it’s one of my favorite places to visit.  I posted earlier about the Gorilla exhibit, give it a read, it’s pretty amazing. If anyone visits Omaha contact me and I’ll be more than glad to take you on a tour.

Black and White Photography Hints and Tips

5 digital photography tips only the pros know

Black-and-white photography is a quick way to make a classy portrait photo or atmospheric cityscape. However, the black-and-white mode on your camera is not the way to do it. In that mode, the camera sensor only captures a fraction of the information …

Kim Komando: 5 digital photography tips from the pros

The major don’t of black-and-white photography. Black-and-white photography is a quick way to make a classy portrait photo or atmospheric cityscape. However, the black-and-white mode on your camera is not the way to do it. In that mode, the camera …

Black And White Photography Tips – The SITS Girls

Learn how to capture emotion, texture, light, shadows, and more with these black and white photography tips.

Black and white photography – Digital Camera World

In this black and white photography tutorial you’ll learn best camera settings, subjects and monochrome conversion methods for your photo editing software.

4 Tips to Help you Decide Between Black and White or Color

Half Color. There are many differing opinions when it comes to black and white photography. Some photographers love it, and shoot black and white exclusively, while other photographers absolutely shun the notion and shoot only in color.

Save On Gas, Use Horsepower

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I think gas prices are a little high when the department of roads starts using horsepower the sides of the road. This is a sight you don’t see very often, a team of horses mowing the grader ditches. I know the Nebraska state budget isn’t in that dire of straits, but I wonder if gas prices have just gone up a little too much?

Draft Horses (SOOC)
Draft Horses (SOOC)

My husband and I spotted these Belgian mares north of Lincoln Nebraska mowing the grass and also saw them four days later, raking the same ditch to turn the hay. They do not belong to the state of Nebraska, nor are they doing the county’s job of maintenance. Of course I had my camera with me, you never know when you will find a photo opportunity, and talked to the farmer. They had just mowed over two miles of grass and would go back in a few days to bale the hay. He believes that horses need to be exercised on a regular basis, especially draft horses, and what better way to do this than put them to work. 

 I don’t remember their names, but they are full sisters, one a seven year old and the other other eleven.

Team of Belgians Mowing
Team of Belgians Mowing

Edits were done in Lightroom 4 with a decrease in exposure, increase in clarity and opening up shadows on the horses to bring out detail. The sky was still washed out so I used the adjustment brush and decreased the exposure in the sky to get a better balanced image. Voilia! Clouds appeared.

 

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