Sunny smiles

Before and After

Here are some before and after edits I am doing for a friend, just for some extra practice.  The first I cropped, used some filtering to take the redness out of the skin, and cloned the blanket to fill the frame.  For the second I did a levels and curves adjustment to bring more light to her face and reduce the shadowing, and of course took the opportunity to convert to B&W as well.  I also did a little eye pop to bring more life to her eyes.  For the last one, I cropped in for rule of thirds (eyeballed it), and hue/saturation adjustment to pop the colors a little, and cloned out a few distracting things in the landscape.  Overall got some more practice and got to try out some techniques.  What do you think?

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

After B&W:

Before:

After:

T

Backyard Flora

Simmerz

I found this super cute photo of Simba from when he was an 8 week old kitten!  This was taken five years ago, hard to believe.  My edit was very simple.  Just added a screen layer at 100% opacity to brighten it up a bit.  Then I did a nice B&W conversion using gradient map and brightness/contrast layers and a curves adjustment.   If only he worked on being this cute now and not so annoying!!!

Original:

Edit:

B&W:

More Lilacs

Teagan & Daddy @ the parade

& Teagan and I at the Lilac Festival Parade!

Before and After

I always loved this picture of Teagan.  She was three months old when I took it.  It was a little too shadowy and a little too pink, so I tried some adjustments.  I ended up liking a slightly more washed out, vintage look to the photo, so here is the final result.  Did a screen layer to lighten, and a photo filter layer in green applied only to her face to remove some of the pink, and then a hue/saturation adjustment layer where I desaturated the master channel.   A little USM, brightened the eyes and voila!

Before:

After:

Twelve Weeks Challenge: Week Two

I got ambitious, and like the overachiever I am I completed the Two Peas week 2 assignment today as well.  Most of these are concepts I wanted to refresh rather than learn for the first time so they don't take long.  This week's lesson is on shutter speed and ISO.  The assignment is to study the effects of shutter speed on flowing water, which is very fast action.  The photos show how you can freeze the motion using a fast shutter speed, and how the water appears to be flowing with a slower shutter speed.  All shots taken with Canon 20D, 35mm f2 lens, Tv mode.

SS 1/80

SS 1/1000

And for a little more close-up action (new shots, not just crops of shots above).  For these I tried slightly different shutter speeds.

SS 1/50

SS 1/500

I didn't do anything for the *bonus lesson* because pretty much any photo you have seen of mine since last November is an example of a photo taken in Manual mode.

Two Peas in a Bucket Photography

Week Two Lesson

Twelve Weeks Challenge: Week One

I am following along with the Two Peas in a Bucket twelve weeks to better photography lessons with some friends.  Week one is about understanding aperture.  The following photos are my take on the weekly assignment.  The challenge was to take three photos at varying apertures to show the effects of aperture on depth of field.  My subject is a white azalea in my back yard.  You can see how as I moved from f2.8 to f9.0 to f22 how the shed and trees in the background go from blurry to in focus.  They were all taken on Canon 20D in Av mode with my 35mm f2 lens.

f2.8

f9.0

f22

Two Peas in a Bucket Photography

Week One Lesson

Random Wednesday

Enough said!

Before and After

Original:

Edit:

This wasn't one of my most favorite photos from the shoot, but it was decent, and I wanted to play around with the editing.  I get a personal attachment to some photos and can't seem to deviate from my normal editing comfort zone.  While I think that it's good I am defining my "style" I often envy the various post processing styles I see.  I started with basic ACR adjustments like normal.  Then, for this photo, since I didn't have that personal attachment I often do, I tried going much warmer on my edit by applying a warming filter.  I straightened the photo so the lines of the bridge weren't distractingly tilted and cropped in.  Then I did some cosmetic edits to skin, a little USM and called it a day.  I am pleased with the result.  

Canon 20D, Canon 35mm f2

f4.0, 1/400, ISO 100

Sisterly Love

My sister asked if I would do a photo shoot so she had something to give my Mom for Mother's Day. I have been trying to get her to "model" for me for a while, so it was win-win.  The photos turned out great, she was happy with them, my Mom loved them, and of course I was quite happy with them as well.  What a huge difference it makes to have a subject that listens, holds still, LOOKS at the camera, and that I don't have to bribe with M&Ms and goldfish!  I have so many amazing shots that I can't possibly post them all here but here are a few of my favorites.  I might post some editing steps & before/afters later this week, or try to do some funky edits and see how they look!

All taken with Canon 20D, Canon 35mm f2 at varying settings, mostly ~f3.5ish (at times as low as 2.8 and as high as 5.6) and varying SS since the light was constantly changing with the sun in and out of the clouds, and ISO 100.  

B&W Love

The following is a photo I captured at the park with the lovely Miss Evelyn.  The original is definitely cute, but it was lacking something.  I cropped it so the subject was slightly off center and to take out the snack cup and shovel she was holding.  But, the color was still drab due to the lack of plant life in the background - it doesnt get more dreary and drab than a faded cement wall.  But, voila, a contrasty black and white to give it mood.  I just feel drawn into her dark eyes and the catch lights really pop in B&W.  For B&W conversions I do a gradient map layer, then a brightness/contrast adjustment layer, then usually tweak in curves adjustment.

Giving the Lilacs Some Love

The kids were the focus of my last post, here are the few lilac shots I snagged in between takes with the girls!  So beautiful!

Lilac Shoot

Took Teagan to the park to get some photos with the lilacs in full bloom.  She was a semi-cooperative model.  Not quite the nice bokeh shots I love but with a moving toddler its hard enough to get her in focus even with a deeper DOF!  The second shot is my favorite.  Also below are some photos of the lovely Miss Evelyn, including some backlighting shots - you can almost feel the warmth of the day through the photos!!!  As always, settings available upon request.  Shot with a combo of 35mm f2 and 24-70 f2.8L lenses.