Photo Assignment

Going to take a break from our hikes for a bit and show you some of the pictures I shared in our photography class.  We were given the assignment of sharing some of our best pictures taken in some of our recent photo shoots as well as other stops in our winter journey.  If we edited the pictures we were to try to bring both the before and after versions.  

We have quite the wide array of photographic expertise in the group.  A few shoot only on their phones and iPads, some have DSLRs but never take them off Auto while there are a few that are pretty close to professionals in both their understanding and application of photographic technique.  Some have never edited their pics, many use Photos on their Mac and some are Lightroom and Photoshop experts.   What is interesting is that despite the vast difference in skill level and equipment used, the quality of the pictures were all very good.  These days the Phones and Point and Shoot cameras have such high quality lenses and computer algorithims that the pictures from these cameras are very good.  Every one brings their own "eye" to their shots which provides for their own unique perspective.  On a number of shots I looked at I realized that I would never have thought to take the picture in that way.   

Where am I on the curve?  From the standpoint of the technology that I use to shoot with I have no excuses.  I had a Canon crop sensor DSLR until this year and now have a full frame mirrorless DSLR.  Both excellent cameras although the upgrade to the new Sony is real "sweet".  I switched from JPEG to RAW a few years ago and up until this year I have used Photos for my editing.  I just purchased Luminar and Aurora for editing purposes although I have only used them a few times.  Once I learn to use these editing programs I'm thinking the end product will definitely improve.  I have unfortunately discovered that my Mac Air doesn't have the processing power, graphics capability or adequate RAM to operate these programs properly so I guess a MacBook Pro is in my future.   

So in a nutshell, definitely well short of the semi-pros but making progress at closing the gap, I think.  One thing about these editing programs, the possible variations of the end result are only limited by your creativity.  Wish I had inherited more of my mothers artistic ability.  Instead I got more of my dads practical sense of things.  Worked well for banking but an artistic flare would be a little more helpful in photography.   I have found that You Tube can be a bit of an equalizer with many videos demonstrating both technique and creativity.  

All Rocky needed was a little cropping and colour saturation

White sand, blue skies.  Pretty, but needed something a little different.
Used Luminar's Dramatic Landscape "Look" plus a few other little tweaks.

Some people liked the top version but I used one of the "Looks" to bring up the shadows.
I wanted to see the copper ceiling and fan.

I added the Warm Sunset Look plus the AI Sky Enhancer

I cropped the picture and added the Warm Sunset look.
It popped the reds and enhanced the bokeh.

1st attempt at HDR using Aurora.  I took 5 pictures in 1/2 stop increments.
Aurora blends the 5 pictures together resulting in a more even picture exposure.
Most noticeable in the shadows. 

Another HDR using the "Detailed Look".  I think I like this one the best.
It really antiqued the truck, providing a gritty feel.
It evened the exposure and even the fence posts look much better. 

Similar effect here as with the Truck above.
I do have to do a better job with depth of field to get the fence and shed all in focus.
Fence is a little fuzzy in the foreground. 

Pre-sunset at Lost Dutchman State Park.
Superstition Mountains in the background.
"Normal" exposure above and HDR blended photo below.

More HDR.
The picture below is so much warmer with very
little alteration other than the HDR effect. 

One downside of HDR is hard drive space gets chewed up pretty fast.
It takes 5 RAW files at 45 MB each, merges them,
and comes up with a 400 MB HDR image. 
I can see a 4 TB external drive in my future. 

The HDR effect can be seen mostly in the foreground and
somewhat in the shadows on the mountain.

Thats it for my HDR.  Will have to experiment more
with my bracket settings as well as with Aurora.

This was a Drug Store museum in Guthrie, aka 1880's
Used the Mystic Look to get a dated effect.

Mansion in Galveston.
Used the Big City Look to give it a slightly more granular effect.

Prow of a Tall ship in Galveston.
Used the Krushed Look to give it a bit of an eerie feel. 

As I look back on these pictures now I see lots of tweaks I would make.  Photography is supposed to provide an emotional connection to the scene and I'm thinking that depending on ones frame of mind your feelings about the picture would change.  Boy, that's deep.  A couple glasses of Merlot sure brings out the philosopher in me.   

Back to some hikes in the next blog.  Then on to the Electric Desert.