Same scene, different post processing. I am in the wrong light at this time of day or past prime for leaf color change. ??? Who knows?! I simply cheated and amped up the saturation and vibrance in Lightroom. The colors pop! Natural. Same scene different color. Some places have not changed – leaves. Other spots are prime peak. And others….
We’ve done this before. We did it here. We did it a while ago. This time around… well, we did it again. It’s a nice set of trees. Fun! Confused?
Well, Photoshop does good things for me again. There is some skill involved. I am not great at it. But I can do a passable job. Enjoy!
Well, sometimes I surprise even myself. We are in the wilds of Maine. The sky was clear and cold. It was dark as only a place can be without light pollution. Point and shoot. I did not have a tripod and was too cold to just stand around. I let the camera go automatic. The Sony could not compensate. The Nikon went wild. Who knew? I am a casual Astro-photographer which means I have no expectation and whatever comes is a gift and bonus. Press the shutter and voila! So, I ended with a 1.6 second exposure handheld. I must have a steady hand. Ha ha! It came out rather good. No complaint! One night only. The next was cloudy with rain. Sometimes it is once and only…. it looks lots better enlarged on a big screen. Gee, there are a lot of stars in the sky.
The pandemic is still amongst us. It’s early for Halloween. Colleen greeted the flower with a name? It looks like a hibiscus to me. But I am probably wrong. We were happy to see it.
The attitude used to be: “I’ll fix it later in Photoshop.” No, it is wrong to be lazy. Do the work when you take the pic. Compose, focus, edit. I have become reticent to crop or adjust in post process editing. Otherwise, out of the “box” works for me.
It works like this. I have edited and criticized my own work often in the past. The admonishments play gently cajoling me to zoom closer or toe compose better. Watch the background distractions. Sometimes you just can’t get a better shot? I know this. I just keep trying.
I can hardly believe the time has gone so quickly. It was only yesterday that we met again after so many decades separated by life’s diverging paths. Shutterfly. It sends me pics from way back. ??? How??? How’d they get into my private life? Ah!! The bastards mine my Apple iPhoto shares. Well, it is entertaining. I share to family in order for them to keep up with our lives. Interesting? …on many levels. Emma was terrified to find out mom had a boyfriend. Jen had a secret codeword in case things were not going well during our first date. You know, the usual. That bowl of soup?!! It was Colleen’s first taste of hot and sour soup. Rock!! She’s been under a rock. I grew up with that soup! She loved it! ….about, sorry, more (the soup) than me?… no, she loves me more!! We had a grand time. Little did we know that this was the start of an extended honeymoon. Yeah, we did it backwards and celebrated first. The marriage came a few (five) years later. I will never live that one down. But then again we separated for about five decades after childhood. What was the rush?
Selfies. We do ‘em all the time. I am not an iPhone guy. So we use whatever camera is in my hand. Keep in mind the backdrop is NYC. Guess where? … museum, Grand Central, west side highway…. I shoot redundantly. It ensures that one image will likely have both of us smiling. I’m left handed. You knew that? So mostly I shoot with my left hand. But the reality is that the shutter button is top right and so the fingers reach there from the left hand when you are holding the camera backward. Duh!
And Shutterfly sent this collage to me on the day I scheduled this post. Thanks.
Subject? What to shoot in an Indian powwow? There are too many opportunities. What? Which? Does experience help? What will come out looking good in the editing? Wide angle? Detail? Action?
None of it matters. You just go ahead and shoot. Get images are they unfold and present. There are no rules. I experiment as I go along. Only occasionally I know there is a “winner” as I press the shutter. Otherwise, everything is good? Eh?
Three little girls in costume… and holding hands… cute! Automatically! Details: jingle dancer, the bells are in motion. Focus is a problem. Close? Close is ok?
a la Magritte. No, I am not so presumptuous. However, this image evoked his memory. Lose the pipes. Alas, at the time I did not consider them. The image of the view camera…. I should know better. I admonish myself for failing to get the distraction out. A certain starkness does remain. Almost… no cigar. Better? Can I do…. Sure, but I won’t be back again. Alas.
I am incapable of restraint. One image. Pick one from a day’s shoot. Is there not one single image that stands out from the rest that would be worthy? One image? Pick? I am incapable. They are like children. You like them all. Among 1916 images? yes, that was the number on 9/10/22. Don’t ask. I told that story in another blog.
Shooting into a mirror… it was not even on “that” day. Position the camera. Look up. Press the shutter. Voila! I look like I belong with the other frames nearby. Not too much, but I like to think so.
Zoom a little more. A zoom lens is a good thing. There are purists. They frown upon anyone using naught but a prime lens. ? that would be a lens with only a single focal length. Ah! I have bias toward iPhone. Well, there are controversies…. I learned long ago that I zoom to compose my shots and give them more emphasis on the subject I am photographing. And in the course of editing I discovered that I cropped many of my photos. So, why not crop by zooming ahead of time? And so I do. I have a 23-200 and an 80-400 zoom lens. I tend to sit at 200 and 400mm for much of the time. ?? it just works out that way. There is no particular reason.
In this instance I chose a random image from the Indian powwow. The need to zoom is derived from the distracting background and my lack of mobility. I was not lazy. It’s just not polite to be walking in front of the audience and blocking someone’s view. I was not a credentialed photographer for the event.
Specifically, zooming closer and eliminating the tents and distracting people in the background would have helped. I was at 110mm out of 400mm. Depth of field did blur the background somewhat. Exposure was good. Focus was good. Technically this image was sound. But I could have done better.
Or, wait for your subject to get closer. Same 110mm zoom, but now the background is less distracting. Better? Both images are sound. There is a choice. I’d go with the second image.
I’m no astronomer. I can hardly pick out the north star. Morning star? Well, I got some celestial bodies, stars and/or planets. I just stuck the camera up against the window. Click. For those of us too lazy to control all aspects of exposure, “Program” mode is good. Very good. Night shots are hard. There are extremes in exposure that challenge any sensor. When I shot film it was nearly impossible to get a proper night exposure. I let the Sony RX100 just go do its programed exposure. Look what I got! I did not persist. I am resigned to poor astrophotography images. Eh? Colleen?
Meanwhile, the moon came out pretty nice. Focus is hard. There are no real hard contrasting edges. The moon is very bright. I got the sensor to fool itself. The clouds and the houses made for an interesting tableau. Auto – program, it worked for me. The sensor has some magical algorithms for night shots. No, I will not be getting a telescope anytime soon.
PhotoCritical 