Photography and Homeschooling (Roadschooling as often as we can)
Peach picking.
The bees had the first pick.
The original was too dark. I increased the exposure, sharpened the whole pic just a little and then adjusted the noise. I increased the contrast and clarity to show the detail of the peach and then lightened the shadows just a bit. I upped the vibrancy just a little to make it pop. I also cropped in a little to focus more on the action going on on the peach. The original:
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A Capitol Fourth is always very crowded. Tip: go to the dress rehearsal the night before. Exact same show, somewhat manageable crowds. In 2015, it rained and all I had to capture images was my iPhone. I was so happy to catch the following:
The original was all in color but I wanted to focus totally on the umbrella so I used an adjustment brush to desaturate the background. I increased the vibrancy of the umbrella just a bit and decreased the noise of the whole picture.
Happy almost 4th!
The original:
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The old postcard view:
The original is nice and colorful. There were a couple of spots on the lens that you could see in the blue sky so I cloned those out. I messed with this edit quite a bit, not really knowing what look I wanted. As I went through some of the presets that I have installed in Lightroom, the desaturated color caught my eye. I still did some editing afterwards. Two main things were to use an adjustment brush on the rock formation on the left to brighten the shadows a bit, and a brush on the walkway to lessen its brightness. Oh, I also did a lens correction, which flattened the image a little. The original:
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Apropos considering the holiday we’re approaching:
I love using black and white with rock. It really helps accent the textures. This one was a quick edit (mainly because we’re traveling and I’m tired). I increased the contrast, clarity, and exposure. Then I cropped it to focus more on George and sharpened the whole picture. The original:
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We visited some friends in Madison, WI during our cross-country drive last summer. The University of Wisconsin sits on Lake Mendota. The students sunbathe along the shore (on these docks), relax at waterfront cafes, and have a spectacular view pretty much anywhere in Madison (the whole town is charming).
I normally like to increase the contrast and clarity with water pictures, but this time I wanted to go softer. So I decreased the contrast and clarity and increased the vibrancy since decreasing those dulled the picture. I straightened the picture using the horizon, but the dock front was pretty distracting so I cropped that out. I gave the picture a slight vignetting. The original:
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The Navy Pier in Chicago is a fun time for all the family.
The original was bright and nice, but I wanted a more nostalgic look. I decreased the contrast and increased the highlights. I slid the tint bar towards the magenta side and warmed up the temperature. I lightened the shadows a bit and sharpened the whole picture. Here’s the original:
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Not So SAHM 