Photography and Homeschooling (Roadschooling as often as we can)
If you’ve been to Chicago you’ve been to the Cloud Gate, otherwise known as The Bean.
I made several quick edits to the original. The lens distortion was making the steps of the sidewalk bow, so I used the Lens Correction tool in Lightroom to straighten everything out. I increased the clarity and contrast. I then turned it black and white and adjusted each color in that slider to get the look I liked. Here’s the original:
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A long break wall juts out into Lake Superior in Two Harbors, Minnesota.
At the end of the wall is a tiny lighthouse.
This was a quick edit tonight since I’m traveling. I took the picture with all the negative space on purpose, so I left that as it is. To brighten the image and make it clearer, I increased the exposure and highlights just a bit and decreased the shadows. I cooled the temp, increased the clarity, and decreased the contrast. I increased the saturation just a little and slid the tint bar just a little towards magenta. The original:
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We stopped at the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, South Dakota last summer. As in Laura Ingalls Wilder. This was the last place Pa Ingalls homesteaded. We spent the night in a covered wagon and woke up to this scenery.
Other than the wind it was a perfect place. In the summer.
The original was dull. I wanted to show that it was morning so I used a graduated filter on the right top and warmed up that temperature. I increased the clarity and contrast of the whole picture and brought down the noise a little. I used an adjustment brush on the strip of trees and houses and decreased those shadows a bit. I also adjusted the temp of the picture towards the cool side just a little so the blue would show more through the clouds. I added the slightest vignette. The original:
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We trade urban photography for the exact opposite.
The Badlands in South Dakota. Had I seen these as I was exploring westward, I would have turned right back around and gone back to the good life on the East Coast. Thankfully there were fearless souls who ventured beyond.
The original was lopsided and dull. First I straightened the picture then ran a Lightroom preset that mimics the HDR look. I also used the HDR preset on some ocean/beach pictures I edited in February. I love what it does for landscapes! I then adjusted individual settings of the preset settings to lighten the picture just a little. I used an adjustment brush on the mountains in the distance to increase their clarity because they were still too flat. I toned down the noise and lightened the vignetting a little. The original:
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When a picture is busy I like turning it into black and white. It simplifies. Although it’s fun to look at the picture and study everything. I increased the clarity and contrast (which I also like to do on urban shots, it seems), and lightened the shadows and blacks (which upping the contrast tends to intensify). The original:
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Once again – lines.
Why have a boring grate when you can have a geometric one?
The original wasn’t much different. I made it black and white and increased the clarity. I decreased the contrast to be able to see some of the metal of the grate underneath. I increased the highlights and whites and made the shadows just a tad darker. I sharpened the whole image and decreased the noise. I also straightened the image as much as I could.
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Not So SAHM 