Snow Photography and Editing

Today is Tuesday November 24, 2015 and we are coming up on Thanksgiving. This past Friday began our first snowfall of the season. I enjoy snow photography and sometimes more than taking the photos I enjoy editing them.

Like many photographers I enjoy using Lightroom to edit photos. But, there is something about snow photography that makes me want to explore the possibilities in other editing software. Let's take for example the following image.

I took this photo yesterday after I spotted it while running some errands. This is a first run edit in Lightroom. I like the image but I really like snow photos in B&W. For the next edit I used Alien Skin Software because it has a Kodak TRI-X 400 filter. Yes, I know Lightroom can do a B&W edit but it doesn't have film selection capabilities. So check out this edit.

I know I could add more contrast but I am going to take this edit a step further and use Alien Skin Snap Art and create the following.

This edit is a pastel landscape edit that I modified not to have texture as a canvas. So from my perspective, this edit is unique to me in and of itself. If I choose to have this printed I could select a canvas background and it might look pretty interesting. But I'm not done editing and have more to get done. For the next edit I'm going to use the TRI-X 400 image and open it in Smart Photo Editor.

Smart Photo Editor is an application I picked up some time ago. I used two filters from this application to create the above image. One is the "Contrast Realistic" the other is "Hyper-real" there are actually a ton of filters in this application I could choose from, but these two are in my favorites list. This image itself is one worthy of printing as is. But I'm not done.

Now I'm going to layer the above image over the pastel image and set the opacity at 30% to create the following.

This is what I was looking to accomplish! To me, it's an abstract look and feel that really embraces the snow image I wanted.

Now I know that photography and art are subjective. Some viewers of these images may prefer one over the other and not like my final results. I'm ok with that. I guess I just want to present to you options in regards to photo edits. You can think about it.

Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!

BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers.

You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago and keep up with my journey.

iFast Photography

Many years ago when I was learning photography I learned about the "FAST" rule. The fast rule was pretty simple. It's an acronym for ...

F = focus

A = aperture 

S = shutter 

T = think

It was a pretty good tool for me to keep in mind back in the day. I should point out that in those days I, like many photographers, bought film with an ISO value. Some professionals carried multiple cameras with different ISO films in them so they were prepared for lighting changes. I was an amature photographer and on a budget so I did not have that luxury. I would select my film based on the conditions outside and hope they didn't change too much on me. 

With DSLR photography life taking pictures is a whole different game. No manual advancing film to take your next shot, no loading film and a pluthera of automation. I try to remind myself of the "FAST" rule even today, but it was lacking something. 

Thanks to Apple, there is an "i" this and an "i" that and suddenly one day it came to me, but not before I made an error taking pictures at the zoo. See, I forgot to adjust my ISO setting and ended up taking a number of photos at ISO 3200 outdoors on a bright and sunny day. My Bad! I was able to salvage the shoot, but I also learned something new. 

In order for me to prepare better for my photo shoots and changing conditions I created my own new acronym, "iFast." Broken down iFast stands for ...

i = ISO

F = focus

a = aperture

s = shutter 

t = think

Now I'm far from being an expert photographer, but I hope this helps me be a better photographer. I hope this helps you take better pictures as I hope it helps me. Feel free to share this with you photo friends!

Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!

BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers.

You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

Lastly, here is a zoo photo I made an ISO error on. 

Nikon D5300f/5.6ISO-3200300mmSo I made a mistake when I took this photo. I forgot to reduce my ISO setting. I made a couple attempts at correcting the image. Which image do you think is best?
Posted by TMSphotos on Monday, August 17, 2015

Seeing, Enjoying, Photographing and Sharing

So recently I was at Cantigny Park and Gardens taking photos. There were several student groups there on field trips. I would guess they were from various middle schools.

Anyhow, one of the young girls said something to the effect that "I would rather be here to see the flowers instead of looking at a picture." Well, that got me to thinking. See, there isn't anything wrong with what the young girl said or her opinion.

Here's the way I see it for me ... I was there to see the flowers too and I saw a lot of the beauty in the various garden areas. I saw flowers like this ...

 

I was also able to enjoy it and the flowers surrounding it. In addition, I was able to capture the image, which sets a certain type of permanence to the image because it will never look that way again. Then I can also edit the image and create ... 

This image. Granted it's not the same as the original, but I can create a new type of image that I can enjoy. From my point of view I got to see the flowers, enjoy the flowers, photograph the flowers and share the flowers. Not only am I sharing my images on this blog post, but I also share my images through other social media outlets. 

Here are a few more images I was able to take and enjoy ... 

 

So through my ventures I feel I accomplish what I have set out to do. But I must say, there are times that I do venture out without a camera and many times when I do that I regret it.

Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!

BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers.

You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago