Icicles

This photo was taken during the last (?) freezing rain of the season. I pushed the white balance to give it a blue tint, in order to emphasize the coldness of the day.
I applied a little noise reduction to minimize the effect of the high ISO, caused by the lack of light that day. I also took the shot without a tripod.
Of course, I finished with one Curves layer.

Aperture Priority
ISO 800
Focal Length 55 mm
f/8
Shutter Speed 1/90 sec.

Yellow Road

This photo was obviously edited in Photoshop! First, there were two road signs in the foreground that were too distracting. Then, I used five different Curves, Levels, and Hue/Saturation layers to obtain enough contrast in the trees without making them too dark.
The yellow lines were the easiest. Since they were the only yellow element, I duplicated the photo and used Select/Color Range to select them, erase the rest of the color photo, boost the saturation a little, and superimpose them on the B&W version.
Please let me know what you think.

Pentax K100D Super
Aperture Priority mode
ISO 400
Focal Length 55mm

I found it!

This is my entry to photofriday.com for this week. When I saw that the challenge is "Found objects", I immediately thought of this photo of my little girl Liliana, triumphantly brandishing her favorite French flashcard!

The processing was really minimal: only a Curves layer and a moderate application of the Neat Image noise reduction filter plug-in for Photoshop. I debated leaving the noise intact, but in the end decided against it. I am not sure it was the right decision. As I am starting to find out, photography and music have this in common: there are many different creative solutions possible. The artist always needs to choose, and this subjective decision means discarding valid and possibly superior artistic alternatives.

Shot at f/5.6, focal length 26mm, ISO equiv. 800, no flash.
I appreciate your comments.

Black and white tree: winter scene

I saw this tree while driving on a country road. I quickly turned around and stopped the car on the edge of a field to take the shot, when a truck pulled next to me and the driver asked"Are you OK?" This has happened to me several times since I have gotten "hooked" on photography!
f/22, ISO equiv. 200, focal length 38mm, Pentax K100D Super. Then, in Photoshop, B&W conversion in LAB mode, and a simple adjustment with a Levels layer.
I welcome your comments.

A boat dock on a foggy day

This was a very foggy day , with low light. I used a noise reduction filter pretty heavily, which not only decreased the noise level, but I feel added to the mood of the shot.
The original was taken at f/16, ISA equiv. 200, focal length 55 mm.

Backlit tree on a winter morning

f/16, ISO 200, focal length 50mm, RAW format

I have started shooting in RAW occasionally. The control it gives over the white balance makes it worth the extra work.

For this shot, I applied Curves and Levels to the sky only, which came out gray in the original. The rest was not processed very much, with the exception of a billboard on the right side that I had to erase.

Hello!

Welcome to LeStro's Photos! I am a new photographer, trying to learn and improve everyday. Because I have learned so much from other bloggers, I in turn want to help others (in a limited way) by posting photos and information about how the shot was taken and about whatever post-processing was done. I also hope to learn more from your comments.

Here is the first photo. It is of my dog Maestro, a westie (West Highland White Terrier). I thought it appropriate to start with him, as his nickname (LeStro) is the inspiration for the blog's name.

The photo was taken in Aperture Priority mode, f/19, ISO 800, focal length 35mm. Exposure time came at 1/10 sec.

Then, in Photoshop, I converted it into LAB mode to use the lightness channel as the basis for the B&W version. I then duplicated the layer, set the top layer on multiply blend (15%), along with a couple of adjustment layers (Levels and Curves).

Et voilà!