Evanescence

So much in this picture disappeared the moment after I took it! These bubbles were generated by an automatic bubble machine. They were remarkable, especially the ones that contained multiple bubbles themselves. Most of the work went into the taking of the picture, not the post-processing, as I quickly realized that the auto-focus would never work. So I switched to manual and was able to follow the bubbles in the air while focusing. The flare was... well, only a happy accident.

f/8, 50 mm, 1/160 sec., ISO 200

Sunset Cloud 2

This was taken the same evening as the picture in the previous entry.

The processing was similar, except for a little dark gradient added at the top. The difference is, of course, the cloud itself, and a slightly shorter focal length.

f/8, 40 mm, 1/180 sec., ISO 200

Sunset Cloud

This was taken a few hours before another storm passed through, so the clouds were building up and reflecting the light of the setting sun in wonderful ways.

I used two Curves and one Levels layers in LAB mode to enhanced the contrast, darkening the blue of the sky and making the sunlight more golden. I also decided to layer another copy of the picture and blend it as a partial linear burn.

f/8, 55 mm, 1/180 sec., ISO 200

Electricity

In this shot, I find the juxtaposition of God's awesome display of electricity and man's attempt to master it fascinating.

f/4, 31 mm, ISO 200, 1/60 sec.

Lamp and Sky

Here is another photo that has been subjected to selective desaturation, with yellow as the only color spared.

The B&W was obtained by desaturating the red channel, as it offered the most interesting contrast in the clouds. The yellow of the bulb was isolated by Photoshop with the "Select color range" command.

I also added a mirror gradient layer (black and transparent) to frame the shot a little more and darken the mood.

This photo was actually taken in broad daylight. Here is the original for comparison.



f/22, 24 mm., ISO 200, 1/60 sec.

Evening Power Lines: second stock sale

I just had another photo of mine downloaded at Dreamstime. It is actually one of the first pictures that I ever planned to submit to a stock agency.

Since this was the beginning of my learning about photography, post-processing was minimal: just a little color adjustment in LAB mode.

ISO 200
f/4.5
26 mm
1/90 sec.

The Barn

This is a photo of a barn that I see regularly. I like its straight lines, proportions, and the fact that it sits isolated in the middle of a field. All of these characteristics help it reflect the seasons and changing weather patterns without distraction. I will probably post many different views of this barn. My family thinks it humorous that it is one of this Parisian's favorite buildings!

I had a look in mind for this photo as I started editing it that I did not know how to obtain. I have seen it a lot and reminds me a little of what Ansel Adams did. I experimented quite a bit and ended up with 9 layers in Photoshop. They include the usual Levels, Curves, Desaturation, but also a couple of duplicate layers with different blending modes (Overlay, Darken), and a red photo filter. I even had to isolate the sky from the field and building to process them separately.

Well... I think I got close. What do you think?

ISO 200
f/16
26 mm
1/250 sec.

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Trees

(taken by Amy)

This beautiful photo was taken by Amy on the grounds of the Saint-Germain-en-Laye castle where Louis XIV was born. At the end of this row of trees is the famous 2.4-kilometer stone terrace built by landscape architect Le Nôtre. It overlooks a large part of the Parisian region as well as sections of Paris.

Amy took this with a Konica Minolta Point&Shoot camera. The photo, with its symmetrical straight lines, really highlights the formality of French gardens.

ISO 200
f/3.4
7.7 mm

Snowy Path

Here is a little reminder of the season that just ended, and a good candidate for some experimentation with vignetting.

I used a layer mask with an ellipse to get the vignette effect. But, at first, the corners were completely black, and I did not care for it very much. So I decided to make that layer transparent and obtained the shadowed corners. What do you think of it?

To do the B&W conversion, I used a desaturation layer, and increase the contrast with a Levels and a Curves layer.

f/22, ISO 400, 55 mm, 1/125 sec.

First Stock Sale!

I have just sold my first stock photo! The sale was done by stock agency Dreamstime.

A few months ago, as I started learning more and more about photography, I decided it would be a fun challenge to submit photos to various microstock agencies. The process is more rigorous than I had thought, as every picture is examined by professional photographers and needs to meet their standards before it can be added to the site's catalog. Needless to say that many of my submissions were rejected. However, the reviewers often add helpful critiques to the rejection emails, so this has been a good learning experience.

You can see my Dreamstime portfolio here.

I did not do much editing in this case (that is the preference in stock photography): only a Curves layer in LAB mode to increase the intensity of the colors.

Exp. time 1/350 sec., focal length 26 mm, f/16, ISO 200.

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

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.