Snowball Preview x2

Posted by Mike on

Another image from my little excursion yesterday afternoon. I like the original (first image) because of the splash of color from the tree in the upper left corner which ties in to the slight yellow/brown center of the ‘snowballs’. The B & W conversion works for me because the fluffy snowball like main attractions seem to stand out better against the background.

The first image was processed using Lightroom with a few minor adjustments, i.e., some contrast, clarity and a little vibrance. The second image started from the first and converted to monochrome using Topaz Labs B&W Effects. I really like the Platinum Collection of presets for the overall tone they create.

Which do you prefer?

Snowball Preview
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/200s, 35mm, f/8, ISO 200


Snowball Preview – Monochrome
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/200s, 35mm, f/8, ISO 200

The Forgotten and Neglected

Posted by Mike on

What a week! I took the day off last Monday and spent most of it with my daughter who was home sick with a stomach flu. Worked the next day but caught the bug myself and spent Wednesday home from work. Spent the next two days getting caught up and then ended up working the weekend due to issues. None of that left much time for exploring with the camera.

I finally went for a walk after lunch today hoping to get some images before the “Storm of all storms – Sandy” rolls into the northeast. It was good just to get out and go for a walk but I did manage to come home with a few images. These two are from one of the apple trees in the field across the road from my house.

The Forgotten
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/160s, 70mm, f/5, ISO 200


The Neglected
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/200s, 70mm, f/5, ISO 200

Autumn Swan Song

Posted by Mike on

I bought a book on Lightroom 3 yesterday at a discount store. I’ve been using version 4 for quite some time now but I thought the concepts are the same and most of the controls remain or have been improved. It wasn’t very expensive so I took a shot on it.

The plans for my day off fell through so I spent the day reading. Wow! I feel like I have just been playing with the software. So much functionality I didn’t know about. I learned better ways to accomplish my processing at every step, from organization/importing, developing and even exporting. I’m thinking now I need to get the Lightroom 4 book so I don’t miss any of the new features!

This is the first image processed with some of what I learned. You might not see a difference but trust me, it was a much better workflow…

Autumn Swan Song
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/3200s, 70mm, f/4, ISO 400