Tag Archives: throwback thursday

Throwback Thursday – Clover

Posted by Mike on

Throwback Thursday

I’m attempting to stick with this Throwback Thursday theme I created two weeks ago but as you can already tell I missed a week. Maybe I need to play this one loose and see what shakes out. Anyway…

This week I’ll stick to an early period in my photography and use another image captured with my Sony P&S. This one is from October 2011 and I believe I was exploring as much as possible in my own yard. I was getting out more often but still only capturing a few images at a time. This was also at a time when I was exploring Google Plus more and attempting to participate in as many week day themes as I could.

The original image is a monochrome conversion of a piece of clover from the field behind the house. I was going for a back light setting and totally lost the sky when I over exposed the image. I converted it to monochrome in an attempt to hide what I had done… 🙂

Clover - Original Sony DSC-H20, 1/40s, 12mm, f/4, ISO 100

Clover – Original
Sony DSC-H20, 1/40s, 12mm, f/4, ISO 100

There technically is not a lot I can change on the image. I went with my square format as I like the balance better. I played with the colors in the original file to allow me to convert to B & W with a little more ‘pop’. I stayed with the over exposed look but toned it down a little and then added a silver tone to the over all image.

Clover - New Sony DSC-H20, 1/40s, 12mm, f/4, ISO 100

Clover – New
Sony DSC-H20, 1/40s, 12mm, f/4, ISO 100

Throwback Thursday – Sugar River

Posted by Mike on

Throwback Thursday

I see all these posts across various social media sites concerning Throwback Thursday or something similar and I thought maybe I will start this tradition here on my blog. My initial thought (which could evolve as I go) was to re-process an old image from when I was just starting this journey with photography. This re-processing could involve a different look or style for an image. It might be a different composition to bring out a better view of the subject. Whatever it ends I being I’m hoping the process (OK, that one was intentional) of reviewing the image will help me improve my current photography.

When I began exploring photography I was intent on learning everything I could about my old point & shoot camera. I had a Sony DSC-H20, 10.1 MP, 10x zoom camera that lasted another 9 months while I learned about exposure, composition and post-processing. It wasn’t until I could not achieve the effects I wanted (long exposures, proper DoF, etc.) that I upgraded to my D5100.

During this learning period I was making trips to Potsdam, NY to bring my son back and forth to college. Along the way there was a nice waterfall visible from the road and in August 2011 I was determined to stop and grab an image. This is the original JPEG I processed with Lightroom 3.

Sugar River - Original Sony DSC-H20, 1/25s, 44mm, f/9, ISO 100

Sugar River – Original
Sony DSC-H20, 1/25s, 44mm, f/9, ISO 100

At the time I hadn’t wrapped my head around white balance or how to properly use the tools within Lightroom. Not to mention that a ND filter was totally unknown to me. At least I was heading in the right direction as I did use a tripod… 🙂

There isn’t a lot of room to play with the JPEG output from the camera. Some of the obvious fixes are the white balance, a better distribution of the tonal range and the ability to use a few of my (now normal) processing plugins. Do not zoom in too much on either image, the noise will scare you! 😉 A saving grace for me is the composition. I like the balance I used with the trees on either side of the water and the placement of the falls in the image. If I took my camera up to Sugar River today I would probably come away with a very similar picture, of course, the water would be more silky looking after 3+ years of waterfall fascination.

Sugar River - Rework Sony DSC-H20, 1/25s, 44mm, f/9, ISO 100

Sugar River – Rework
Sony DSC-H20, 1/25s, 44mm, f/9, ISO 100