Ship

Taken from balcony in Ft. Lauderdale after a storm.

Kenilworth Gardens

Here are some of the many pictures I took at Kenilworth Gardens this July.

Saturated.

Less saturated.

Applying Luminosity Masks to Photoshop Adjustments Layers

At our October meeting I talked about luminosity masking and Barbara worked on an image by Bill Alsmeyer-Johnson to illustrate post-processing with Lightroom.  At the end of class I suggested combining the two and seeing what using luminosity masking might do with Bill's image.  Below are the starting and finishing images.  To get there I used three adjustments in photoshop with luminosity masks to make them stronger in lighter or darker areas respectively.  First I cropped the image and then reduced the red in the foliage with a mask that applied most of the change to lighter areas.  I then deepened shadows and contrast with another mask that applied proportionately more of the change to darker areas.  I then used another adjustement to increase local contrast, again with more change going to the lighter areas.  Finally I used a straight adjustment mask to darken the overly light edges and top of the image.

My sense is that luminosity masking in Photoshop does a lot of what the clarity adjustment does in Lightroom, but since the luminosity mask a general mask,  it can be applied to all kinds of adjustments and not simply local contrast.  I am sure that there are many ways to get this same effect, but this is a useful tool.

At our last session, Barbara was puzzled about a photo workshop in Wildwood, New Jersey, that Susan and I took just before the summer season began there in 2014, presented by Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. It seemed like she didn't see what you would photograph there.   Over the course of the five day workshop I took nearly 400 images of the boardwalk, the beach, and the town, both day and night.  It was mostly architectural, lighting and landscape, with lots of pictures of people enjoying themselves.  On the last day of the workshop we had to present what we felt were the 10 best pictures we took.  I am not sure that nearly three years later, they would still be my choices, but here they are.

Luminosity Masking in Photoshop

Here's a link to a series of blogs by Tony Kuyper, that I was pointed to last year while on a workshop in Santa Fe.

https://tonykuyper.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/luminosity-masks-10th-anniversary%E2%88%92a-brief-history-of-how-it-all-started/

About ten years ago he invented a Photoshop masking process that generated continuous masks based on the luminosity of areas of an image.  It looked intriguing, but I confess that I never followed up, as I'm pretty content with the Photoshop adjustment layer controls that I use at present.  Also, his methodology has a definite learning curve. However, I joined distribution list, have been following his progress, and think that I will try it out and see if it makes much difference to the images that I print.

Images from Blackwater

Hi,

At the last gathering, we discussed photographing Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and I said that I would post some of the images that I had taken over the past four or five years.  Here are ten images, edited down from nearly 650.  As you can see, with a relatively flat horizon the sky becomes a major point of interest, and clouds, sunsets, and reflections all contribute to the images that I liked best.  I've included more images of birds than I expected to, as my wife is the birder, and I am more interested in graphic composition.  Susan and I are in agreement that hanging around until dark frequently yields some great sunset color, even when it doesn't look like it is going to.  We've seen thousands of Snow Geese in the winter, and Canada Geese, Blue Herons and Egrets are a staple.  And we have never failed to see one or more Bald Eagles, sometimes more than a dozen on a visit.

Although you can overnight easily in the area, I think of it as a day trip, stopping at Annie's on Kent Island Narrows for dinner on our way back.  It's about two hours each way.

Harry Meyers

Second Class

I am responding belatedly to Harry's follow-up post to our last meeting about what I am working on. I can't remember what I said at the last meeting so please forgive an repetition. Since our last meeting I've been "mining" pictures I've taken previously some of which are on this post. I have quite a backlog. I too will probably build a website to focus my direction and to keep me working on my old pictures.

I would also like to go with all of you on a special shoot. I am flexible as to location and subject. As the leaves change I especially like to go on a shoot to capture fall color.

These are pictures from almost a year ago when I went to Bryce resort, not to ski,but to get away. They tested their snow making machinery while I was there. My wife and I then went to Lurary Caverns.

Next the caverns.

Prime Hook, sushi, and more

During the past month I returned to Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge, one of my favorite places on the Eastern Shore for a couple of days-- just to get my photographer's eye back in focus. The refuge is a great place early in the morning when clouds roll in and the wind picks up. In addition, in preparation for an upcoming trip to Japan, I discovered some Japanese-focused places around Washington and took some photos (I was admonished by a security guard at Tysons).  I would love feedback on some of these images (e.g., subject strength, balance, cropping, background, etc.   Nancy

Jet trails over tidal marshes, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware

Grasses in the ocean breeze, Broadkill Beach, Delaware

Hardwood forest, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Great Blue Heron, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Sushi conveyor belt, Tyson's Shopping Center

Taiko drummer, National Arboretum festival

Out of the computer

Have been busy and not yet had the chance to wrestle with my printer to get it working again, but I decided to take Barbara's suggestion and ordered 25 square prints from Parabo Press ($5 + shipping since I upgraded to 5.5 inches)...hopefully will have them in time for our next group session :)

Here's the link to the previews:

https://www.paraboapi.com/share/0e544f96

Follow up to Tuesday evening session

Last Tuesday was a pretty good introduction to the group, and I've been thinking about what I want to do, using the group's various backgrounds and interests and my own. A couple of directions seem possible.

First I think that I should explore setting up a web page, not because I expect to attract lots of hits and maybe even a sale or two, but because it would give me a focus and an incentive to go through my very large body of work, setting it in order, finding the best images, and working to make them even better.  I think that Lightroom will be very helpful for this, but I'm going to think about scanning in a lot of film negatives and slides that are presently sitting in albums.  I will want to add new work as well, but mainly if it gets me into new ways of seeing and imaging.

Second, I'm going to go ahead with alternate processing, starting with cyanotype and maybe adding gum.

Harry

What I did on my summer vacation