More Photo Editing Exercises

Before and After

Epic

Sunsets 

This may take a few more tutorials on photo editing! 
Maybe a class if I can find one. 
Or at least a lot more practice...

Not sure I like what the color boost - or which ever sliders I moved - did to this one. 
(Bottom photo edited.)

Last year I watched this sunset from a camp we had the wonderful good fortune to use for several long weekends. It's for sale now and if I had an extra $170,000 I know where I'd be for most of the year.  

Mt Katahdin. 
sigh...

Sara wants a large canvas made from one of my pictures and I'm planning to pick out enough for a calendar.  
Practice...

The Lost File...

Another editing experiment...

Perhaps a little too much color boost? :)

I was trying to get the colors back for the too-dark trees along the coastline. This learning curve may be a steep climb!

Experiment in Editing Pictures

Nikon's free ViewNX-i Software

I don't particularly enjoy editing the photos I've taken - beyond picking the better ones as they come out of the camera to share on Facebook or my blog.

I've only ordered a couple of batches printed so far, with framing a few in mind. I've not yet pounded a nail in the wall to hang them up! 

I had one moose picture put on canvas but it came out a little too green. I feel like editing would have helped, but it looks fine on the laptop screen so maybe it's a symptom of canvas printing.  Will try again.

In this digital age we live in, we have the luxury of taking LOTS of pictures - with the hope some of them will be good! I love playing "Guess how many pictures I took today!" with family members, although most of them have caught on to how high they need to guess now. 

Above is an original and the edited version with a little more oomph! I tried to be cautious with the sliders. I'm fairly satisfied with the changes. My first effort using another picture seems to be hiding ...wherever the computer/software put it?

I'm not really interested in "artistically" editing pictures to the point that they no longer look like what I saw through the viewfinder. But I can usually tell when a picture needs some help. The pictures that REALLY need some help are generally still sitting in a file folder, probably never to be seen again. 

The biggest problem with editing software - aside from cost - seems to be getting past the learning curve of how to use it. My goal is to get over the fear (and basic laziness) of learning a little bit about how to use Nikon's free software. My plan was to purchase Lightroom but it is changing to monthly subscription service, of which I'm not interested. For now it seems like time to experiment more with this free version and just see how it goes. 

Probably need to watch some more YouTube tutorials to figure out how it works!

Back to the Edge of America!

Creatures of Habit

We drove along Route 9 to Route 1, towards Calais for leaf peeking and a little unwinding. 

It seems we took much the same path in October of 2009. 

The weather forecast promised a mostly cloudy day and that's pretty much what we got.


Road construction kept cars in single file right past the best scenic turnouts along Route 9, although the view was fairly unchanged from the pictures I took back then. 

I had high hopes of finding lots of Letterboxes along the way but we only managed to log in 2 successfully. 

The little park overlooking the bay with the lighthouse was the nicer of the two. 


We drove to the entrance of Cobscook Bay State Park  on impulse. We noticed a nature trail as we pulled into a parking space but the attendant came running over and wanted $8 even though the trail head was outside of his gate. 

We got back in the jeep and drove down the road to explore a little more.

Happened upon a public boat launch. 

The photo opportunities were wonderful. 

And free. 

(Although Tom would have qualified for a free day pass as a new senior citizen, had we known.)

We really didn't have time to walk the mile or two of trails since our dog was home alone for the day. 

We still managed to miss the "short cut" back to Route 9 and took the long way home.

The rock painted with political commentary in the bottom picture was found on the picnic table. 

I had stuffed Attitude Monkey in my pocket with the promise of an adventure photo since he hadn't made it past the railing above the glove compartment since being deposited in the Jeep as mascot. 

Almost forgot to take him out of my pocket when Tom handed me the "collectible art".  It's signed MAINE at the bottom. I wonder if there's more floating around in other states.

Can I keep it? 

Keeping it!