Title: Iris Macro 2
​Photographer: Rob Nardino





I was trying to take macro photos of the irises that just bloomed in our front yard.  I wanted only some of it in focus, so it would have an abstract feel to it.  I’ve cropped it different ways, and would love to have input about the two versions here.  Offset in-focus elements would adhere to traditional compositional rules, but the background on right is a little less blurred than I would like (I guess I could play around in Photoshop) where as the more centrally placed one could be viewed as more static but I think it appeals to me a little more.

Title: Blue Jay
Photographer: Janet Rathbun

I took this photo of a Blue Jay at my peanut feeder in my backyard after 5 pm. My camera settings were 300 mm focal length, with crop factor 450 mm, f/9, 1/500, ISO 400. I was trying to capture the texture of the feathers and sharpness of the bird, particularly the eye. I was also attracted to the blue color of the bird.
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This is a continuation of Things I learned during the Lock Down #3.

Make the selection of the plant per TILDLD#1.

Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to change colors.  Use the sliders to change the hue, saturation and lightness until you are happy with the new color.  Add H/S adjustment layers to create other colors.

You will end up with many layers, each with the plant having only one color.

In order to have leaves with different colors I use a brush on the masks of each of the H/S layers to hide what I don't want.

Title: Untitled
Photographer: Anne Mele
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"I love the color blue.  I am fortunate to live on south cove in Old Saybrook which can provide beautiful blue sunrises in certain weather conditions.  I have photographed this view hundreds and hundreds of times now, trying to capture the most vivid blue hues that I can.  This is my latest.  I wish is was more clear.  I was using a tripod with a remote.  I tried cropping the left but I found I liked the lights and bit of sun coming thru on that side so I sized this to be a more panoramic view."

Title: AZ8A1920
Photographer: Mark Janke

​I was interested in this shot because of the the juxtaposition of the very multi-textured ice against the silky smooth flow of water.
I tried this one as a B&W but found to my surprise that I liked the subtle color in the rock, so I kept the color image.

With permission from Jeannine Smith

Addition content with the Crop tool in Photoshop

In Photoshop click on the Crop tool.  In the Option bar make sure the "Content Aware" box is checked.  Instead of cropping or removing some of the image's content I made the crop bigger or increased the image where I wanted to have new content.  Click the check box in the Option bar.  PS enlarged the image and added content to the new portion.

In this case the content is complex so PS did a poor job with the new content.  I used the clone stamp to to make the new content acceptable.  

To create the shadow under the headstone I use a exposure adjustment layer to darken the image to where I think the exposure of the shadow should be.  I inverted the adjustment layer mask from white to black- click on the layer mask + control/command I.  The layer mask turn black and the exposure adjustment is hidden.  With the layer mask as the active layer use a brush to paint on the image where I want the shadow it appeared.

​Title: Meandering
Photographer: Regina Hausmann
 
I have been trying to photograph some ducks (Mergansers, I believe). My opportunity arrived but not under ideal conditions.  It was a foggy day and the ducks were very far from the shore.
 
I liked the silhouette and formation of the ducks.  With Topaz Studio, the following artistic version was created.  It is important to me to convey the feeling of calm on that foggy morning.
 
What do you think the picture conveys?  How do you feel about the simplicity of the picture?