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?  

This is a rework of Dianne's Lupine 1 in POTW#4.
Here is what I did.

Open the image in PS and made a copy of the image.  Using the copy I selected the plant using "focus area" inside the selection command.  It needed a bit of work and I used the + and - brush to get all the plant selected and some of the background deselected because two of the upper leaves are out of focus.  So the "focus area" selection either got too much of the background or too little of the plant.

Once the selection is done, a layer mask is created.  This hide the background and let just the plant visible.  Adjustment layers were applied to this layer for brightness and color adjustment.
​
I made another copy of the original image.  I blur the copy and it became the new background.  You can find the different types of blur under the filter command.  Play with the different types of blurs and the amount until you find what you like.  

​These were taken  after a rain.  All were hand held. I've always been interested in water drops and especially liked the center water drop and also the ones along the hairs. The lupines are all over my meadow. The meadow has been cut and therefore there are stems, etc. The lupine were just coming up and were close to the ground. The background is a little busy, but you need a lot of depth of field for the water drops? Perhaps I could have tried stacking a couple of different focus point photos, but I hand held all these. I was amazed at the iphone photo quality. It seems brighter also- same lupine. Perhaps I don't need an expensive camera now that I have the iPhone 11 pro?
Lupine #1 1/200 at f 8 Nikon Z 7 macro 105 mm
Lupine #2 1/40 at f 13 Nikon Z 7 macro 105 mm
iphone  #3 with iPhone 11 pro with 3rd camera which enlarges
 
The iphone11 Pro has 3 camera lenses.

Image Title: Lobster Boat
Photographer: Maryann Flick

These were taken at the dock in Castine, Maine. The image is meant to represent lobster fishing.

Question for viewers: Do you prefer the lobster boat to be in focus with the trap out of focus or the trap in focus with the boat out of focus? If you can, explain why that is your preference.

​ In my opinion, I do not think both should be in focus because the image would seem too busy. But that is a 3rd option! It would have been difficult ‘in camera’ due to the very large distance between them [an extreme DoF]. Perhaps these two could be focus stacked though as taken they may not align properly

Spent some time learning something new in Photoshop this past week. 
​Maryann