Aperture64 Personal

My Personal Blog for Aperture64 Photography

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

Although it is not the most positive thing to be doing, I am longing for summer holiday this year. I am really excited and can’t wait to spend a week away from the modern world and escape with some photography. Looking back at some of last year’s pictures have really been making my anticipation increase even more.

For this weeks picture, I didn’t do too much editing in Lightroom. I first just toned the whole image to make the colours pop. The greens, blues and reds really jump out of you. I increased the exposure globally, and with a gradient adjustment reduced the highlights to pull back some detail. I also reduced the exposure with another gradient adjustment on the top part of the image to darken the sky a little. Finally I sharpened the image and had a cup of tea.

Week 82 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

After

Before

Sherry Felix 

After

Before

Steps to create the after version of the robin in Photoshop:

Black and White adjustment layer chose Infrared

Warm photo filter 5%

Hue/saturation adjustment layer Saturation +33

Duplicate robin and mask the bird

Red photo filter 25%

Copy and flatten the layers …

on1 Effects (PS add-on) chose “Cans on Shelf”

Underwater Photo filter 56% applied to the on1 layer

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum wk83; Wishing for Summer. The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

This week for the forum I was really wanting to experiment with a technique I read for creating solarized images. Although the article was looking at portraits they had an example of the same settings being applied to a landscape. In essence you have to create a black and white image and then add an inverted u shape in the curves. As with any guide or preset you do need to adjust other settings to bring the image together. If you want to check out the article you can find it here.

Week 82 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe

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Amy World Is A Book

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After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk 82; Solarized Landscape The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

For us in Europe it seems that spring has finally sprung. Blossom has finally began to add colour to some trees, leaves are beginning to unfurl and days are getting warmer. This week’s hopefully shares the sudden feeling of spring erupting.

The editing was fairly simple; I adjusted the colour balance and cropped the image to begin with, I then added some contrast and player around with colour calibration. I finally increased the exposure and sharpened the image traditionally as well as adding a little noise.

Week 80 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Amy World Is A Book

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Claire Bach

#gallery-0-15 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-15 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

  After Before Forum Wk 81; Erupting Spring The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

PSA; next week is One Photo Focus with Stacy at Visual Venturing if you want to take part you can find more information and the picture being edited here. The After before forum will be back on April the 8th with submissions by the 6th.

This weeks photo takes me back to Malbrok, a fantastic teutonic castle. This week i have been looking for some peace and quiet, This room for me is a place I would love to have been able to escape to.

The editing was quite straightforward. I knew the shot could be edited with a low key style with all the details in the shadows being pigged by a few areas of highlights. For black and white I have a daguerreotype preset that I created which automatically gives an image the look I wanted. I then tidied up the highlights on the floor to let the defects of the glas shine through. I also created a vignette of contrast to create a more focused image. The final finishing touches was some slight split toning.

Week 80 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

#gallery-0-13 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-13 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

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Sherry Lynn Felix

#gallery-0-14 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-14 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-14 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-14 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

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Amy World Is A Book

#gallery-0-15 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-15 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk 78; A Peaceful Room The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

I remember when taking this and others from the top of Gdansk’s cathedral that I wasn’t sure what i wanted to do with the pictures. This meant that I was taking pictures at around f/16 to have a wide-ish depth of field. This is a good plan but when editing you may want something different. With today’s edit, I really wanted the church to be the focus but the whole scene was cluttered and distracting.

The only way to isolate the church was to create a shallow depth of field. I did this with two gradient tools and reducing the sharpening, this creates a soft feeling but not really blurring the image. I then edited the gradients to make the effect feel real. For example the church’s tower was softened by the gradient because areas behind it needed to be softened. On the edges I used auto mask and in the centre of the tower I used a normal brush.

Other editing steps were standard, just adjusting the overall tone and colour as well as sharpening.

Week 79 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

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 I think the only thing I would change if I was to do this again, would choose a different time of day as I have quite harsh shadows in the image. I would also adjust the blue saturation a bit more because it kind of jumps out of the image.

Let me know in the comments what you think.

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk 79; Isolating with shallow focus The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

Before

Wow where has the time gone! Is the calendar right, is it friday again? This week has flown by. I had made a promise that in changing jobs I would be able to make more time to get out with my camera. At present that seems not to be the case but I have seen some opportunities where soon I will be able to.

This week’s picture was actually taken in Gdansk. Walking along the  quayside there where all these beautiful yachts and then I saw what I can only describe as the ugly duckling compared the beautiful swan yachts. I loved the contrast and snapped a quick shot.

In Lightroom toned the image in my usual way and then went about trying to isolate the boat in foreground. I did this with three elliptical adjustments. One to brighten the the background, the second to add extra detail to the foreground boat and the third to soften details in the background. I then opened the picture in photoshop to remove the inflatable pontoon from the bottom left as I found it distracting.

Week 78 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

#gallery-0-21 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-21 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-21 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-21 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

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Claire Bach 

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Mary Hone

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Amy World Is A Book

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Michelle Lunato

#gallery-0-25 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-25 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-25 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-25 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

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Before

  Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk 78; An Ugly Duckling The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

PSA; next week is One Photo Focus with Stacy at Visual Venturing if you want to take part you can find more information and the picture being edited here. The After before forum will be back on March the 11th with submissions by the 9th.

I may have commented in passing on here that I have a new job, which I actually start on Tuesday. With new jobs comes lots of forms, medical check ups, nervousness and of course the ID picture. Although I greatly enjoy taking pictures I have not been a big fan of having my picture taken. I was asked by new employer to send an ID picture of me to them. The last time I had my ID picture taken I ended up looking like some kind of drug dealer, not pretty. So I decided to take the picture myself, with the help of my wife. The picture was up to scratch for my ID badge but not something I was really happy with; as I still feel as if I look like a criminal, although not a drug dealer. With my photoshop knowledge I decided to make something else out of this picture.

I was thinking first about vector art portrait. Browsing the net though I saw a few images with different elements I liked and started to concoct an idea in my head.

I first took my portrait and duplicated it a few times playing around with the threshold to create a silhouette of my main features.

I actually took the jpeg file and opened it in notepad to get a load of computer code. I then pasted this code into a few new layers. this part took a bit of experimentation. I ctrl clicked on my portrait to make a selection and used that selection to create a mask. This process created my face made from computer code.

I added some colour to the background by using a gradient going from a light red to a darker red.

I thought the image was still quite plain. I added a texture just to add some depth.

Still seeing some plain areas I added a tiled pattern to the background with quite a low opacity.

The final image is for me quite interesting. The code although is strange links nicely to my new job, the texture adds a worn feel like when the toner on the printer has run low. I am still not sure about the red but it is a striking colour for the image.

Week 77 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Amy World Is A Book

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After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk 77; Self Portrait 2016 The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

This week I wanted just to let my hair down and experiment. Usually i have an outcome in mind when I start experimenting, this week however I just started playing and went down the rabbit hole.

I started with two film textures I layered on top of each other. One had a dust and scratch texture which I cleared partially away. This had darkened the image quite a bit and added curves to brighten the midtones and soften the shadows. I then moved into the overall toning, reducing the saturation and adding some yellow ( it feels more like staining the highlights. One of final elements was a gradient from orange to yellow  to black to add a slight discolouration on the left side.

I like the colour and toning I got with the image. Apart from that I feel that there is something missing, although I am not sure what that missing element is.

Week 76 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Sherry Lynn Felix

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Before 2

To create my impression of a day in Chinatown I started with a mural at Second Avenue and 1st Street, East Village, NYC in Photoshop. I then imported turtles taken at the Chinese Market under the Manhattan Bridge at East Broadway. I used a blend mode “divide” opacity 65% duplicated the layer and used a blend mode “subtract” opacity 20%. I duplicated those two layers and flipped them and placed part on the left wall. The result is a ballerina floating among cloud like turtles.

theonlyd800inthehameau

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Michelle Lunato Photography

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Amy World Is A Book

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Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Week 76; Grungy and Old The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

This week I have been so busy with the end of the semester coming and also that I am leaving my current teaching job. This has left me with a lot of extra work to do and not much time to take pictures. Not wanting to miss out on the forum this week I am pulling a picture from last year, which is my favourite picture of last year, that I created for Valentine’s day.

If you want to see who I put the image together check out my valentine’s post from last year 

Week 75 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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theonlyd800inthehameau

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Michelle Lunato Photography

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Amy World Is A Book

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After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Week75; Valentines Day The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

Next week is One Photo Focus over on Stacy Fischer’s Blog Visual Venturing and the After Before Forum will be back on the 12th of February. If you wish to take part in One Photo Focus you can find more infomation here.

Back to this week’s image. I wanted to play around with solarization. Solarisation (or solarization) is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on aa negative or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark. The term is synonymous with the Sabattier effect when referring to negatives, but is technically incorrect when used to refer to prints. (wikipedia)

You can create solarized images in Silver Efex and Photoshop. However I decided to use Lightroom and a Plugin called Enfuse. Enfuse is a plugin for creating HDR images primarily.

In Lightroom I converted my before image to black and white. I then made a virtual copy and reversed the curve to create a negative image. I then merged the two images together with Enfuse.

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The image that came out of Enfuse was very grey (something I am used to when i do this) I played around with the settings to create a nice tone. There are two approaches to toning, Dark and contrasted, Bright with softer but still strong contrast. I finally split toned the image to add some more Depth to the image.

The effect was quite alien at first , but has slowly grown on me.

Week 74 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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theonlyd800inthehameau

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Amy World Is A Book

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Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Week74; Solarized Daisy The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

  This week I wanted to do something a bit different. I already had taken a picture of the moon a few weeks ago and was not impressed with the image when cropped, and really wanted to add it to an picture. This requires a composite, but what to composite? I decided to take a picture of sugar mountain  ;) . The basic idea was to place the moon on the sugar mountain image and add some stars.

I placed the Moon on my Sugar Mountain image by using the blending; screen. To create the stars I created a new layer filled it with black and then turned the layer into a smart object. I then used the filter; add noise combined with gaussian blur to create the stars, and used levels to adjust the brightness. I grouped the layers, set the blending to screen and masked out the Moon and Sugar Mountain. The image was looking good monochrome. First however I added colour to the mountain and then used a black and white layer adjustment to convert the image to black and white. After this I made some additional adjustments to blend the images together.

I like the idea of the image yet I am not sure I executed it very well. It has a nice full moon clear night feel, however I am not sure I got the lighting quite right.

Do you know where Sugar Mountain is?

Week 73 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Claire Bach

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theonlyd800inthehameau

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Michelle Lunato

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This before picture was taken during my trip to Barbados in December. I was addicted to photographing nearly everything I saw it seems. However, there may have been one too many rum punches or I was in a hurry, because this photo was lacking the level of focus I like. Instead of throwing it out though, I decided to play around and create something worth looking at….

Amy World Is A Book

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After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk 73; Sugar Mountain The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

I shall start with a public service announcement; this is the last After Before Forum of 2015. Don’t Panic! the forum will be back up and running on the 8th of January 2016 welcoming the new year in with a bang. If you are still wishing to stretch those editing muscles after Christmas Dinner, you could take part in the One Photo Focus January. This will be the one year anniversary of One Photo Focus.

I had a really cool idea after seeing Lore’s submission to last week’s forum. I am not a person who jumps head over heels at Christmas time, yet I am not a Grinch either. I think I just get over loaded at school teaching Christmas lessons and run out of steam for the really event. Although after seeing Lore’s picture I wanted to create a Christmas image for this week’s forum post. I came up with the idea of creating some custom bokeh. Of course my first thought was, this would be fun in Photoshop and then stopped myself, I should try and do this in camera.

To create custom bokeh in camera is not as hard as it seems. You need a nice piece of black card, a pencil, a craft knife and steady hand. I built my setup in about 5 minutes. First I cut card and wrapped it around the lens before taping it together. Secondly I traced my tape and then in the middle traced my lens cap, and cut it out. I then created some flaps by cutting lines from the inner circle to the edge. Before taping it to the card around the camera body I cut a square about a square inch hole in the middle of the inner circle. Using the flaps I taped the circular card to the car around the body of my camera. Lastly I cut a strip of card a bit wider than one inch. In the middle sketched a Christmas tree and cut it out with my craft knife very carefully; making sure I left clean edges. My first attempt i kept in a 2cm squared square. For my camera this was too small as I lost the field of view and it would block out areas of my picture. I went back and cut a larger Christmas tree in about a 3cm squared area.

Custom Bokeh in camera with the Lego Jester

I set up some Christmas lights in the background and took some test shots. all was working well. Now I had my custom bokeh I needed a subject to interact with it. I chose one of my infamous Lego figures (the jester because of his surprised and awe(ish) look) and began setting up the shot. I tried my macro lens first placing the jester in the foreground but the field of view was too narrow. I switched to my kit lens and added my extension tubes to get a winder field of view. I exposed for the Christmas lights and used my flash with my pringle diffuser to light the Lego figure. It worked but I was still getting a bit of a weird shadow over my image from the custom bokeh setup.

In the end I took some shots of the bokeh and then some of my Lego figure and decided to merge it all together in Photo shop.

In Photoshop I set the bokeh layers on top of the lego man layer in a group, and set the blending to screen. I then added a hue and saturation layer clipping it to the bokeh group group. I adjusted the hue and saturation layer to colour the bokeh green.

Back in Lightroom I made three main adjustments. First I softened the blacks and brighten the image using the curves panel. I added  split toning to soften the strong colours but increased the saturation of the greens to make sure the didn’t get lost. I did make some radial adjustments as well to selectively sharpen the face of the lego man and large bokeh while softening the rest of the image.

I do like the final image, it has a quiet charm to it. Now I have created a custom bokeh rig I am sure I will experiment a bit more with it and try some more inventive compositions. One of things I have noticed though, is that I thought my cuts were neat but you can see on the larger bokeh how scrappy the edges are.

Week 70 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe ApertureF64

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Lore Dombaj Snows Fissures and Fracture

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theonlyd800inthehameau

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mannalexandra

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Mary Hone Tales From The Back Road

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Amy The World Is A Book

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Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk70; Dreaming of Christmas Bokeh #Lego #Bokeh #Photo The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

Week 66 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Before

For the last two years in my city there has been utter chaos on the roads. The authorities believed it was a good idea to dig up one of the main arteries of the city, place most of it underground and then build a new tram stop. Of course we hated all the havoc caused and yes the new road has no holes now, and we no longer have four tram stops at one intersection we now have two, and isn’t it pretty. I took the before photo at sunset a few days before the official opening of the tram stop. What really caught my eye was the colour of the roof and the sun shining though at the end.

In editing the picture I first created my HDR of three stops in Lightroom. What I was looking to get was the light colours in the glass roof from the over exposed bracket, and the detail of the light from the setting sun in the under exposed bracket. Once the HDR was pulled together most of the editing was completed with gradient and radial adjustments.

Of course now that the stop is open I will have to go back and try and capture the same scene again, perhaps with some trams. For me it is the colours not just in the roof but the mixture of warmth in the background and coldness in the foreground that really add some depth to the image.

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Lore Dombaj Snows Fissures and Fracture

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theonlyd800inthehameau

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lease check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here. Next week is One Photo Focus, this is where members of the After Before Forum edit the same picture. This is hosted by Stacy Fischer on Visual Venturing and if you want to take part check out her post to see how.  The next After Before Forum will be on the 11th of December.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk68; Finishing Touches #photography Week 66 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum For the last two years in my city there has been utter chaos on the roads.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

I am sure many of you beady eyed readers may have noticed over the last few weeks the amount of blogging take place here has significantly declined. This is something I am conscious of and something I am trying to address. It is due to a mixture of my new teaching schedule (everyone wants classes with me) and me not feeling 100% reducing a lot of my energy. Hopefully things are on the up and I can make some headway to bring this blog back on track.

With today’s forum I was looking at pictures that I took earlier this year that I didn’t get round to editing. One of them was of a Ladybird Pupa on the petal of a flower.

I took about 6 pictures focusing on different areas of the Ladybird Pupa. In processing the image I focus stacked the images in Photoshop. Once I had merged the images together, back in Lightroom I made some basic adjustments and sharpening.

Week 66 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Lore Dombaj Snows Fissures and Fracture

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Michelle Lunato Photography

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Amy The World is a Book

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Doug Branson Elusive Trope

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Walking through downtown Wilkes Barre, the color of the plywood caught my eye across two parking lots side by side. From my distance it almost appeared to be a figure similar to the Virgin Mary, her hands held out in mercy. Surrounded by a more subdued earth tones. I moved in closer and realized there was also this stacked perspective of the with the building and the one across the street. Trying to highlight the color of the plywood, I tried not to saturate too much so that it looked like I just added the color myself, but enough to bring out the rich colors of the doorway in the lower left hand corner.

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

After Before Forum Wk67; Reflecting #photography The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

This week’s picture comes from Malbork Castle, the seat of the Teutonic Knights and really the capital of the Teutonic order. This shot is a view of the end of the dining hall where the new knights of the order would eat. When I first saw this scene I knew I wanted it in black and white. There was just something about the textures and a mood that led me down this path.

I converted the image to black and white using my Daguerreotype preset. This preset has strong contrast and dark shadows but gives a nice eerie feeling.

Although I like the contrast, I did want to brighten up some areas. I used multiple radial adjustment tools to brighten specific areas of the image.

The window on the right was flaring around the edges. Although this isn’t that bad I wanted to add something that would add to the area and make it an area of interested. I thought some light rays would work nicely. I did this by (importing the image to Photoshop) duplicating my layer darkening it and applying a radial blur. I set the blur to screen duplicated it and clipped an auto levels adjustment as well as a dust and scratches adjustment.

I added a sepia-ish tone to add some more depth to the image. I did this with a curves adjustment.

I added some noise and sharpened the image just to finish off the image. The addition of noise is to add some texture to the image. I sharpened using the Highpass method and masked out the floor because I liked it slightly softer.

  I think the final image is ok, now looking back I think I would have done something more.

Week 66 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Lore Dombaj Snows Fissures and Fracture

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Nic Anderson – Photography-by-Nic

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I don’t normally pick up random stuff to photograph at home but when I saw this tiny snail shell I really wanted to photograph it with my super macro lens.  That lens is touchy, focus-wise, and requires being on a tripod with a focusing rail, so I’ve only taken photos with it in the ‘studio’.  It felt weird to bring home this ‘dead’ snail, but I tried to convince myself that it was like bringing home a seashell.  Anyway, this after image is 15 photos focus-stacked, then the color is fixed and the sharpness improved.  The snail shell itself is only 1/2 inch (1.27 cm) diameter!

Amy The World is a Book

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Mary Hone Tales From the Back Road

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Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

AFB Forum Wk66; Malbork Dining Hall The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

I really like easy editing as it means I can move on and get away from the computer and take some photos. Today’s picture for the After Before forum was exactly that kind of picture. Although the inside of the room was quite dim the light shining through the window lit it so well and the view wasn’t too bad as well. Due to the difference to the exposure outside and inside, I took bracketed exposures with the intention to merge them in Lightroom.

  I took the three exposures and created a HDR. I selected the auto toning just to see what it looked like and it was pretty good start; so I kept it.

I adjusted the lens corrections and the in created the vibrance to get a bit more power in the colours.

The colours still felt a bit unnatural. I adjusted the luminance of the blues and yellows to get them just right. I did this using the targeted adjustment tool in the HSL panel.

The walls and the window frame felt too warm. I adjusted the colour temperature to bring back the greyness of the stone but not was out the background with a strong blue hue.

Lastly I adjusted the sharpness of the image. I used a low radius and high details to make the small details ping.

    I really like the overall outcome of the image. I know there is a softness around the windows and in the stone between them, yet this is a natural effect that I wanted to keep in. The stone has a natural feel although with some warm tinges from the internal lighting. I also like that fact that the view in the sweet spot between blurry and unrecognisable.

Week 65 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Lore Dombaj Snows Fissures and Fracture

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Nic Anderson – Photography-by-Nic

I came across a tutorial that talked about Clarity in GIMP.  It’s not a button we can push in GIMP so we have to do it manually… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  As a control freak, I like the fact that I can have more control of how this works on my image.  I tried out three methods and got three slightly different images.  Stop by my blog, and I’ll discuss in further detail how I got these three images.

Mary Hone Tales From the Back Road

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  Amy The World is a Book

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Michelle Lunato Photography

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Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here. Next week is One Photo Focus, this is where members of the After Before Forum edit the same picture. This is hosted by Stacy Fischer on Visual Venturing and if you want to take part check out her post to see how.  The next After Before Forum will be on the 13th of November.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement

  After Before Forum; View Through the Window The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.

[aperture64]

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

Last week here in Poland was the National Day of Education, colloquially known as Teachers Day. On this day usually lessons are much more relaxed and fun, and teachers receive presents from their students. Presents vary from flowers to chocolate and this year I was even given a coffee cup, to drink coffee from while I feel their minds with the English language. The day overall is really fun and as a teacher is a day when I feel very honoured from all my students’ appreciation.

This week’s picture is of one of the flowers I was given by my students. I shot this back lit with natural light, popping a flash on my camera to fill in the flower.

First I wanted to brighten the image but only the shadows. I used curves to do this with the targeted adjustment tool as it would be more precise. I also made some adjustments to the colours to make them pop.

There was a slight light leak coming in from the side brightening the rose unevenly. I used a brush adjustment to make the tone of the flower even.

I wanted to bring the colour out more but only in the rose. I did this with a radial adjustment; playing around with the contrast saturation and temperature.

I sharpened the image and then added a radial adjustment around the flower head and reduced the sharpness. I did this to add softness to the background while having the flower sharp.

I didn’t really like the way the brush adjustment from earlier, so I removed it and added a gradient instead.

For me this picture will always be one I like, because of the subject matter. I feel that in my editing I have brought some balance to the image. Personally i like the softness in the background as it creates a really nice contrast to the rose itself.

Week 64 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

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Lore Dombaj Snows Fissures and Fracture

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Amy The World is a Book

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Michelle Lunato Photography

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Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

Thanks to all those who took part this week. If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

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  After Before Forum Wk64; Red Red Rose #Lightroom #PhotoEditing The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography.