Old Country Store, Jackson, Tennessee
Ice Cream Parlor at the Old Country Store in Jackson, Tennessee
Every so often I browse through my images and something catches my eye. I look at it and think, “What can I do with this?” Images like this have so much detail and I like converting that detail into an HDR-like image. I started out by making a few adjustments to the shadows and highlights in Lightroom. I then moved the image over to On1 Effects to do the rest. I used the Amazing Detail Finder, Clarity, I lightened the shadows, Exaggerated the tones and edges, and added a subtle HDR look to the image. I moved it back into Lightroom to adjust the contrast slightly for my finished product.
See the before and after side by side:
Never give up on images you may have in your files. I hear people all of the time say they delete pictures. While I have many, many images I will never process, occasionally I find one that surprises me!
After posting this blog, it was suggested to me to see what the image looked like in black and white. Here is the result:
Black and White Version of the Ice Cream Parlor
Creativity: Where does it start?
We are all familiar with the chicken and egg concept…which came first? In photography we are faced with a similar dilemma, do our creative ideas come when the photograph is taken or afterwards in post-processing?
There are times when an image is photographed with an end result in mind. Then there are times during post-processing when an idea emerges on how to create a special image.
Take this palm leaf for example:
Palm leaf as shot
It is a nice image, but it is not “special”. How about if the perspective is changed?
Changing the perspective of an image can give more interest
A diagonal line forces the eye to move up through the photograph. While it is an acceptable image, what else can be done to make it more interesting?
Colorization and the addition of textures
By changing the color and adding textures to the image it changed the look all the way around. A tilt-shift was added on a diagonal to give a soft blur to the edges. On1 Effects is an easy way to make these changes. After the changes were made and tweaked, the images were then saved back into Lightroom.
After a few changes in Lightroom
Once the image was imported back into Lightroom, the Trey Ratcliff HDR Romance Soft pre-set was applied and the image was cropped.
Using Lightroom and On1 together is simple. If On1 is set up as a plug-in program to Lightroom, you right click on your image and choose <Edit in> and select the module you need. It will save a copy in Lightroom with your initial edits and then when you are finished in On1 it will save those changes in Lightroom so you can make additional edits if necessary.
Enjoy being creative!
Pam DeCamp Photography 