From Clicking to Creating
From Clicking to Creating – Week 8 of 2018
This week the 2 Lil Owls prompt is silhouette, and I couldn’t decide between two shots which I like the best. So I am sharing them both. One is a sunrise, and the other a sunset.
This is a sunrise at the Kofa, I love this mountain and the dramatic silhouette it creates.
This is a sunset were you can see the different shades of the mountains in the distance.
Which do you guys like the best?
This is zoom burst week for the Dogwood 52. I talked about this technique in a post a of couple weeks ago, and I hope you guys had fun practicing. This ended up being my favorite shot.
I thought this week for lightroom tips, I would start talking about the tools that are available.
The crop tool is probably the simplest, yet one of the most artistically valuable tools in lightroom. Cropping an image to make it more artistic, or pleasing to the eye, is easy and a great thing to know. Obviously making your original image artistic from the second you click the shutter is best, but if it’s a fast moving subject you don’t always have time to think about that.
Click these images to enlarge.
Here you can see the original image, and how I cropped it to make it better. Obviously Torrey is the focus and I don’t need all the “extra” stuff on the sides of her. I liked the idea of making this in portrait mode, and I moved her slightly to the left so I am following the rule of thirds. In the area that I have circled, there is a drop down menu to choose different sizes for the image, or leave it As Shot. The padlock locks the dimensions of that size so when you move the crop lines in or out, the size says the same. If you want to crop the image, but don’t care about keeping certain dimensions, click the padlock to unlock it. This allows a more free crop of the photo.
There are two ways to level an image. You can grab the corners, and start moving them up or down. When doing this extra grid lines will show up to help guide you to get it straight vertically, or horizontally.
Or, you can use the Angle tool. It does the exact same thing, and you will get the same extra lines to check your degree of level. I have shifted this to the extreme to give you an idea of what you can do.
Here is another example of creating something more artistic through cropping. I wanted Roxy on the left, to give the photo room on the right for her to walk. Generally, following the rule of thirds makes for a better image. But, rules are meant to be broken too. There are certainly times when having the subject in the middle of the photo is the right thing to do. You just have to move the crop box around, try different sizes and angles, until you end up with something you like.
What have you guys created this week?
I LOVE cropping my photos. It’s a great way to turn a snapshot into a framed work of art. Thank you Mary for always teaching a new trick!
And your photos are always so beautiful!
Good tips. We use the rule of thirds a lot too, but sometimes it simply doesn’t work with an otherwise really nice shot, or it is a photo made to be centered.
Every photo is different, and needs it’s own idea. Your images are always so perfect.
I love the ‘burst’ photo!
And once we get settled into the new home, I shall have to start experimenting! <3
I love experimenting with new ideas, and the zoom burst was a lot of fun. Simply because of the different results you get.
I like the sunset photo. Of course Roxy and Torrey’s photos are my favorites.
Cropping is something I do have fun with. It’s more fun when you’re doing it artistically, then when you’re just trying to crop out something you shouldn’t have had in the background in the first place (unfortunately I do that a lot!). I try to follow the rule of thirds much more than I used to as well.
I love the silhouette shots, but I think the sunset is my favorite – there’s something about that orange sky that really makes the mountains stand out more.
Ah my “like” button isn’t working again. Anyway, I’m with Jan K on the silhouette shots. And, course, I always love the pix of Torrey and Roxy!
Thank you for the cropping tips, Mary. I didn’t know about the padlock locks. :)
I seem to be constantly behind on this ;) I love your zoom burst. It’s vivid and eye-catching. I just wrapped my head around this one today, and I took my first tries (indoors!). I think that I’ll end up being late posting again!
Desert silhouettes are so dramatic. I love both of yours!