Today was a good day. It started a bit rough, but by the end of the day I was feeling pretty good. I tend to listen to photography podcasts while I work. Today I chose to listen to one about a photographer who purchased a Rebel XT (like mine) back in 2005 (Me too!). This photographer has no formal training (not much here either, only 1/3 of the way thru NYIP Pro Course) and little money at the time for extra gear (bingo). For all intensive purposes, it could have been me, with one big exception. These images popped. Lots of color, interesting subjects, fun to look at images. I was furious. I have been struggling, no
pleading with my XT to give me some color, some life to my images. I want to do as much in camera work as I can so I do little post processing at a computer (where I will get sucked into the infinite possiblitites of post production tweaks). As of yet it has never happened for me. All I want are a few images where someone stops and utters the quiet, under the breath "ooooohhh". Just once I wish to stop someone in his or her tracks without prompting them for a compliment. This photographer has it, with the same camera I have been fighting with for years. Which of course means only one thing. Yup, it is me and not the camera. Now I am certain that the colors and 'pop' that I am looking for are in these images, I simply do not know how to coax them out of my camera. So I broke down and began the long and winding trek into post processing. Thanks to a different podcast, I had recently watched a brief tutorial about Nik's Color Effect software. So I pulled up a chair and tried it.
This is one of the few images I have taken where I was really excited to see it in print. Everything just works in my opinion. The man walking his dog is the subject of the photo, and everything else in the image supports this. The dirt road and leaves that line the left side lead you to the pair, the green trees lean in and frame them, and the sunshine at the end of the road draws your eye to them. However, Nik's software really made this image come to life. It boosted the foliage color and added brightness and warmth that simply was not there before. I do not know why I cannot get colors like this straight from the camera, but with great software like this I no longer care as much. I was able to complete post production on five images in under an hour.
So with that, Unit Two is complete. I has been sent away for critique and I move on to Unit Three. I look forward to opening up my assignment sheet to see what is next. So until next time, thanks for reading.
Joe