Some More Winter Scenes

These were all taken on February 10th and I never had a chance to finish them until tonight. I love what tonemapping has done to them!



I love the church in the next two photos. Even though it's dark I still like them!

Roses From Spring

Can believe these are from last Spring and I just edited them?

Spring of 2008 is just around the corner and I can't believe I have so many varieties of flowers left to edit that I photographed last year.

I'm soooo backed up on my editing!!





















By the way...Jen Weaver Photography Blogspot hit 4000 hits today! I can't believe it! Only 24 days ago it hit 3000...I can't believe it! Yay!

Country Road in Black & White

It was suggested I try this in Black & White and I've glad it was suggested!

I love how it came out after burning & dodging!

Congrats Julie Lawson Photography!

Julie Lawson of Julie Lawson Photography (of Indianapolis, Indiana) had her awesome, delicious, scrumptious cupcake photos featured on new handbag designer Purbrella's site! Congrats to you Julie!!



Go here to see her cupcake photos (just wait a moment for the cloud photos to pass and you'll see her cupcakes!):

http://purbrella.com/shop_flirty.html


Not only is she a great photographer but she baked and designed those amazing cupcakes herself!

Check out Julie's new Photography Blog: http://julielawsonphotography.blogspot.com/

Coutry Road Take Me Home

After my sister and I visited the beach on February 3rd I headed home from her house on the "scenic" route hoping to catch the sunset over the farms.

I pulled over on the side of the road, set up the tripod by my car and took these two:

(3 exposures bracketed, merged to HDR in Photomatrix)



(3 exposures bracketed, merged to HDR in Photomatrix)



Then I set up the tripod in the actual cornfield across the street and took the next one:

(3 exposures bracketed, merged to HDR in Photomatrix)

Lots-o-Links for Photography Lovers

27 Photoshop Tutorial Sites:

http://photo-projectz.blogspot.com/2008/01/30-photoshop-tutorial-sites.html

80 Photoshop Resources

http://mashable.com/2007/08/30/photoshop-toolbox/

Introduction to Metering Modes:

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/introduction-to-metering-modes/

How to: Create Higher Dynamic Range With Bracketed Exposures:

http://www.cameraporn.net/2008/01/31/howto-create-higher-dynamic-range-with-bracketed-exposures/

Replacing Skies Tutorial:

http://niels-henriksen.blogspot.com/2008/02/replacing-skies-or-what-mood-
today.html

Reading Histograms

http://blog.sduffyphotography.com/2008/02/05/reading-histograms/


7 Reasons To Love Prime Lenses

http://blog.epicedits.com/2008/02/13/7-reasons-to-love-prime-lenses/


Stumble It!

More With Lee

Finally got back to editing the photoshoot of my pal Lee. I know...you're saying "there's more?" and the answer is yes. Quite a few more to go through and edit.

Lee was a patient subject and even though the time flew by I took a lot of shots. The reason why it's also taking so long is because these photos (in my opinion) are filled with a lot of emotion and I feel the need to try multiple post processing effects until I find the right one for the photograph.











One of my FAVORITE EDITS today! I love how I made Lee's eye look!!





















Since Lee is a writer we decided to do some shots with his trusty blue notebook.



Lee also wanted a shot showing the area where her lives so we took this shot with is pup Elliot Igby.

The Completed Colonnade Series

In continuation of this prior blogpost I wrote this past week...I finished the Colonnade photos I took in Princeton, NJ this past Monday.

This placard talks about the history:



I chose 10 photos for the series and did them in HDR. Each is made up of 3 exposures.

Eye-Popping & Sharpening Tutorials

Thanks to a tutorial shared by Mark I re-edited these 2 photos below to make my eyes "pop."

You'll find this "eye-popping" tutorial from Parc Cruz on FLICKR: through the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parc/sets/72157603471515529/

In addition to enhancing the eyes in the photo I also boosted the contrast and tweaked the curves in photoshop to get the final result shown below.

Try this tutorial - it's very easy to do and once you get the hang of it only takes an extra minute or so in your post processing.

BEFORE


AFTER


The photographer named Parc Cruz that created the eye-popping tutorial on FLICKR also created and shared a sharpening tutorial for the eyes. If you'd like to try the eye sharpening tutorial click the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parc/sets/72157594375402709/

I tried the "eye popping tutorial" along with the "sharpening" tutorial and these are the results:

BEFORE
No retouching done at all...as you can tell by my skin (ick):



AFTER
Skin retouching with the clone tool, Noise Ninja applied, curves adjusted, and the 2 tutorials used for eye enhancement and eye sharpening:



Both photos in the examples above were done with completely natural lighting coming through a window.

Parc Cruz also shared some of his Before and After's which are quite amazing. He doesn't share how he does it but they are unbelieavable and I admire his work. See his Before & After's through the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parc/sets/72157602106578038/

Later in the day (after I got used to these tutorials) I worked on the following photo, edited the original, and then applied 4 other actions to it that I just LOVE!

Original with NO EDITING:



Colored edited and tweaked as well as the eye popping & sharpening tutorials applied: