Lightroom, ETTR, etc, and more

I've now managed to get myself addicted to blogs and tweets about Lightroom and photo editing.  I can't stop reading them.  I really wish I didn't have to work full time and could just play with my camera and photos.

At any rate, I have been trying to Expose to the Right (ETTR), which is supposedly the proper way to take digital photos, to get the most digital data.  Then "fix" it in Lightroom (or wherever) to get the right look.  In some ways I struggle with this concept, but in others it really makes sense to me.

So I've been trying it.  I have been bracketing my photos so that I can one at the "correct" exposure, then get some overexposed.  I edit and play with both exposures.  I tend to get halos and weird things when I overexpose, so I'm not confident with it.

I'm learning lots about lightroom and really trying to find my voice.  I guess since I don't have much of a consistent subject matter aside from my children, finding my voice is difficult.  But if I can translate what my mind's eye sees into the computer screen I'm happy.

At any rate ... here are some that I've worked with recently.  I should start showing SOOC with my edited, but I don't have those uploaded, and don't really have time to mess with that right now.  Maybe in a future series.

This is one that was edited with intention.  Unfortunately it was right before I figured out how to put my camera in RAW format.  At any rate, as shot, they were very warm and just too much color.  I fixed that and made them realistic looking.  But looked further and liked the grey-ish/white background of the hazy sky and the framing the tree makes on the left.  So I played with the saturation and black/white effects and came up with this.  I like that it's not quite B&W, but not sepia or color either.  It is just kinda there.  

SOOC - very warm and orangey

Original edit, normal looking and nice.

Random Photo Walk Through Town

I've been reading through a book about editing photos with a purpose and was inspired to go take photos to later edit.  (Vision and Voice.....)

So I grabbed the camera and walked through downtown Pleasanton.  I was struggling being inspired.  A couple things caught my attention, but didn't see in real life what I saw in my head.  Nothing was really stellar.  I saw a little dirt path that followed a local creek.  I followed the path and saw some interesting things (let's just say it's not a place I'd visit after dark).  I took probably 30-40 photos.  Still don't think there was anything spectacular.  I've had better inspiration and taken better photos.  But I had something to work with at least.

There are a few that were pretty good.  I played with them a lot in Lightroom (I'm still learning how to use the program and how to edit and find my voice in my photos).  I took what was a dreary day with dirt and dormant plant (they're not dead ... just dormant) and made it look a little cheerier greener.

I liked the still water followed by the flowing water. 

I loved the reflection of the ivy here.  That's 100% real ... I just enhanced the green leaves.

The path to anywhere .... it disappears into the trees and you don't know where it goes until you follow it..