Low Key, High Key

Low-Key Pal

Low-key:

I hope I was able to produce a low key image of my dog, Pal. The photo was originally taken outdoors with afternoon sunlight on part of his face. Trying to follow the suggestions of Mitch for the Imagecraft Bootcamp, I changed the photo to black and white and adjusted the lights (-60), the darks (-55) and the shadows(-5) using Lightroom for the low-key (dark and dramatic) effect. I was wary of going too dark because I didn’t want to hide Pal’s pretty face!

High-key:

Last week, we tried high-key (light and ethereal) photo editing and I submitted this photo of my brother. I edited the original image to black and white and made the suggested adjustments, as seen below, for that lesson. In this case, I was wary of going too light and hiding his handsome face.

High-Key Brother

Thanks to Mitch and Lucile for hosting these learning lessons. I certainly have a lot to learn and feedback is welcome!

Inflorescence Close Up

Inflorescence

As a child, my brother and I used to snap the flowers of these weeds at each other or see who could snap one the farthest distance. I never knew the name of these tall weeds; we called them snap weeds. Today, I learned they are called Buckhorn Plantains. Who knew?

I thought a close up of the inflorescence (which is a word I just learned, meaning the
complete flower head of a plant) would be a good choice for this week’s daily post photo challenge: Close Up

I took this photo with my i phone 5s using the macro setting on the camera+ app. I added a sunset filter to darken the background. I am also entering this photo into Lucile’s Photo 101 Rehab Clinic.

Mother Nature As Muse

Delicate Dogwood

I am amazed by nature. This spring, I took picture after picture of flowering trees. I have already posted photos of flowering plum trees and cherry blossom trees.

This dogwood tree is in my backyard and I was in awe of the dogwood blossoms that filled the tree branches. I was inspired to try to capture the delicate beauty of a single flower in a photograph. The petals are now long gone but the image remains.

*posted in response to the daily post weekly photo challenge:
Muse

I am also entering this photo, taken from a distance using the zoom lens of my Nikon CoolPix S9900 camera, into Lucile’s Photo Rehab Clinic.