Color Me Beautiful
An entire month without a post! That doesn't mean I've not been exploring, only that I've not been writing about it.
I traveled some in October, first to DC and then to California for various work related meetings. I also traveled in state to Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River reservation. When I travel for work, I rarely bring my higher end camera because I don't multi-task work and non-work things well. For good or for ill I get entirely absorbed with work and keeping track of a camera let using it requires more brain space than I have. Thus, I found myself back to where I was in terms of my exploration, using the tools that many people have to tell the story of moments captured while going about my life. No big, grand adventures involved.
A couple of weeks ago I was driving back from Eagle Butte on a brilliant fall day passing by a recently hayed field. The light, the clouds, the expanse of the field called to me. I pulled off the road, whipped out my phone camera and took a few shots.
When I looked at it later on my laptop my response was "meh, that's not what it looked like." Haven't we all had that experience? The camera lens, especially a phone camera lens, is not as sensitive as the human eye which is why I twiddle—a cross between tweak and fiddle—with the colors in the editing. Dicey business this since computer monitors vary so what looks good on one monitor will look horrid on another.
My photo editing skills are most kindly described as rudimentary. A more accurate description might be non-existent. Essentially, I play with the different settings on the Google photo editor till I get it to look right. One of the days I hope to be able to say "Oh, if I increase the warmth and decrease the saturation it will look just right" but I'm not there yet.
I shared below two versions of the photo I took. In the caption are the settings according to Google photos.
I traveled some in October, first to DC and then to California for various work related meetings. I also traveled in state to Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River reservation. When I travel for work, I rarely bring my higher end camera because I don't multi-task work and non-work things well. For good or for ill I get entirely absorbed with work and keeping track of a camera let using it requires more brain space than I have. Thus, I found myself back to where I was in terms of my exploration, using the tools that many people have to tell the story of moments captured while going about my life. No big, grand adventures involved.
A couple of weeks ago I was driving back from Eagle Butte on a brilliant fall day passing by a recently hayed field. The light, the clouds, the expanse of the field called to me. I pulled off the road, whipped out my phone camera and took a few shots.
When I looked at it later on my laptop my response was "meh, that's not what it looked like." Haven't we all had that experience? The camera lens, especially a phone camera lens, is not as sensitive as the human eye which is why I twiddle—a cross between tweak and fiddle—with the colors in the editing. Dicey business this since computer monitors vary so what looks good on one monitor will look horrid on another.
My photo editing skills are most kindly described as rudimentary. A more accurate description might be non-existent. Essentially, I play with the different settings on the Google photo editor till I get it to look right. One of the days I hope to be able to say "Oh, if I increase the warmth and decrease the saturation it will look just right" but I'm not there yet.
I shared below two versions of the photo I took. In the caption are the settings according to Google photos.
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| Untouched. The picture looks more washed out than it appeared in real life. |
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| Auto corrected with increased warmth and deep blue using the Google Photos editor. Also, I've never met a picture that couldn't use some pop. I may have overdone it a tad but the color of the fields was about this rich. |
