"Move a Little Closer" Romantic city skyline with couple at the lake.

 

"Move a Little Closer"

Photo Title:  Move a Little Closer.  The setting and atmosphere had great romantic potential. I thought if I was that guy and on a date, I'd be thinking of a way to "Move a Little Closer".

Setting:  Late afternoon overlooking Town Lake and the city skyline in Austin, Texas circa 2019.  

Equipment: Handheld Samsung  Note 9.

Software:  Affinity Photo 2.1 and Luminar Neo

Original Uncropped.
I saw the potential, but clearly too much happening up top. The branches create a nice framing effect, 
but the top is too long/wide.
There was also too much of the lake in the midground.
Notice the log in front of the woman and the camera behind them in the middle--both were 
cloned out of the scene.

1st crop with basic lighting edits.
Haven't finished cleaning up the lake
or color balance on the people.

Process:  Cropping the picture definitely improved the impact. There were too many distracting tree branches over the top of the frame. Cropping zoomed in the city skyline nicely but it was a bit fuzzy. So I used the Sharpening tool in LN at medium strength and that helped nicely.  But there was a problem with just cropping out the top, there was still too much lake and the couple and rock ledge were too small and not really in the picture. Using AP I used the selection brush tool with soft edges applied and selected the couple and rock ledge. I used the Refine option to smooth the edges some more before grabbing and adding it to a second layer.   Then I moved the couple and rock ledge layer up to fit them better in the frame.

Next, I used the healing brush to spot remove the various debris that was floating in the lake. Then I noticed there was a log floating in front of the girl just at her waistline. Using the clone tool I removed the log.

Next, I thought the Neo Presets darkened the couple too much.  I brushed a mask and selected their clothes and then adjusted the white balance and slightly lighten the colors.

I've read those new to photo editing make the mistake of doing too much. Add to that the power of software that doesn't require a degree to learn or 1,000 hours of experience to become proficient, and you'll find out it IS very easy to do too much.  I wonder what my five-year future self will think of these photos.  

Dark and Rich Preset 

First Swing at Restoring an Old Family Photo from 1978

My first swing at restoring some old photos. A summer family vacation picture as we drive through the petrified forest in New Mexico or Arizona on a hot and sunny day in 1978. I'm 6, Jennifer is 4, Mom is keeping me from pulling Jennifer's hair or teasing her, and Dad is behind the camera. Us kids are sporting some fancy sunglasses. 

That summer's top radio hits we would have been listening to on the long road trip from Missouri to California and back would have been "You Light Up My Life' by Debbie Boone and "Stayin Alive" by the Bee Gees. "Grease" was the hit movie that summer as well. But we didn't care...WE WERE GOING TO DISNEYLAND! 

 

Editing process: My editing programs are Affinity Photo (AP) and Luminar NEO (NEO) 

In AP I used the healing brush to remove the material and spots. In NEO I reduced the blue cast by changing the white balance and saturation. I created a mask for the sky and lightened it up more to make it as realistic as possible. I also used the dodge and burn on the petrified log behind me to lighten up the dark shadow to create some separation from my black shorts and the shadow. Did minimal erasing around the edges of the bodies (that's healing brush in AP but erase in NEO) and lightened the faces a little but the original picture is low quality so can't do much about it.