Mercury Sighted

 

Snapped this vintage Mercury sitting in my neighborhood while taking Abigail for a walk.  Finally I had my Fuji XT-5 and not just my camera phone.  I'm getting better at taking the extra effort to carry it, and it pays off.

I had my 16-80 mm lens, wide tracking AF mode, PROVIA/STANDARD film simulation. Did some very light removal of a couple paint chips on the hood.  I threw it in Luminar NEO and cut out the background and threw a solar/lens flare layer behind it. Also did a Neon Skyline preset.  

If you look close you can see my reflection in the front bumper!

Rattlesnake!

Camera: XT5 Fujifilm with 16-80mm lens.  

Picture details:  Automode, f/5.6, 1/140 sec, ISO 160, focal length 34 mm.  

Edit:  Cropped and added Savannah Silverback Preset with Luminar Neo.

I killed this baby 10" Rattlesnake unknowingly while I was weed trimming some tall grass near a sidewalk.  I turned around and laid out on the sidewalk was the snake with part of its guts hanging out about halfway down its body.  I used a stick to pick it up and coiled it up on a rock for pictures.  Fortunately, I had my camera in my pickup truck.  I zoomed in for a close up and when I edited the picture I noticed that part of my body was reflected in his eye!  

Full Moon with Fuji Xt5

 It was hot and humid, but it was a full moon and a clear night.  I used manual mode, f8, 1/60 and ISO 200 with my 16-80mm lens at 80 mm and the camera on a tripod.  I took 12 pics and photo stacked it in Luminar Neo.  I did adjust the hue a little.  I sure wish I had a telephoto lens.  

Focus Merge on a Matchbox CJ-7 Jeep with the Fujifilm X-T5 Camera

This was a focus merge in Affinity Photo. I used a Fujifilm X-T5 with a 16-80mm lens zoomed in at around 50 mm (I was about 12" away)and took 12 pics focusing on different parts of the Matchbox Jeep. Focus merge combines the pics into one file and then the work begins. You have to select the sharpest pic of the area you're working on and then clone it to the master file. This process allows you to get sharp focus at various focal lengths. I found it to be very time-intensive but very rewarding. The detail is amazing. Just look at the lent(?) on top of the front tire under the wheel well. Even in the shadow the camera picked it up in fine detail. The detail also exposed the sloppy paint job! What can you expect from a $1.50 toy?

Volkswagon Picture Stacking

 

Finished Merge

This was my first attempt at picture stacking.  Picture stacking is where you merge multiple images of a stationary object or landscape at different focal lengths and then in an editing program (Affinity Photo) focus merge them together to produce an extra-sharp final picture. Hold on, not entirely, there's post-merging, fine-detail, editing work to be done.  

Equipment: Fujifilm X-T5 Camera. Fujinon Super EBC XF 16-80mm 1:4 

Software:  Affinity Photo

Help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvMCUaGYNf8  

Process:  

In Affinity Photo (AF) you select FILE- NEW FOCUS MERGE and then add the pictures.  AF analyzes the pictures and combines them into one picture file.  It does a good job but there is still haze and artifacts from each picture that show up that need removed.  After AF merged the three pictures there were now four pictures in the Source Panel (the three original and the merged picture).  

The following three pictures are my original pictures.  I took three pictures (see below).

Front of car focus

Middle of car focus

Back of car focus

The next step is to remove the out of focus areas in each picture.  For example, when merged the front of car focus picture is sharp, but the back of car focus picture is overlayed, so the out of focus areas from the back of car picture show up on the front of car focus picture and vice-versa.  To fix this,  you use the clone tool to manually clone areas from specific source images.

Here's the process:  In the Source Panel where your pictures are located, there is an eye-icon at the bottom.  To clean up the front of car focus, I selected that picture and then selected the eye-icon.  The eye-icon makes that picture the source for the clone tool.  Next, I selected the back of car focus picture. I did not select the eye-icon because I need to keep the front of car focus picture as the source.  Once I selected the back of car focus, I began to drag the clone tool around areas that were blurry.  The clone tool was using the front of car focus picture as the clone and as a result, was removing the blurry areas. There was a bit of trial and error and EDIT-UNDUE, but I was learning and figuring it out. 

Final Thoughts: 

I was pleased with the final result but if I was to do it againg I would take more pictures than just the three I did take.  I would focus on more specific areas than just the fore-mid-background.  I believe that would have allowed me to get an even more pin-sharp final image.  

For this process to work, you have to use a tripod and the object must me stationary. For this project, I laid my camera on the desk and was very careful to not move it.  I also put the camera on a two second delay so there was no movement of the camera from me pushing the picture button.  

Creating a Composite Picture to Make a Post-Apocalyptic Survivor

Post-Apocalyptic Survivor

This project was to practice combining two different pictures together to make them look like one. During the Covid "apocalypse", I took a picture of myself wearing a fancy portable air-filtration system. I also added my swim goggles for extra effect.  Not wanting any good picture go to waste, and to try something different than natural landscapes, I thought it would be fun to take a go at a science-fiction theme. 

Original

In Affinity Photo 2 (AP2) I used the Selection Brush tool with "snap to edges" and "soft edges" options and selected the background. The soft edges option reduces the hard "cut" that looks jagged and unnatural when placed against a different background.  Under the Layer option, I selected "Inverse pixel selection", by doing that it selected me, the post-apocalyptic survivor.  I created a second layer and copied and pasted the selection. Finally, I returned to the background and erased all remnants of the kitchen wall.

Next, I did a Google picture search for an apocalyptic background I could use.  I saved one and used "File--Place" within AP2 to place the picture in the scene.

Original Background
https://www.peakpx.com/en/hd-wallpaper-desktop-fiywo 

The background scene was much larger than my photo so I moved it to get a good background image.  Then I saved the picture as a JPG and opened it up in Luminar NEO for the rest of the project.  There was still much work in order to make it look like I belonged in the picture.  That's where the magic of NEO came into play.

My first task in NEO was to darken the survivor. The original lighting made it look like there was a flash. In the scene, the sun is behind me, and naturally, my frontside would be darkened.  So in the Edit menu, I used the Develop option to reduce the exposure by 2.35.  To do that I selected Mask, then Mask AI. At that point, the NEO AI analyzes the photo and identifies the different features of the photo.  That could be sky, landscape, buildings, people, faces, etc...The first time around it did not identify my body and head. Not too surprising since there is a contraption attached to it and I am wearing goggles. So I canceled the operation and tried again. BINGO!  I was happily surprised a different AI analysis got better results.  

After darkening the exposure, I adjusted the hue to a more yellow to try to match the background.

Next, I added a texture (acrylic finish) layer on top of the picture. This accomplished two things. First, it gave the picture more of an old-picture feel. But most importantly, it really merged the two pictures together, in both lighting and texture.  

Next, I used the Atmosphere edit to add a little fog in the midground.  That again increased blending and diminished the acrylic finish texture across my forehead. 

To give it a more gritty feel, I used the Mood option and add "Color Punch Hot" at 97%. I played with this a lot and almost didn't use it.  

I used "Dodge and Burn" to lighten and draw out the goggle lens white areas. If you go to the original, you'll see what I mean.  Before, the lower contrast made the goggle lenses all black, not enough grittiness for me. I also used "Dodge and Burn" to darken the shadows of the mask and hose.

In my finishing touches, I used the cloning tool around the perimeter of my body to reduce a slight yellow hue, mostly around the shoulder.

Overall, I was pleased with the final product.  It was a challenge I wasn't sure I would be able to pull off.  I really sharpened my editing skills and confidence on this one.  I look like a legit Post Apocalyptic Survivor!

Special Plate "Crawfish" at Ani's on Riverside

 

Original

Patti is showing off her crawfish to me in this picture.  I was using the S22U telephoto lens to get the shot.  I used Luminar NEO to enhance the sky to bring out the texture and add some color and contrast to everything else. I used a 15% film grain edit to soften the background just a tad to reduce some of the busyness.