Altered State

I thought that you might be interested in a image I took yesterday with my Leica D-Lux 4. The image is nothing special but it does act as a platform to illustrated what you can do to alter the statement you want to make with your photo.
Ok lets get started by looking at the original image converted from raw in Adobe Lightroom 3.

What was I looking for when I took this picture? First I wanted to highlight the leaf in the foreground and its raindrops. I secondly wanted to use the background to add contrast and interest. When I opened the picture in Lightroom I thought what can I do to enhance my original idea. So off I went to Nik Software Color Efex Pro to add some glow to the photo, here is the result.

I then took the original image again and went back to Color Efex Pro and added the bleach bypass filter to whole photo.

Then using Adobe CS 5 I isolated the leaf that was the main subject of the picture and blended it into the above photo.

Now not leaving black and white out here is the original image processed using Silver Efex pro.

I guess what I'm trying to illustrate with this post is you can enhance your vision with the use of all the amazing software tools available to all of us in the digital age.

New Leica Images Site

I have been using a new Leica images only site to post and share pictures, Leica Images.Com. When you sign up you get your own gallery with sub galleries that you can use for any purpose you need to. Share pictures with friends, social media sites or just post them for other Leica fans to see. Here is a random picture from a Swedish members gallery.

As you can see in album view you get a nice presentation of your work and below the photo is all the data about the camera, lens and exposure used.

The service is free and I highly recommend you try it.
I have had a very busy two weeks with lots of family birthdays but here are a few pictures taken with the Leica D-Lux 4. All were post processed using Adobe Lightroom 3.

 A leaf on a moist background of fallen and rotting needles.

 A crooked fence, enhanced with Color Efex Pro by applying a small amount of the Glamor Glow filter.

 A calm day at the pond enhanced with Topaz Adjust 3.

A quick portrait taken on her second birthday enhanced with Silver Efex Pro for conversion to black and white and then using Color Efex Pro add some skin softening to the image.

 

 A close up of leaves turning from green to red enhanced using Topaz Labs detail filter.

Another look at the pond through the reeds, across the water to the colorful trees. Enhanced with Viveza 2.