White and Orange Butterfly (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel filter)

Here is a picture by picture progression through the edits of the image that I've posted for today. Thanks for stopping by and for looking at my pictures! :)

The Original (edited a little)

The Aurora HDR edit

The Graphic Novel edit

The Graphic Novel edit colorized

The Graphic Novel colorized edit, cropped

Black and Orange Butterfly, a little dark (Aurora HDR)

So, the original of this image is the first below, in which you see the orange/black butterfly. As the title says, it's a little dark. 

I touched the image up a little bit in Photoshop Elements, and I think it came out looking ok. 

The Aurora HDR... At first, as I processed this image in Aurora, the presets weren't really doing anything for the image. It was still really dark. So, I started playing around with the presets, brightening the image up, etc. I was happy with my image, until I compared it to the Photoshop edit above, which I like better on this image.

Thanks for stopping by!

Two Butterflies, Purple Flowers (AuroraHDR, Photoshop Elements 12, Graphic Novel filter)

Here's the original (cropped)

Here is the original edited on Photoshop Elements.

This is the Aurora HDR version, edited in Photoshop Elements.

This is the BW Graphic Novel version, from the Aurora HDR.

This is the colorized Graphic Novel, with the original image layered into the BW Graphic Novel version.

I like to process my images and see what I can do. Usually, my original image has something that needs to be fixed (in this case, I was shooting dark for a quicker shutter speed, otherwise I would have ended up with blurry butterfly wings. Also, the focus on the left butterfly and the flowers isn't all that great.)  Granted, a more proficient photographer would know how to do these kinds of things on the fly, while he was taking (making) pictures. Fair enough. For the rest of us, the RAW image collects enough... data? to be able to play with the image afterwards and come up with something that we like.

Thanks for stopping by!

An Orange Butterfly (AuroraHDR, Photoshop Elements 12)

I ran into just a little bit of trouble this week trying to process my photo on Aurora. I kept hitting some kind of hang-up where the program would keep shutting down when I tried to save the file after editing it. (It's probably something to do with my computer trying to do too many things at the same time....) Well, I eventually got it to work, and the picture that Aurora produced for me was the third image below (with a little editing help from Photoshop Elements.)

The Aurora HDR picked up some kind of weird line streaking in the background, which perhaps is from some kind of corrugated window? It's not really visible in the original image (first one below). The second, which is my favorite for the week, is the non-HDR edit that I ran through Photoshop Elements. I like the color. The background isn't weird. Voila!

Thanks for stopping by and for looking at my pictures! :)

Lots of Green, and a Butterfly (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel filter)

I had just a little bit of trouble with this image, because there was lots of green. My automatic photo editing options really didn't know what to do with it, and completely drained the green out of the image, which I wasn't going for. Somehow or other, I managed to strike a happy medium and came up with the photo(s) that you see below. (It had something to do with the color adjust button, where you're supposed to click on what is supposed to be a black or white part of the image, and the program adjusts the color. I just kept clicking till it looked right.) Thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly Hiding the Pretty Flowers (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel filter)

Yes, there are pretty flowers hidden underneath the butterfly. I saw them in a different picture, where the butterfly is not quite as beautifully posed. But, in this photo, the butterfly looked better, and so the flowers were hidden. Thanks for stopping by and for looking at my pictures! :)

Underbelly of a Butterfly on White Flowers (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel filter)

It's interesting sometimes how the top and bottom of a butterfly can be completely different, and how there can be some fairly interesting designs on the underside of a butterfly. This image captured that for me. I like the yellow webbed with black, bumping up against the red toward the butterfly's head. It still made for an interesting image in the black and white graphic novel version, where the butterfly stands out well against the background foliage. Those are my images for today. Thanks for stopping by! :)