Study Group 7

Carolyn Schlueter




 

 


 

Kenneth Deitcher
Elaine Icklan
Barbara Mallon
Tony Tam
Carolyn Schlueter
Adrienne Bergen
Tom McCreary 
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January 2012

Title - City Fountains

How I did it - 
 

This was taken on a rainy evening in downtown St. Louis and it was cropped quite a bit. Added Buz Sim and Poster Edges filters and did the usual level adjustments and did an inside stroke, outside stroke, drop shadow and border.

It was very hard to tone down the brights from the lights throughout the picture, so it may still need more balance but wasn't quite sure how to do that.

COMMENTS:
Kenneth Deitcher, MD, FPSA Very colorful image of downtown St Louis. The colors are very bright and the diagonal placement very nice. The bright building in the back draws the eye away from the fountains. I would decrease this bright area a small amount. I like seeing the 'arch' in the background. This really identifies the placement of the photo.
Elaine Icklan Very nice painterly effect as a result of good filter choices. The framing is excellent and adds a great deal to the composition. I don't know if you tried it but sometimes the shadow/highlight sliders can improve the brightness of the light.
Barbara Mallon Great shot! I like your adjustments. The only brights I would darken are the windows of the building top-right center. Then I would crop the top so that there is just a comfortable space above the arch. This would create a leading line through the fountains to the arch.
Tony Tam Nice photo of night view. For me image seems too soft, it might be you did it on purpose, but for me is not sharp & clear enough. Also I would crop on the top side a little bit.
Adrienne Bergen What a joyous image. The dancing fountains make me want to smile, they are so colorful. Those very bright white lights at the base of the blue and green fountains can probably be darkened a bit. The filters you used enhance the image without overpowering it. I would have liked to see the original for comparison.
Tom McCreary Did you try "Shadows and Highlights" in Photoshop? I have found it effective in to correct the bright areas as well as shadows. As it is, it is a very nice image, and I like the arch in the background. Good job on the border.

 

Member Bio
Carolyn Schlueter - Biography

My father met my mother and here I am. I was raised on a farm to 5'2" ... it's a good thing they didn't raise me any higher or my feet wouldn't touch the ground. I never got married so I am virtually virtual, but have a wonderful significant other who puts up with me! I worked for a living until I was 62 and then I retired and found photography. Now I'm addicted and it is so exciting!!
Photography, among other hobbies of being a professional pianist and also a watercolor artist, has been my lifelong interest, but only upon joining the St. Louis Camera Club and taking lessons have I realized how little I know and oh my ... before I knew any better I used to think everything had to be centered! Wrong!! We all know that is a big no no in general and how important composition is in making or breaking a photo.
When I retired, my significant other (also a photographer) felt I really had the 'eye' for photography and the digital revolution was happening and he surprised me with my first digital camera ... an Olympus C-4040 back in 2002. Oh happy day!! What a fantastic change from film and quite a learning curve! Then he gave me my first SLR ... a Nikon D-40X three years ago and my life hasn't been the same.
I've since upgraded to the Nikon D-90 SLR with various lenses and also love the solid little Canon G-11 (like it much better than the G-10) and the newest addition is a point and shoot Sony H-20 with the conversion lenses for those times when you can't take an SLR with you.
I always have at least 1 or 2 cameras in my purse or around my neck or on the car seat because you just never know when those 'moments' are going to happen ... and you know what ... sometimes they do!! I'm also one of those people who carry two D-90 bodies ... one with an 18-200 lens and the other with a 70-300 lens so I don't miss a moment having to stop and change lenses when on a photo shoot.
As far as what I like to photograph ... I am very diversified and love photographing everything, but nature shots, particularly eagles, have a special place in my heart and we're very fortunate to have eagles in the area along the Mississippi River near Alton, IL every winter and what a treat to capture photos of them.

Looking forward to joining my first study group with the PSA and hopefully improving my photography.

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