Capturing Fall {Before & Afters}

I know December is just days away, but here in Arizona, we are barely starting to see signs of Fall. I've been waiting and watching.

I've decided to share with you those signs... AND also what I've learned from taking the Shoot Fly Shoot course. I have three pictures that I am going to show you... the first version of each is straight out of the camera (SOOC), without any Photoshop edits (other than adding my watermark). After each SOOC image, I will then show you what I did to enhance them in Photoshop.

It's hard to believe that a year ago, I was taking pictures like this:

...thinking it looked good! lol... Of course, you can tell that I was way over-editing them in Picasa or the like. Don't get me wrong, Picasa and PicMonkey were great to me! But I am so glad to have taught myself Photoshop, with a little help, of course, from other blogge's posting tutorials! ;)

Back to fall...

f/5.6  1/100  ISO 200

Pioneer Women (PW) Action - Slight Sharpen 100%  PW Action Slight Lighten 75%

f/4.5   1/100   ISO 100

PW Action Slight Sharpen 75%   Natural Touch Action (author unknown) 100%

f/4.5   1/100   ISO 100

PW Action Slight Sharpen 72%   Contrast Boost, no color change 100% (author unknown)

This Ash Tree is near and dear to my heart. We installed it in January 2011... and she has grown into a fine looking shade tree.

So... do you see the hint of fall? In another month, that tree will have lost all of its leaves. And next Spring, it will be bigger and better, for sure.

Well, from a photography/photoshop front... how did I do?
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