# Experimentation With Photos + Best Riley Picture Ever



## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

So....I was experimenting with my D7000 late last night, and of course Koda and Riley were my usual subjects. My lighting conditions sucked, and no matter what I did, the white balance on my camera wouldn't set properly. Everything kept coming out with a yellow hue. I tried every setting on the darn camera I could remember and nothing worked, so I said "Forget it, I'm done for the night, I'll see what I can do in Photoshop". I tried to color correct everything to no avail, and this is what I ended up with.... (Plus, I found this old photo of Riley...One of those free sessions where you can bring your dog into Petco and have their picture taken. It's hilarious). Anyway....Experimentation:


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## starburst (Jun 9, 2012)

Beautiful pictures, Thanks for sharing !!


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## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

Oh my goodness, those pictures are beautiful! The first is my favorite!


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Wow, glad you guys like them...I'm surprised, let me show you what I had to work with, here's the original of the first and second one. They were tricky to do _anything with_:


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## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

You did good work with the color. I'm a wanna be photographer, lol but I often find that I can take a picture that I thought was a flub, and tweak the color or use some kind of a filter on it and turn it into something that I really like. 

That first picture though, if I had an office space or a special room or something, I'd pay you for a print to hang in my house. I love it!


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

I went to school for this, got my BA in Photography 

I have that first picture in full resolution though if you'd like it, you don't need to pay me for it, I'm not that greedy.  I can email it to you if you'd like.


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## Erin S (Jun 24, 2012)

Great pictures! Those are picture frame and hang on the wall worthy!!


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## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

I'll PM you my email addy. I can just see that picture looking beautiful in a rustic, mahogany colored frame!


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Erin S said:


> Great pictures! Those are picture frame and hang on the wall worthy!!


Dang....Maybe I _should_ start charging people for copies of these pictures 

Haha, I kid. I seriously didn't think anyone would take to these pictures. I didn't even think I could save them in Photoshop. I thought they were a lost cause because of the white balance issue in my camera.

I'm dead serious here: If anyone wants full resolution copies of any of these pictures to print out, let me know, and I'll email them to you.


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

PatchonGSD said:


> I'll PM you my email addy. I can just see that picture looking beautiful in a rustic, mahogany colored frame!


Please do, I'm happy that someone found my Photography/Photoshop skills worthy of belonging in their home.


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## Guns12 (Oct 19, 2012)

Great pics its always great to see the ones we are talking about on here!


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## KatsMuse (Jun 5, 2012)

Very Nice, Melina! 
I'll be in touch soon 

Kat


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

KatsMuse said:


> Very Nice, Melina!
> I'll be in touch soon
> 
> Kat


Thanks Kat! As will I


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

Melina, You underestimate yourself. Your work is ALWAYS beautiful!


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Stevenzachsmom said:


> Melina, You underestimate yourself. Your work is ALWAYS beautiful!


:blush: You guys are way too kind, you're making me blush here. You have no idea how much it means to me that you all think I take beautiful photos.

I put my blood, sweat, and tears into my Photography. I've been doing this for eleven years now, since I was 14 years old. That's when I first picked up a camera, back when I was shooting film. I knew this was what I wanted to go to college for, and it looks like it payed off.

I've realized that I don't want to be a Professional Photographer, it's too difficult to make a living, I'd rather change people's lives and teach them Photography. Just as my High School teacher changed my life. I'm going back to school at the beginning of the semester to get my Teaching Certificate. I just looked into it and will be enrolling in classes very soon.

I just want to make a difference in people's lives...I want to show them a path to creativity that was shown to me many years ago. It will be so worth it.


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## Rei (Oct 10, 2008)

Melina, your photography is fantastic, I have always thought that it went without saying 

I ALWAYS look forward to your dog photos and panoramas. Plus, you work magic in Photoshop! I have so many pictures that are "almost"s for me, I wish I had the ability to salvage all of them. 

One of my recent edits - the focus was completely off, so I lightened up the entire image. Clearly for me it's overboard or nothing when it comes to post processing LOL (it was a quick edit, still problems with exposure and everything, of course, but I get lazy  ).

















By the way, what lenses are you using? My kit lens (18-55mm) always ends up giving me that orange/yellow-y hue in low light, but my prime lens (50mm f/1.8) has always been incredible in low light stills.


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Hmmm, Rei - Here's my suggestion for your example you just showed: More contrast, not so light. I don't know if you use Photoshop or not (I work with CS6), but I adjust in Curves and obtain the contrast I'm satisfied with for the most part....Then I go in with the Dodging and Burning tools to add highlights where necessary. It makes things pop. I look at it almost like painting. You do it in strokes over the light and dark areas. Also, if you're out of focus, by a small margin, you can go into "Unsharp Mask" (At the end of your editing) and sharpen the picture.

As far as the lenses I have: I have a 55-200 Nikkor, then two awful lenses that were given to me...An 18-200 Quantaray, and a 28-80 Nikkor (The last one is the one I was using to shoot these photos with)

I seem to be having auto focus problems with all my lenses, too, which sucks...So I'm having to manually focus for everything. It's a good test for my vision and my reflexes, but a PITA, haha,


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## Rei (Oct 10, 2008)

For curve adjusting, do you typically recommend just experimenting and going with what winds up looking right, or are there tutorials/explanations for it? I've played around with that before but honestly can never get it just right. 

And holy crow, THAT'S what dodging and burning tools are for xD LOL! I've tried to use them before but couldn't figure out what to do with it. For the record, I use Photoshop CS5, but I barely know how to 

That helps a lot, thanks. 

Are the f stops on all three listed lenses similar? What's the advantage of having the 28-80mm + the 55-200mm if you already have the 18-200mm? I'm putting money aside for a new lens right now but really don't know what to look for besides zoom capability and f stops.


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Here you go Rei:


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Rei said:


> For curve adjusting, do you typically recommend just experimenting and going with what winds up looking right, or are there tutorials/explanations for it? I've played around with that before but honestly can never get it just right.
> 
> And holy crow, THAT'S what dodging and burning tools are for xD LOL! I've tried to use them before but couldn't figure out what to do with it. For the record, I use Photoshop CS5, but I barely know how to
> 
> ...


Haha, oh no...It's too late for a Photography lesson, I'm getting tired. Can I type one out tomorrow? I'll explain curves, how to read the histogram, dodging, burning, lenses, focal lengths, f/stops, shutter speeds, etc. tomorrow...Is that okay?


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## Anthony8858 (Sep 18, 2011)

If you shoot RAW, it would be easy to change the color temp.
If I'm not mistaken, you can lower the temp in NikonView to 2800k.
That might fix your white balance issue with your lighting.

Glad to see someone else shares my passion for photography.

Currently shooting with D700 / D7000 and a bag full of lenses. 

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing.


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

I do shoot RAW, and I tried changing the color balance both in camera and in post. I also tried shooting WB for incandescent bulbs, which is the lighting condition I was under....Nothing. I've never, ever had this problem before. I don't know what's up.

I probably could have fudged with it in camera RAW, like you said, but I hate doing that. I'm more of a curves kind of girl  Plus, this got me creative, I guess! I had luck with the hue/sat adjustment layer as well, but color correcting with curves was difficult.

You're right, though, messing around in RAW would have been best.


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

Just adding some more experiments to the thread, will probably do so from time to time


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## Zeeva (Aug 10, 2010)

As always! A pleasure our lady


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## Melina (Feb 20, 2010)

*Bow* Thank you Madame


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