About the Image(s)

Taken with a Fuji XT5. Taken Nov 14, 2024 at night at a street fair, with only indirect lighting from street lights and lights within and surrounding the booth. f-stop: 3.9: SS; 1/60 sec; ISO:8000. Focal length: 34.3 mm using a 16??“50 mm Fuji lens. Shot on aperture priority. I wanted to catch the artist at work, with the flame of the blow torch visible, and to include some of the context so it was clear the photo was taken at night and in a portable workshop, with the finished products on display and for sale. I wanted as open an aperture as possible given the low light conditions, and I was ok with underexposing, knowing I could bring up the light and colors in editing.
The raw file was processed using DxO to remove noise and enhance other features it addresses- a great program! Then, using Lightroom, I cropped in to eliminate some of the busyness of the context background, leveled the horizontal line of the table in front of the woman, and then used the automatic feature under transform to straighten the vertical line of the back metal screen. I used a masking brush to tone down the brightness of the light bulbs, to help enhance the night moodiness. I played with most of the universal sliders (exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, vibrance, clarity, dehaze) and with the tone curve afterwards, to enhance the moodiness and ensure the shadows on the sweatshirt remained opened up.

FYI: I am learning to use Lightroom as my main editing tool. I know how to do a few things in Photoshop, but will not be able to be comfortable with using that regularly for all editing for many years I suspect, if ever. I have yet to learn how to use the eye-dropper or either section the show color wheels in Lightroom. I have a Scott Kelby lesson book I need to get back to working through systematically.