Zina Mirsky  


Lake Merritt by Zina Mirsky

September 2021 - Lake Merritt

September 2021 - Zina Mirsky

Original

About the Image(s)

The original image was taken with my iPhone on a very early morning walk around Lake Merritt, a popular walking route in Oakland CA. The string of lights are called "Lake Merritt's Jewels" and they remain on all night; I caught them still on just after dawn on a moody day. I took the image straight out of the iphone and brought it into Lightroom for some cropping and contrast emphasis. Then I brought the edited image into PhotoShop (I'm trying to learn to use PS for greater editing features) and converted it to Black & White, again using contrast and saturation sliders to emphasize more.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted




Bob Wills   Bob Wills
Hi Zina, Excellent work with your phone. They are handy little creatures. Your composition is great. My son lived across from Mills College, and we made this walk too. I did a little cleanup of the birds in the water and added some canvas to the bottom of the image to eliminate the merger. I also added a glow using PS gaussian blur. You could tighten the crop, a little off the right, and maybe the left until you can recognize the lights a little better, assuming that is why you wanted the shot.   Posted: 09/06/2021 15:31:55
Comment Image



Zina Mirsky   Zina Mirsky
(Group 55)
Thanks Bob - as ever, you have taught me something valuable. And yes, emphasizing 'the jewels' was desired. Now I understand more about gaussian blur and to see it in action is appreciated. /z   Posted: 09/06/2021 17:26:37



Robert Knight   Robert Knight
(Group 45)
I like your black and white image and I think Bob has made improvements to it by removing some of the birds in the water. There is one bird to the left centre above a building that I would also remove but that is fairly minor. I have to say that I like the original colour version too and would have desaturated the buildings slightly and removed the birds but that too is a very attractive image.   Posted: 09/11/2021 15:41:28
Zina Mirsky   Zina Mirsky
(Group 55)
I'm always happy to see birds so I rarely think about taking them out, but I do see that the image is stronger without them. As for the saturation - I looked at the image as it was taken on my iphone, and find very little difference between what I saw with my eyes that point in time, and the image that I presented in color. Lake Merritt's light changes rapidly in the early mornings and I lucked out!   Posted: 09/13/2021 14:44:11
Robert Knight   Robert Knight
(Group 45)
Just using this to check a fault with the bulletin board   Posted: 09/21/2021 02:24:34
Zina Mirsky   Zina Mirsky
(Group 55)
I received two 'notices' of comment posted and reply to my image. Neither took me to the Bulletin Board - it was when I checked the BB that I saw indeed there was a note on it about my PSA DD homepage image. Just fyi.   Posted: 09/21/2021 07:07:25