Day 167 - Creating a watermark in Lightroom 3

I have been super busy with work again and haven't had the time to do any photography.  Today was a gorgeous Thanksgiving Day, but I had to slog 10 hours at my computer - go figure!  I guess, I should be giving thanks that I do have a job to keep me busy.  I try to count my blessings each day, but sometimes it's difficult not to crib when you know that you are missing something in your life that's more exciting!  For me, it's photography - I guess I'm obsessing over it a little bit too much, so it's good to give myself these little breaks! ;)

I have a few bracketed shots of this church I really love, that I again wanted to turn into HDR. And again I thought, I should give that a break as well!  So, I edited it as I normally would and touched up very minimally.  I sharpened it a bit, and added a little bit more clarity and vibrance.  That's all!  And yes, I figured out how to create a watermark in Lightroom 3 while I was at it.  In case you're new to LR3 as I am, and are looking for a way to use this feature, just follow the quick steps below.
I'm using a Mac, thus the screens you see are for the Mac, only.  I'm quite certain the Windows version will not be too different.
1. You can create the watermark as you're exporting your image after processing it in Lightroom.  Simply click on File -> Export in the menu bar.
2. You will see the export dialog box:

Scroll down to the Watermarking section. As you can see, I have my default set up as Shinydewdrop.

3. Open the dropdown box and select Edit Watermarks to start creating yours and ensure that the Watermark option is checked.

4. You can pick between a Text and a Graphic style for your watermark.  For the first part, I've chosen the Text option.  In the blank editable portion at the bottom-left of your screen, add the text you would like to display as your watermark.  (To create the copyright symbol ©, use Option+G on your Mac and the Windows version would be Alt+0169).  Another easy way to do this is to find the © symbol on the Internet and then just copy-pasting it into the window.

Feel free to play around with the options available for adding effects to the watermarking.  

5. Once you're done, click Save.

6. At this point you will be asked to name your watermarking preset.  

7. Give it a name and then click Export.

8. You might also want to use a graphic.  To do that, you will first need to create a graphic file.  I did mine in Photoshop Elements 8 and then used the Graphic option in the Watermark Editor. Here is a link to a good tutorial for creating a signature file/logo in PSE8 that I found on the Internet and should work in any version of Photoshop as well: http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/brush/cbrush7.htm

9. The rest of the process is exactly the same.

This is the shot I processed with the little logo I have created for my website that I'm currently working on. 

I hope you will benefit from this quick little tutorial.  And if you do, please leave me a comment to let me know if it was helpful and easy to follow. 

And this image will have to serve as my photo of the day! :(

Day 166 - Ferry dock at sunset

I was determined to go out and do some photography today as it was sunny, bright and beautiful after a long, long time.  I thought I'd almost forgotten what the sun looked like!  I had wanted to do some bird photography, but after doing the shopping for the month and with the exhaustion I have been feeling, I pretty much didn't feel like getting out early enough to find birds.

So, I checked on the sunset times and went out with about 45 minutes in hand to get to the place where this hidden ferry dock is.  I have posted some pictures of that earlier in my blog, and honestly, I didn't really experiment with a new perspective this time, as I wanted to try out HDR, as it has been my latest fun thing to do ( I actually try to learn something new and practise a few times so I don't forget it in a hurry).

However, I didn't bring my tripod with me because this place is a very long walk from home, and I would be slowed down with the added weight.  But I knew I could rest my camera on the railings there.  But believe it or not, it was so windy, it was actually moving the camera around when I rested it on the railing.  Fortunately, I was able to do some quick shooting when the winds went down a little bit.

The shot was created from the 5 bracketed shots below:

 

Here's the final HDR image that I created using CS5.  I added a little bit of saturation, and sharpness as I found that it looked a little washed out.  Also, the original HDR image was too grainy, so I removed some noise in it and added back a little shadow to make it look more realistic.  Afterwards, I added a border and voilà!

Day 165 - Conquering the camera

No, I don't mean my DSLR, because that obeys my commands - well, most of the time!  But right now I'm talking about my phone camera that has caused me grief on numerous occasions.  I never seem to be able to get the right focus, the right settings - well, nothing goes right.  But today I spent a few minutes, albeit in a light drizzling rain, to check out why my camera misbehaves.  I can't admit to finding anything wrong with it, per se, but I did manage to get a somewhat decent shot.  Ok, a few decent shots.

This shot is almost straight out of the camera, except I added a little bit of vibrance and saturation to it because it was missing those.

Last night I downloaded Photoshop CS5 to try it out after hearing a lot of people rave about it.  I am exhausted after my project submission today, but I still spent a little time to play around with it.  Other than slowing my computer down terribly, I think it's a great tool.  It's got a ton of features that I could use for my daily photos, but the price is prohibitive.  And, ideally, I would like to keep Lightroom as well.  But I can no way spend a grand on photo editing tools right now.  If I spend that kind of money, I'd rather buy the new lens I've been wanting for so long by adding a few more hundred bucks.  Or, buy myself the Canon EOS 7D, which I have been wanting to do for so long!  

Anyway, more on that later.  I have to hit the hay now because I have a ton of stuff to do, besides office work over the weekend.  No Thanksgiving weekend for me!

Day 164 - A wasted photo op

I have been working very late every day and therefore getting home after it gets dark.  I left a little early because I had a technical problem that can't get fixed before tomorrow morning.  So, I left work thinking I would walk the last 3 kms home since I have been extremely stressed over the past few days.  I was exhausted but needed the exercise.
As I left the office, I observed the sky was gorgeous with the clouds hanging low looking like the smouldering ashes in a wood-burning fireplace.  I had wanted to enjoy the view, from my favourite part of the island where I live.

However, I lost time on the bus, then I lost time getting to the spot from where I thought I would get a nice view, only to realize that the path was blocked off by construction.  Then as I sadly walked home, I saw the last bits of the beautiful sky.  I had decided not to use my phone camera again since it delivers such poor results.  But I couldn't let myself give up and one optimistic corner of my heart led me to take a few shots.  The clouds in the sky seemed on fire, and the blue parts peeking out from behind the clouds reflected on the river.  It was breathtaking, yet what a waste without a camera.

This is the only shot that came out clear - the rest are horribly grainy.  But even from this poor quality image you can probably tell what I meant about the blue and the sunset colours reflected on the river.

Day 163 - Beyond Easter eggs

I was so surprised when I opened this carton of eggs that my colleague brought in for me on Friday.  You see, he raises chickens, and these eggs are from free-run chickens.  I was astounded by the colours because I never thought chickens laid anything but white and brown eggs.  He also told me this piece of news - you know which chicken will lay eggs of what colour by looking at their earlobes!  

Day 162 - Mont-Orford Provincial Park

This is one beautiful park!  But the weather didn't cooperate at all!  And nor did my son who accompanied me (albeit, not by choice).  This place is on top of my list to revisit next year.

Day 161 - Went out too late

Got out of work late and by the time I got home and picked up my camera, it was way too late.  The sun slipped below the horizon within half an hour of my getting to the woods behind my house.  I couldn't really get much, except for a few sunset shots and some foliage.

This last one is SOOC!