John Steiner encourages us to pull out the stops and do what we think needs to be done to improve our original images this week. Rarely do I have an original that isn’t made better by a bit of cropping, straightening and perhaps adjusting light and color. The three I’ve chosen for this challenge illustrate how I work.
From my front door I was able to capture this full rainbow on a rainy day. From the original, I cropped out the houses and other distractions left and right for my first edit.
Cropping certainly brought the subject into focus, however increasing saturation and playing with light gave the rainbow the brightness I wanted for my final take.
While stopped at a light, I looked up to see this swelling cumulus cloud mounting upon a vivid blue sky. “Cell phone! Take a snap!” I told myself, and I did.
In my first crop, removed the lights and tightened the field of vision, using the rule of thirds.
In shots like this one, if I am able to remove man-made-objects without ruining the photo, I do. I cropped a little more and used the “lasso tool” to eliminate the light pole on the right. A boost of light and color gave the clouds more depth and made that blue sky pop!
My last series for this challenge is of the moon reflecting on marsh ponds, seen from my condo deck at the Breakers, Long Beach WA. I was in bed asleep when my husband shook me awake saying, “you’ve got to see this moon on the ponds!” I took the photo without anything but the railing to keep the lens steady, so it already had a strike against it when I first viewed it. But, for this challenge I decided to play around with the image.
I cropped a little, got it off dead center, looked at it through various filters and degrees of light and saturation, and wasn’t sure what to do next.
Something about it reminded me of scenes in movies when an extra-terrestrial ship is landing on the earth, so I decided to play with that idea. I re-centered the image, lassoed spots that detracted, and used the chrome filter to create a bright corona.
Lindy Low LeCoq 
Nice work, Lindy! I really like your take on the last image edits. .The corona gives it an ethereal touch.
The clouds against the trees in your second project really stand out, and the emphasis on the rainbow makes it much more prominent.
Thank you, John. That photo of the moon reflected in the marshes would not have made the cut, but for your challenge!
Excellent work and photos, Lindy! It’s amazing how much a photo improves with the proper crop and elimination of distracting elements.
So true, Egídio!
Good hubby who knows when to wake you. Beautiful photos.
Oh, what a grin when I read your comment to him! Thank you.
Love these final images!
Thank you! It was a good challenge for me to stretch my boundaries a bit!
Great photos. What an unusual moon shot. I’m partial to the natural look in the first and second one, but I’m also partial to sci-fi and could easily be persuaded there are aliens invading. 🙂
Thank you, John. I’m quite sure the original would not have made it onto my site were it not for the challenge and where it led me!
Beautiful!
Thank you!
Great explanations and perfect examples. Cropping sure gets us to the point. What a great husband to wake you for that moon shot, knowing you might even work additional magic on it. It looks icy to me. Powerful shot. And I liked all three of that shot. The brilliance you brought to the rainbow was great editing. So nice, Lindy.
Thank you Donna! I truly appreciate your thoughts and observations❤️