I am always looking to become a better photographer. I look at other shooters' websites, read their blogs, and monitor a few photographic bulletin boards where my peers post their images for critique and accolades. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not above stealing a good idea and adapting it to fit my own thought process. So a few weeks ago when I ran across a blog post by Greg Russell about using newly acquired skills to process older images it struck a chord.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not a Photoshop or Lightroom wizard. There are many thousands of folks out there that have forgotten more about processing images in the digital darkroom than I'll ever know. But I'm always trying to improve. I go to seminars...I read books...I follow Lightroom on Facebook for tips and tricks. I also talk to other photographers and in the past year I've become much more active in a group of Colorado based nature photographers and have even gone shooting a few times with other photographers. (My wife tells me I probably shouldn't go shooting with Richie V anymore cause he has lots of cool toys and I always want to buy some new stuff after a shooting excursion with him) Mostly I'm just trying to get better and I think that though I have a long ways to go before I can truthfully say I'm pretty good at it, my skill level is higher than it was 5 years ago. The software is also better and much more powerful than in years past.
So with apologies to Greg for stealing his idea, I've assigned myself a project. I'm going through my older images and reprocessing them with better software and more skill. This will be an ongoing project and I'll probably try to post some of the more dramatic improvements here. Which brings us to the photo above. Combat fishing on the Russian River in Alaska. This is an image I shot in 2005 when we took a cruise then spent some time on the Kenai Penninsula after the cruise. At that time I think I was using Photoshop Elements 2 or 3, can't remember which one but it was a much less sophisticated version than Lighroom 3 which I use for most of my processing today.
The top image is the original version, processed from the RAW file shot in 2005. My technique then was even more primitive than the software I was using. About all I did was adjust the black and white points, crop a little, and sharpen the file. There was a little bit of burning and dodging but that's about it.
The bottom image was processed in Lightroom and then exported to a plug in called Topaz Adjust where I was able to brighten and enhance the color without increasing the contrast too much. I also cropped out some distracting elements and I have to admit, I really like it quite a bit better than the original.
My goal is to work my way through the Alaska images at the rate of 1 image per week minimum so it may be a while before I make my way through the archives. And by then this year's images will be old so I can process them with whatever software and skills I acquire in the future. So keep checking back and please leave comments to let me know what you think.
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