Photos – Scenes from a Beach

While on a beach in Caseville this summer, I tried taking close up photos of the streams and pools of water I came across. These were my favorites.

I don’t know what caused this coloration, but I liked the look. More after the break.

This was the first one I shot. I had to lay on the ground, but that didn’t bother me. You gotta do what you gotta do. I’ll confess that the focus may not have been exactly what I was hoping for, but I still like this shot.

The original shot was kind of under-exposed, so I messed with everything in Photoshop to see what I could salvage. First, I used the Levels tool and selected Auto for the heck of it. The result was interesting, but a bit much. So, I hid that adjustment layer and created a Curves adjustment layer (Photoshop TIP: always do adjustments with an adjustment layer–you can hide them, or get rid of them without trashing your original image).

The Curves layer wasn’t much better, so I decided to see what would happen if I mixed the two. Via trial and error, I came up with this result. The Levels layer was on top, and set to the Luminosity blend mode, while the Curves layer was underneath and set to the Color blend mode. This is how I learn stuff in Photoshop: messing around until I get something I like.

I don’t know what that bubble stuff is on the left, but I like the colors in this photo. I brought them out a bit more thanks to the Curve tool in  Photoshop.

See you on Monday, unless I get inspired to do a Friday update.