August Challenge… Black and White Entry #9 Playing With Photos

OK… so today I will be doing a Tess. I will admit that I have been wiped out with the summer heat this year and consequently, I have spent way too much time on the computer! Sheesh! Maybe that’s why my other computer self-destructed!

I chose this challenge because I doubt that we think often enough of changing our photos to black and white, and certain photos can actually look better in B&W. Soooo… I sat down to play!

I really wanted to try this flower photo in B&W and add a quote but the way it was shot, there was not enough room at the top to do so. You must understand that I am very challenged by photoshop, and I only have the basic/old Elements 6 but I do have fun fooling around with it and certainly wish I knew what I was doing. I’ve picked up “the book” to figure things out and then put it down in frustration. Just a slow learner, I guess.

In Lightroom (my favorite editing software), I converted the photo to black and white and tweaked it a bit and then took it into Elements to add to the top as there was little detail there, making it easy to do by expanding the crop and then cloning in the black area from the photo, and finally I added the text. I actually like the B&W flower more than the color as it seems to show more crisp detail.

Before and After
(Photo by Fay-la-la)

I then thought it would be fun to play around to see if I could do a composite image. By choosing bits and pieces from different photos, you can make a fantasy photo that only exists in your mind. I have watched tutorials about this but I must admit they are beyond me, so once again I bumble along trying to put the components together. Something I have learned is the importance of how the light falls on your subjects to make it look just a bit more believable.

At the time I was so sad when I lost my feral cat OC (Orange Cat) and I guess she was weighing on my mind as I put this together. Once again… photography to the rescue!
Here are the photos I used.

(Photos by Fay-la-la)

The woman with the lantern was shot at the Mesquite Meander where actors portray some of the people who are buried in the local cemetery and tell their story. The feral cat was shot at Lake Ray Hubbard and the landscape was along the banks of Lake Ray Hubbard.

I edited each photo separately and then put them together and worked with the lighting in Elements to make it look as though the lantern was glowing. It was a fun challenge. I also took it into one of the editing programs and decided to add the clock and text.

And here is the story… “As I was driving past the lake, a light caught my eye and there on the bank was a well dressed woman with lantern in hand searching for the feral cats. Yes… I had seen her before! This was CAT WOMAN… a woman obsessed with saving the cats that roam the lake at night and hide during the day.”

Cat Woman
(Photo by Fay-la-la)