Editing, One Year Later; and Variations on Winery Themes

What a difference a year can make in learning something! A year ago, Doug and I and Scott were in Seattle, and did some wine-tasting at The Tasting Room. (Take my IGNORANCE about wine tasting with a grain of salt! We ordered a flight of wine, which in this winery meant 4 glasses with a little bit of 4 different wines in each one, and you taste them. In Sideways, sometimes people spit the wine out. If I order something to eat or drink, I'm not about to spit it out unless something really horrible is in my food!)

Anyway, what I've learned this past year has not been about wine-tasting, but editing photos. I'm not in love with this photo, (tired, cold, bad hair day, make-up has done its voodoo vanishing trick) but what was I thinking in the first editing of this photo, back in October, 08? I suspect one attempt led to another, took a long time, and eventually I had this horrid mess, but probably thought it was pretty good. . .


This is a recent editing, using more the methods I tend toward now. I start in camera Raw, make a few white balance, exposure and initial sharpening adjustments. Then I head into CS4, slightly smooth skin and then run an action I created. My action converts to Lab mode, adjusts the a & b channel slightly, adds a brightness and contrast curve, and returns to RGB. Then I run another action I created, which uses a density mask, which helps preserve the detail in the shadows, and sharpens the photo. Then I add a touch of vignette, if I want it, and save, and prepare for the web. The whole process takes me about a minute.


And since I mentioned "winery" I thought I'd show you this sign that Barb made for me for my birthday. It's a platter that says "Angela's Winery" and now sits on my china cabinet. From the photo, I'm not sure you can see how 3-dimensional it is, with the grapes, the top of the "cork" and the wine bottle itself all being made of glass that Barb fired in her kiln!



I don't really have a winery! But I do have a bottle of red wine that Doug and I have been saving since Scott gave it to us as a Christmas present in France in 2004. I'm not sure we'll ever drink it; it's too special!