Wednesday 23 January 2013

snapseed and snow

Snapseed is seriously cool. No more so when combined with snow photos, which are notoriously difficult to get right.

You stand in a winter wonderland, take hundreds of photos, get home for a closer look and find that they don't really capture the experience. All that white with a bit of detail (trees, fences, figures, buildings), it's hard to get the depth, the softness, the crunchiness of it all. Plus mobile cameras tend to record snow as grey.

Here's Anglo's edits of some photos she took in her local park, The Arboretum in Lincoln, England. Grade II listed and Victorian, the park is landscaped on a steep hill, with lots of nice period features like lampposts and fountains to contrast the brightness. And trees - oh yes - the trees.

The park was opened in 1872 with 25,000 people in attendance. Attractions included brass band recitals, Professor Renzo’s Performing Dogs and Mr Emmanuel Jackson, the Midland aeronaut in his new balloon.

original image: the terrace houses are on a steep hill,
as is the park
edit 1: Snapseed's new Retrolux filter  to make everything soft and warm.
Evokes a faded photo found at the back of a drawer 
edit 2: another Retrolux treatment, with strong contrast to make the
red bricks pop out from all the white
edit 3: two Retrolux filters applied in succession, give a twilight feel to the image
original image
edit 1: cropped to 16:9 (tall and skinny), then Snapseed's
Grunge filter added to blur the path and the avenue of trees,
making the lamppost the main event
edit 2: not so skinny, and made high contrast with
Snapseed's Grunge effects
edit 3: tall and skinny again, black & white and very faded.
Add the glass plate frame effect for the complete vintage feel
Original image, love how the trees frame the lamp here
edit 1: Snapseed's Grunge effect to make this a very blurred and
faded photo, again an attempt at making this look like a vintage postcard!
edit 2: Retrolux filter with a blue tint, for a
fantasy version of the wintry landscape
original image, I was actually focussing on
the dogs, but when I got home I saw the
white witch and the stone lion!
Just one edit: closely cropped, I tried to capture a storybook feel with SnapSeed's
Grunge filter blurring all but the two figures. I still wish I got a better
pic of the dogs though, they were so full of bounce
Original image
Just the one edit here - Snapseed's Vintage Filter 7 to make things more
muted. Cropped to square to get rid of the crowd on the right,
making the photo about the girl and the movement. 

The Snapseed website: Snapseed.com

Find Anglo on Instagram | EyeEmTwitter Google+ Flickr
Links to Anglo's Vintage Blog (shabby chic pics)
Links to her company's Facebook (HDR photos galore)

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