Practice Makes Perfect-- The Art of Post Processing

I call it the "art" of post processing, as it is definitely not a science.  

I have read several books, watched countless hours 

of tutorials of Youtube on how to process

my camera's RAW files to create the best images possible and just when I think I have it 

all figured out, I learn something new that changes everything.

For me, trial and error seems to be the best teacher.  I have learned many things in the last 

couple of years and believe me,

it's because I have made countless mistakes taking and processing my digital images.

Case in point:

I was quite happy with the end result of this panoramic image taken this past weekend. Happy enough to post it on my Facebook page.  I have been practicing and refining

 the proper techniques with  my camera and tripod to be able to capture the several properly 

exposed and aligned images needed to create a robust, stitched panoramic image.

My first attempt processing the 6 image stitched shot (click to enlarge)

I admit that I was not 100% happy with this image but I could not figure out

what bothered me about it.  It wasn't until I decided to walk through all the processing

steps that I stumbled upon the one little detail that I had overlooked.  

One small adjustment that I had not made.  

Finding this one overlooked detail was all the encouragement I needed to start processing the 

RAW file all over again.  (Just a tip.  If you take your photography seriously, you need to

be shooting in the RAW format---it allows so many freedoms in post processing 

to save an image)

Same 6 image stitch after making needed adjustments to the white balance
(click to enlarge)

This is the reprocessed image.  The only difference is the white balance between

the six original images.  In my haste to take the six images 

before the light started to dissipate,  I neglected to lock down the white balance setting in my 

camera, it was set to auto.  That little difference in the exposure of the images made a huge 

impact on the final result.  The colors are now clean and the details in the shadows now sharp.

Just another lesson learned :) 

When lightning strikes...

My time as a photographer

 has been short but pretty sweet at times.  The evening I caught these images was definitely one of those sweet times!  

I was on the shores

 of Lake Michigan in South Haven hoping to catch a glimpse of a partial solar eclipse happening at sunset on the evening of May 20,2012.  I was not sure what to expect but I managed to come away with a couple good images of the eclipse.

What happened next, 

I was totally unprepared for, the perfect storm!!  As the sun faded

into the horizon, a thunderstorm started to roll in.  Everyone on the beach, after seeing the eclipse of the sun and the storm coming in, started to leave.  Only myself and another photographer stayed to greet the approaching storm.  I was eager to get

 some experience catching a lightning bolt on camera.  I caught couple images in the 

past but nothing out of the ordinary.

The winds and rains stayed 

away from the beach allowing us to photograph the amazing cloud to ground lightning.  I made several feeble attempts at capturing the bolts.  Luckily for me, the

other photographer, who had  decades of experience, took pity on me and gave

 me some advice on shooting lightning.  Thanks to him I was able to 

catch some great images that night.  The lightning images taken on that fateful evening

pushed myself and my photography into a new direction.  And for that,

I will always be grateful.