I haven’t done much photography this week due to the lockdown and weather (again). We had storm Christoph blow in with continuous rain for three days, which then turned to snow on Wednesday night. That was also when our cellar flooded with 6 inches of water coming up through the floor. I spent that evening trying to empty it with buckets. As a rough calculation I carried 450 gallons of water out of the cellar.
Given the lack of photography, I’m back to processing old images. Here is one I shot in January 2019 using the Fuji XT2 and Fuji 18-135 lens. It’s a handheld exposure of 1/58” at f/9.0 and ISO800.
I did the RAW processing in Capture One where I also converted it to black and white using one of the Portrait presets. I then applied a faint toning effect using Nik Silver Efex Pro and a glow in Color Efex Pro. I quite like the trees on the left of the frame, and it’s given me some ideas for processing other images to black and white.
Affinity Photo News
The other news this week is that Serif has launched another 90 free trial of their software as well as having a 50% discount. This is a superb offer if you haven’t already purchased Affinity Photo or any of their other software. I checked but unfortunately, I already have everything except for an overlay pack and a T-shirt.
YouTube Video
Continuing the Affinity Photo theme, this week’s YouTube video looks at how to enhance or even add mist to a landscape photo. And although I demonstrate using Affinity Photo you can use the same techniques with Photoshop or even Elements. I demonstrate two methods. One uses only Affinity Photo with a Levels adjustment whilst the other uses Affinity Photo and Nik Color Efex Pro.
I hope you like the image and video and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
I have the t-shirt 🙂 I’m a big of Affinity, but I still have Photoshop and I noticed that you use the TK Panel – do you recommend it for Photoshop users?
sorry, big “fan” of Affinity…
Yes, I use TK Panel but also Raya Pro and Interactive Luminosity Mask, but my favourite is probably Lumenzia. With the exception of Interactive Luminosity Masks (which is free), I wouldn’t recommend any of these unless you understand levels and masks in Photoshop. If you don’t have enough knowledge they can be difficult to use but if you know what you’re doing, they are all excellent tools. I don’t know your existing level of skill so you may be fine with these. If you’re unsure, ILM is a good place to start. I published this tutorial as a basic introduction https://lenscraft.co.uk/photo-editing-tutorials/easy-luminosity-masking-photoshop/
Thanks very much for the advice, Robin.
You’re welcome
I enjoyed viewing your Uppermill, Saddleworth photo. You captured the environment quite nicely. Thanks for Sharing
Thank you. I’m quite pleased with this shot and have a few more I’m now working on. I’ll probably post them on Instagram over the coming couple of weeks.
Wauw
Thank you.
I am very sorry to here that you were flooded out i do hope that the weather improves for every body.
Best Wishes John Steadman.
Thanks John. It was only the cellar and the water has gone now so hopefully no damage done.