As mentioned in my last post, I worked on the Bluebonnets today. I also happened to fall upon a wonderful tool called Darktable. In my last post, I mentioned I’d be working with GIMP for processing the RAW images. However, it turned out that I had to download Darktable to import RAW images into GIMP. I started exploring Darktable and found it to be flexible with a lot of resources to help me learn.
The original photo I took of the Bluebonnets is shown below:
I agree, I did a terrible job of clicking this picture. No amount of excuses I provide should be able to justify the terrible job, given that I walked 2 miles just to get this shot. However, what I lacked in photography I tried to make up during the processing. I put in a combined effort of over 6 hours, playing with the exposure, colour correction, highlights, and other Darktable features. I am not a profession photographer or a have a formal background in post-processing, however I did learn a good deal on how to fix an overexposed sky. In the image, it can be seen that the top right corner is over-bright due to the sun. I decreased the exposure and added a mask over the sky giving it more highlights. I also did some colour correction for the foreground. The final image is cleaner, with brighter hues.
I understand that it’s not perfect. But hopefully by the end of this project, I will have more depth of understanding and be able to get a better edit of the same picture.
A final note on the photos I’ve been clicking: I am using a smartphone to click these images. Although, I do plan on using a camera at times over the course of this project.
As before, your thoughts are welcome! 🙂
