FEATURED: Bright Path

[Lenspiration]

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS:
• Publisher: Family Conferences
• Purpose: We are creating PowerPoints for hymns that will be sung at our annual Conferences.
• Request: We would like 4 pictures to backdrop these 4 hymns: Let Him Have His Way With Thee, O For A Closer Walk!, Precious Name, Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord. They all seem to have a similar theme of a “way” or “path”.
• Special Instructions: The photos should illustrate the lyrics of the hymns. The idea of a path winding along with sunlight streaming in all around seems to be a common thread between each of the hymns. However, feel free to be creative with your own interpretation of the lyrics and to share the reason for your perspective when you submit your photos. Keep objects off-center so that the center of the frame can be an uncluttered backdrop for the lyrics.
• Orientation: Horizontal; photo will be cropped almost square.
• How to Submit:
1) Edit your Original photos (In a way that will give the publisher a good first impression)
2) Upload the highest resolution Edited photos, without watermarks, to this link (If you use Lightroom, export as DNG and upload)
3) Create Small versions of the Edited photos (Saving them as less than 8MB in size)
4) Attach Small versions in reply to this topic (So we can all see and appreciate your work!)
• Remuneration: $7/chosen photo will be awarded to Lenspiration Members. 4 photos will be chosen, one per hymn.
• Terms: By submitting your photo(s) to Lenspiration, you agree to the terms outlined in the STS Photo Assignment Agreement.
• Deadline: Midnight Saturday, February 1, 2020 (or until this topic is no longer highlighted yellow).

LEARN HOW:
Watch how I shot this assignment and get related training on how to shoot it yourself at On Assignment: Chasing the Light

WATCH CRITIQUE:
Watch the photos submitted for this assignment get critiqued live by registering for the February 4 Photo Critique Webinar!

[James Staddon]

I really enjoyed this one! Despite not having actual sunlight on the path, it was fun to try and add my own. I’ll be keeping my eye open for “real” sunlit paths over the next couple of weeks though. 🙂

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[Frazer Family]

A number of paths, roads and trails, of various sizes and description.
None of them really have a “sunlight” effect, but I thought variety might prove useful.

WCF photography

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[Frazer Family]

Here are some more paths, roads and trails.
The last picture is not really a path, but the stormy feel reminded me of the words of “Teach me thy way, O Lord”. Verse two and the beginning of verse three have key words such as “sad at heart”, “hours of loneliness”, and “doubts and fears”. Then at the end of verse three we read that the Lord will “Shine through the cloud and rain”. That is like the light patch in the sky, which hints that the storm is ending and we will receive the “crown of glory” at the end of the journey.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

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[Ernest Lloyd]

Here’s a few of the pictures that I took for this assignment.
I thought I’d show the 3 steps I took for improving this photo(just for fun!)
I wasn’t sure if my added light source looks a little too fake or not, but I thought I’d give it a try anyway!
The last photo I uploaded just seems really fake to me but I thought I might as well upload it anyhow.
For that photo there wasn’t much of a path, so It feels a little more made up.

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[Ernest Lloyd]

I also thought that maybe a black&white version could be neat.
I don’t know if that would be an option…maybe that’s not the style they’re looking for.
Anyhow, here’s a black and white version.

[Ernest Lloyd]

Whoops!

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[James Staddon]

Good thoughts, @frazer-family. Do you think you would want to experiment with adding some glow to 20181008_WCF_0353-2.jpg using whatever program you currently have?

Also, I would be very curious to know where 20180528_EJF_9349.jpg was taken.

It looks like you have a very efficient method of organization to be able to pull pictures together of one subject from many different locations and dates. Would you like to share anything about that at all?

[James Staddon]

I enjoyed looking at the process you took to get the glowing effect in the first shot, @ernestf-lloyd. Removing the little distractions really does help. It appears that the natural warmth or softness of the scene was lost in the first edit, though. And I think the glow may cover too much of the scene. Perhaps if it was coming from the top of the frame it would appear more natural, since the light that is visible on the landscape appears to be coming more from overhead than on the horizon. The glow also almost feels like mist since it is purely white. The center of the glow needs to be white, but what falls over the elements of the scene should have a sort of golden hint I think.

The second almost-path photo does appear fake for a couple of reasons. 1) the center of the light source always needs to be pure white. 2) the natural starburst shape from the use of a narrow aperture is the shape that is visible, and yet in real life a starburst would never be that distinct that large. 3) in the natural world, it’s either starburst or glow, not both; a narrow aperture provides the starburst shape while a wide aperture would provide the amount of glow that is showing. 4) since it is not a natural looking starburst, perhaps it could be regular light rays through atmosphere, but in that situation the rays would be much longer.

Perhaps try doing some more experimenting. In your situation going for sunrays (vs a sunburst) might be better. And here’s another tutorial on that that might be fun to experiment with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDyLwMtT-E

[Ernest Lloyd]

Great thoughts on my photos @jamesstaddon!
I’ll be working on re-editing them.

[Frazer Family]

Hey @James, Thanks for the comments. Attached are two versions of 20181008_WCF_0353 with glows made up in GIMP, using some modifiable filters, Supernova and Gradient Flare.
Do I need to upload these to Dropbox as well?

20180528_EJF_9349.jpg was taken on a scenic outlook of the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, NS.
 
@James said:

It looks like you have a very efficient method of organization to be able to pull pictures together of one subject from many different locations and dates.

No, not really. If I remember correctly, I just filtered in Darktable for images tagged both “outside” and “scenery”, but neither “people” nor “family.” After that, I only had a few hundred images to go through.
-WCF photography

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[KelseyFHall]

My submissions.

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[KelseyFHall]

One more

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[Lydia-B]

Here are my submissions. I went out on two different days, one when we still had a little bit of snow on the ground, and the other after the snow had all melted away.

I included my sister in some of the photos because I thought it went well with the words of the songs to include a person: “Teach me Thy way, O Lord”… “O for a closer walk with Thee.” I had her look in the direction of the sun so it would help communicate the idea of asking the Source of Light to lead as she walked along the path.

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[Ruth]

My submissions!!

I didn’t get exactly what I was picturing in this assignment. I was hoping to go to a park with lots of trails, but hurt my foot and couldn’t walk! 🙄😣 So, I’m being content with the roads right near my house (BTW, which are all straight!), and made what I could of it. LOL! 😂

I don’t have Photoshop so I wasn’t able to use the lens flare effect in these pictures, so any sun is natural.

[Author]

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