This original raw image was created during the golden hour.  It was my intention during this photo walk to photograph with a 35 mm prime lens and practice being inconspicuous as I photograph people.

Raw image

The post processing of the above raw image included adjusting the white balance, contrast, sharpening, shadows, and highlights as well as tweaking the exposure warnings, saturation, clarity, and structure.  I also used Nik Effects Dfine to address noise and Vivezaz to lesson the shadow of the two young men.  The horizontal field was slightly adjusted using the building in the background before cropping.  I thought that including the path’s curve would be more likely to allow the image to breathe and to invite an imaged story about the family.

I have found that adjusting for sharpness, clarity, and structure requires a bit of attention to highlight and shadow adjustments.  When I read Raj’s explanation, “the white balance of a camera is a setting where you tell the camera what actually white color” reminded me about past tutorials that have recommended using the color picker to set the white balance from a grey color or color natural area.  Grey to create white?

The cropped monochrome image (processed within Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4) below is an example of the sharpness of the 35 mm lens.  I found that the closer cropped image invites me to image a story more about the two young boys than the family and reminded how I found myself smiling as I watched them engaging life as the sun settled in the west.

Thank you Raj for this amazing opportunity to explore and expand my understanding of photography.