Brisk Mornings on the Upper East Side

Every now and then, I manage to trick my body into thinking the mornings aren't quite as painful as I think they are. (This is a lie.) Usually this means catching up with somebody for breakfast or coffee, but last week, I had the fun opportunity to whip out my camera and embrace our proximity to Central Park on a very brisk morning with my dear roommate Krista. Despite the jokes our friends give us about needing a passport to get up here, we've both loved living on the Upper East Side. There's a certain peacefulness about the neighborhood that you don't get in other parts of the city, and for a place I call "home," that's just what I need! Often times tourists visit the city and claim it's too chaotic and overwhelming - but the reality is that they've only explored Times Square or some other equivalent of a tourist trap. Unbeknownst to them, there are little treasures and neighborhood gems scattered throughout the city that offer a tranquil retreat from the rest of the craziness. Want artisanal doughnuts? A view of the East River? A great open field that's not filled with a thousand human beings like Sheep's Meadow? The Upper East Side calls your name.

It was so much fun just ducking out of the apartment for 15 minutes to snap a couple of gorgeous shots of Krista in the neighborhood!

Behind-the-Scenes of Merry & Kelly's Engagement Shoot

  When my roommate's boyfriend, Kelly, told me he was going to propose, I died trying to keep it a secret. When Merry & Kelly did get engaged, I celebrated and told the world. When Merry hilariously asked me to take her engagement photos, I panicked and laughed...and then pointed them in the direction of someone with more experience: my good friend Rob Cleary. Nevertheless, the four of us went together to the Central Park Conservatory Garden on a beautiful Saturday evening when the weather was the perfect mix between spring and summer. As Rob dutifully snapped away, I took on the role of hair-fixer, bag-holder, sign-maker as well as behind-the-scenes-capturer. I love these candids because of how they capture Merry & Kelly's relationship - from the ridiculous sarcastic jokes constantly bouncing back and forth to the secret glances and smiles that they don't think I see. It brings me so much joy to see Merry & Kelly build their life together, and I can't be happier to be a part of their journey! To see Rob's engagement session photos click here.

Gaussian Blur & A Small Announcement

I'm excited to announce that I've finally switched my URL over to amandaliew.com! As I've fallen in love with blogging and photography more over time, I figured it was finally time to make the commitment of getting my own website. I hope this keeps me all the more committed to blogging and continuing this journey! Due to my limited time, the majority of my photographs have been taken as sets to illustrate a dinner, a setting, or a portrait session. Since my Digital Photography class, I haven't spent much time playing with Photoshop since Camera Raw suffices for quick batch editing. However, I decided to take some time to play with this singular image and thought it would be interesting to walk through the process step-by-step. The original image in DNG form is below:

At first glance, it's a little tilted, and the background clutters the image significantly. In the moment I could have taken this photograph with a different aperture to focus better on the subject and blur out the background, but alas I can't go back in time.

My first few steps were done in Camera Raw where I changed the image to grayscale and increased the contrast to make the lampost's deep black metal stand out more.

At the next point, I entered Photoshop and created a duplicate layer of the background. I then converted the layer for Smart Filters and applied a Gaussian Blur  (10.1 pixels) to the entire image.

Of course, I didn't want the entire image to be blurred, so I began to paint away and "erase" the Gaussian blur on my subject, the lampost. For this process, I highly recommend zooming in very close and also clicking frequently. There's nothing more frustrating than painting a good portion, screwing up the end, and then having to undo the entire command. If you look in the left hand corner of this photoshop image, you'll see there is a white box and a black box. When the black box is on top, your paintbrush is removing the Gaussian Blur. When you flip the two so the white box is on top, you can replace the blur in the same way. For this image it was easier to erase the blur in large strokes and then replace it with smaller strokes to be more detailed. In other words, it's easier to trace around the edges rather than trying to guess where the subject is. 

When completed, the lampost now stands out much more than the background. Of course, I'm still learning quite a bit with this process and when taking a few steps back, I wonder if I was a little too heavy-handed on the Gaussian Blur and whether it looks like an "authentic" depth of field. Additionally, the trouble with a process where you are carefully selecting an image is that inevitably it's going to look a little fake and "pasted in." For example, at the very bottom of the lampost you can see I got a little lazy and unblurred a little too much of the area surrounding the foot. Still learning, though! As usual, I always welcome tips and feedback.