At Newmillerdam this morning I’m experimenting with Art Filters on my Olympus DSLR, keeping it set to High Key, which seems appropriate for the first bright day that we’ve had for a while.
We’re on the regular lakeside circuit and, as it’s summer holidays, it’s good to see so many children taking an interest in nature (which isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy it just as much when they’re back in the classroom and we have the walk to ourselves!)
The High Key emphasises pattern in bark and rippling water but it leaves images looking pale and contrasty – I suppose that’s the whole idea – with highlights burnt out, so I’ve taken the images into Adobe Lightroom and looked through the suggested filters for something nearer to what I had in mind when I took the photograph.
I find myself looking at the familiar trail from an alternative point of view as ‘high key’ makes me think of the brighter side of nostalgic subjects. The texture in the sidelit Lawns Dike Trail sign with the mossy stonework and weatherworn wooden sign is just what I had in mind. It reminds me of vintage colour postcards.
As I’m fiddling with every image in Lightroom I might as well have taken normally exposed photographs and decided for each which filter – or no filter at all – might have been appropriate.
But I did try one more filter: the mallards in eclipse plumage dabbling around the Boathouse Cafe got the Vintage Filter, but again with a bit of tweaking in Lightroom afterwards.
The vintage effect works for me as it reminds me of colour plates in Edwardian natural history books.
