Photo Club Challenge: Collections

This month's Photo Club Challenge was collections.  When I initially came up with this topic I had planned to take pictures of one of my Christmas collections such as my silver reindeer or perhaps ornaments.  However, the holidays came and went and suddenly it was New Years Day and time to take down the Christmas decorations.  I never got around to photographing my holiday stuff so I had to find another collection to take pictures of.

I had two options in mind: my blue glass and my Starbucks city mugs.  A couple of days ago my  mom posted her challenge pictures and guess what...they were of blue glass!  Like mother, like daughter. :)  So, I went with my Starubucks mug collection.  In addition to the theme of collections part of the assignment was to utilize post processing and show the before and after.  So, without further ado, here are my photos:

Before processing:

After processing:

How I achieved this look:

• Removed Dust Spots
• Adjusted exposure & highlight recovery
• Cropped angle to straighten
  
• Added PH Light Dress Lightroom Preset

Adobe Lightroom presents are an easy way to add a different look to a photo.  There are several resources online where different presets can be downloaded for free.  Preset Heaven is one that I like.

Before processing:

After processing:

How I achieved this look:

• Adjusted exposure and highlight recovery
• Cropped angle to streighten
• Moved clarity, contrast, recovery, and fill light sliders all the way to the right
• Bumped up the blacks bit by bit until I got the look that I wanted

I got the idea for this processing technique from my mom, and she learned it in a Lightroom class that she took.  I think it is pretty cool!  It almost makes the colors and edges look metallic.

In case you were wondering I did all of the processing above in Adobe Lightroom, an awesome program that I think every photographer should have!