Alright, so this week’s entry is a cheat, so to speak. I already had an image I had clicked that fit the theme almost too perfectly. This image wasn’t even taken this year though. In fact this particular shot was taken 5 years ago! But allow me to explain why I’m using this image for the challenge. This was the very first click from my very first DSLR camera. This was taken after a brief spell of rain in the park near my apartment. The dew on the leaf was absolutely picturesque and I was naturally drawn to the lovely texture of the leaf. As an enthusiast  starting out with brand new equipment, this was an absolutely stellar thing to happen. And it kept me motivated to continue clicking and improve my skill.

Boy was I tempted to to submit this image for the weekly theme and call it a day! But I decided otherwise. After all the whole point of the challenge is to take a new image every week and work on improving my technique and skill. Thankfully, this morning the neighbourhood was damp thanks to a brief spell of rain the previous night. So as a sort of homage to this very first click I decided to (sort of) replicate the shot and enhance it with the tricks and tips I’ve learned since then.

After taking the shot I decided to enhance it in both Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom helped me isolate the primary colours I intended to highlight with the help of the saturation sliders. Since the colour of the leaf was matching with that of some of the grass in the background, I decided to use Photoshop’s quick select brush to isolate the leaf from the background and desaturate the entire background. Some additional exposure and highlights changes in Lightroom helped render the final image that you see here.

Personally I still LOVE the image from 2010. But the 2010 me was just starting out on this beautiful journey as a photographer. The me today has learned a great deal since then and I’m glad I have been able to use what I’ve learned so far to make photography a truly enjoyable endeavour.

Till next time, Ciao.