This was another busy work week in Redlands. It’s hard to imagine, but when I first started traveling there, I had time to take daily walks around campus. Recently my trips there have been nothing but meetings and frenetic work. I still go out in the evenings of course, and this particular night brought me to downtown. Parking was a challenge, and I had a longer walk than usual to the restaurant of the night. I was walking briskly, when I glanced down a side alley and – WHAM – full stop. An art installation of colored umbrellas, sparkling with the late afternoon light. This became my favorite image of the week.
Umbrellas
iPhone X🅂
Digital Darkroom. From the minute I saw the umbrellas, I had one goal with the image- make them glow. I turned the exposure up by about half a stop, and then boosted contrast. The sky became too bright, so I dimmed the highlights. I went back and forth many times trying to dial in exposure highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks until it looked like I wanted. Vibrancy I cranked up to +49. This was great for the umbrellas, but also brought out a lot of color in the walls. I felt this distracted from my intent, so I used a brush on the walls to reduce saturation by -36. This keeps focus on the umbrellas. I finished off by boosting clarity (+50!) and texture +12.
WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.
Das Haus von Ruh 