I have decided that this week is going to be Leaf Week in honor of all the gorgeous trees out there right now. Also, I took some leaf pictures to submit to a photo contest and was so inspired by it that I decided to post (other) leaf pictures in my blog too! So starting out this week is my friend Janet, who works in my lab with me and who is also awesome. Janet has been crazy stressed lately writing her thesis so that she can graduate. It’s due today so yay Janet for getting it done! *round of applause for Janet* Anyway, on Friday, she took a break from writing and went outside in the gorgeous fall weather (it was 70 degrees outside… in November!!!!) to take leaf pictures with me! This one was my favorite.

Photoshop
First a note: (I have had a suggestion that this photoshop section takes away from the magic of my pictures… Do other people feel like that? Should I just include a brief summary of the picture and that is all? I have been posting the photoshop section because it is kind of a record keeper of what I actually did do to each picture and I thought people might be curious about how I process my pictures… but discuss!)
Today’s Photo: When I take pictures on my DSLR, it saves the picture both as a JPG and as a raw NEF file so that I can have multiple ways of editing my pictures. I’ve been working on learning how to edit the JPGs on their own since I can apply those skills to any picture taken on any camera but for Janet’s picture, I actually used both NEF and JPG editing techniques. Janet’s face was a little underexposed so I fixed the exposure and the white balance of the NEF photo. Then I switched to editing it as a JPG. I cropped it and darkened those bright leaves above Janet’s head because let’s face it, they were outta control!. That’s it! :)