These two paintings are ones I did for two separate “come and paint” parties, you know the ones where a bunch of people get together to drink wine and paint a picture based on the instruction of the artist teaching the lesson. I took both pictures with a ISO of 100 on auto.   I used the daylight feature for the Sugar Skull on the left, and the incandescent feature (tungsten) for the Cherry Blossom Tree on the right.

With the Sugar Skull painting, I had a little trouble with the cropping after I did the auto contrast, because my corners weren’t lining up very well, and I had to retake the picture multiple times to get the best image to crop. I then added a little more green for the color balance and added more contrast.

The Cherry Blossom Tree I did more adjusting to, because the tungsten feature really darkened the image andthe blues and whites of the background almost blended together. After I did the auto contrast and cropped it, which was easier as it was my second image attempt, I sharpened the contrast and added more saturation and vibrance. All those adjustments helped some but when I exposed it more and lessened the offset level, it made significant difference. I then used the constrast 1,2,3 levels and darkened the midtones. The last thing I did was add more red again to try to bring out the blossoms on the branches and ground.

The only problems I had were trying to figure out how to take the pictures at the right angles and with the right amount of light, and how to save the files so I could upload them into the post. It took me a few tries, but finally succeeded.