Author: akilian

I think that after all the snowfall we got recently we can confidently say that fall is officially over. As we are in this period of awkward transition between fall in winter when all the colorful leaves are gone but it’s still not cold enough for snow to stay on the ground, I’ve decided to post a little tribute to the Arb in colors and specifically my first ever walk there this semester. Enjoy and, well, happy finals week, I hope the happy bright colors make it a bit better 🙂

If you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat you can find me at @akilian.jpg on Instagram or at akilian@umich.edu 🙂

These photos are probably one of my favorites that I’ve ever taken, but it took me a long time to figure out how to get there. With astrophotography you don’t only need an insane amount of patience, but actually good equipment to start with (most of the photos from Peru I took with my friend’s Canon, as all that my old Sigma caught was dust that had maybe 33% chance of being actual stars.) Then you also need a perfectly clear sky, probably away from cities and any lights that would create distraction, as well as good air quality. Once you gather all of this: you’re good to go! (Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work out the first time though, scroll down to see what 90% of my photos from that night took) I’ve wanted to do astrophotography in Michigan at some point so I think I will try to combine it with a little more detailed tutorial in case anyone wants to give it a go! My best tip for now regardless of the equipment you’re using: play around with settings. From the images I present here you can see how you an bring out a variety of colors and shades from total darkness (the editing was minimal! Mostly contrast, but I did not change the colors or whatsoever so you can really see how powerful changing the settings can be with astrophotography.)

Today’s post features one of my favorite subjects to photograph around the world: doors. I don’t quite know why, it’s just very interesting and can tell a lot about a given place.

With any questions, comments, or remarks – you know where to find me 🙂

Instagram: akilian.jpg

Last week you voted for the spookiest photo of the spooky season, and as promised I will go over the winning photograph, the context, editing, general information, etc.

#1 A spooky encounter

As of today, 36.36% voted for this photo as the spookiest!

Background

I was walking through the Arb for the first time, trying to get fall-themed photos. It was probably around mid-October and I just walked into what I believed is called the Praire part of the Arboretum. That’s when I saw this guy right here!

Settings

Camera: Nikon D750, lens 18-200mm

• Exposure time: 1/100s
• ISO 800,
• f/5.6

Editing

I decided to go quite simple with editing, I really like the colors so I pretty much didn’t touch them except for some slight color saturation for green. For the “spooky” touch I added vignetting and higher contrast

• Exposure: +0.80
• Contrast: +40
• Highlights: -30
• Shadows: +9
• Post-crop vignetting: -18
• Temperature: 5,447
• Texture: +5
• Clarity: +5
• Green Saturation: +8

And here you can see the before & after:

tool: Juxtapose by NU Night Lab

If you have any questions or comments you can catch me here or at @akilian.jpg on Instagram! See you next week!

For this week’s post, I went through almost all my folders and picked the 12 spookiest photos I could find in the spirit of the Halloween season! Make sure to choose your favorite and then vote at the bottom of the post. The photo that will be voted as the spookiest will be reposted here with the description and settings I used and also posted on my Instagram!