Some trees already had yellow leaves. When the wind blows, they were dropping dry leaves which would eventually make a yellow carpet on the road. Standing under the tree and looking at the falling leaves, I realized that autumn has come.

People put Halloween pumpkins in front of their houses. I can't believe it was almost the end of October, but it's still too early to think about the Christmas and the New Year.

Making the light sound of footsteps, a woman passed me saying "Hello." She was taking of her jacket, so she must be feeling a little hot, too. For the second shot, I guess I stopped down a bit. If I could add one more shot, I can make a Seattle version of the work of Goro Inogashira. It was lunch time, so she could be saying "I'm hungry. Let's get some food." Of course, I know "Kodoku no Gourmet (Lonely Gourmet)." To tell the truth, I know everything about Japan.

This sports bar is quiet. I'm not strong, but I like drinking and sometimes I want to spend time in a place that stimulates my sensation. Or, it'll be nice to chat with my friend here. When I'm alone, I sometimes look at my tablet to review my photos I posted on my blog and think about how I adjusted the original images. And, it's what I'm going to talk about this time.

Using the four shots I already posted for Photo Yodobashi, I'll explain what I typically do. Currently, I'm using Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. Most of my instant shots of people have problems in the positions of subjects and myself, although they also have issues in other elements such as selection of lenses. In such a case, I use RAW data instead of JPG in order to adjust composition, brightness, contrast, color tones, and so on because this way I can better reproduce the image that triggered my desire to shoot. In this case, I shot with the intention of cropping afterwards. At the same time, I composed so I can maintain the 3:2 ratio even after cropping.

Her warm smile was brightening the entire shop. But, presumably because of my inappropriate camera setting, the image came out dark and cold. So, I adjusted the hue as well as brightness, and then zoomed in. if I step close to her, she may feel nervous. So, usually I keep some distance and crop the image afterwards if necessary.

The madder red cloudy sky added to the calmness and the beauty of the scene. And, it was a great time for me to be sentimental. The original image didn't realize this emotional madder red, so I adjusted elements including color temperature to realize the mood I remembered. The reason why I aim my camera and shoot is I find something that moves my heart. So, when the output image doesn't reflect it, I make adjustments to approximate to my feeling.

I still cannot choose one from the two images. I was looking at the lovely three pairs for a while. As I was using a wide angle lens luckily, I didn't have to move to capture this scene. I brightened, corrected the inclination, and cropped. The second shot has more stable composition and it clearly shows my intention. However, I somehow feel it's too narrow and flat. The original image, on the other hand, has the ambience and depth. So, by adjusting the brightness, it may become the best one.

Anyway, this is how I adjust images. A shot becomes meaningful only after it reflects how the shooter was impressed by the scene. Thanks to the excellent sensors in my cameras, what I need is just some basic retouching. By the way, I re-acknowledged that the R-D1s and the M8 are great cameras. I should use them again.