Enhancing Nature & Wildlife Images
 
THIS PRODUCT PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE RECORDING - YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO DOWNLOAD.
 
You have a folder of photographs that are technically fine and still do not say what you felt when you pressed the shutter.
 
That is the gap Maryellen Stone works in. She starts with the plain edits that get an image ready, then moves into the creative work: pulling the eye where you want it, rebuilding the mood you actually stood in, and carrying on until the picture has a painterly, fine-art feel. Originally recorded live as Creatively Enhancing Nature & Wildlife Images, though very little of it is only for wildlife photographers. Her own words on the night were that these things work for all images.
 
All of it is done by hand. Layers, masks, blend modes and brushes. No AI, no preset doing the thinking, so you keep full control and you can repeat any of it on your own files.
 
Have a look first. Short highlights film here: https://youtu.be/344xomE-tVM
 
What you will take from it
The basic edits, done properly. Including the preset she puts on every single image, read out in full. Contrast, vibrance, saturation, sharpening, and why each number is what it is.
How to direct the eye. Background masks, radial and linear gradients, painting warmth in with a brush. Why she lights the eyes and darkens everything else.
Negative clarity for glow. The one that sounds backwards and works beautifully on flowers and woodland.
When to stop being a nature photographer. The second half leaves nature behind entirely, into textures, step and repeat, and circular apps that turn a flower into something you cannot name.
 
A taste of what is in it
A lioness in Botswana she is still convinced was looking straight at her, with nine other people in the boat. A collared redstart photographed through the window of the ladies' loo in a Costa Rican rainforest, because she takes her camera everywhere. Two herons at a small pond in Venice, Florida, where the male brought the female a branch of berries and their bills crossed into a heart. And two cow lilies she found on a whiteboard in her own bathroom, which by the end of the evening were not lilies at all.
 
Also the rule that you never crop a bird's feet out of a picture, because you are always better off giving them room than taking it away.
 
What our community said on the night
Cindy: "Thank you Maryellen, now going back to do some re-edits!"
Debby: "Inspiring presentation Maryellen!"
Chris: "Love that phrase, you're allowed to do whatever you want."
Gina: "This has been fantastic, thanks so much, Maryellen."
Mo: "Can't wait to watch the replay."
Esther: "Thank you so much for a thoroughly enjoyable session."
 
Do you need Photoshop? For the texture work you need layers, so Lightroom alone will not do it. Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Affinity Photo all work, and Affinity is free. One of our community went away the morning after this session, worked the whole technique through in Affinity: https://www.facebook.com/groups/camversation/permalink/3618384441658475/
 
Who it is for. Anyone who photographs birds, animals, flowers or landscapes and wants more from the files they already have. Beginners are welcome. Maryellen is a patient teacher, she was a teacher before she was a photographer, and she explains as she goes.
 
Why we love this one. Maryellen has been part of our community for years and her texture workshops are among the best selling recordings we have. This one goes further than those did, from the ordinary sensible edits right through to work that has stopped being photography. And she is generous with it. She gave away her preset without being asked and told the room to email her if they got stuck.
 
About Maryellen. Maryellen Stone is a photographer and digital artist whose work moves between nature photography and abstract digital art. She teaches classic, manual editing rather than automated tools, and runs a creative imagery community of her own alongside her Camversation sessions.