ephemerallife

show me what you can do

Today's post is an opportunity for you to show off your photoshop skills. I will provide the photo and your job is to tap into your creativity and process the photo any way that you feel. Want to change the colors? Go ahead and do it. Want to composite in some people in the window? Go for it.

 

The image shown above is your challenge. Just to give you an example of some of the possibilities, here is my take on the scene as though it was taken at night.

Show us what you can do. Simply download the image and have fun. Post a link to your creative take on the scene int he comments. Good luck!

 

 

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Tiffany windows part two

the evolution of a great image

the evolution of a great image

 

Step one: take the picture. I saw Debbie standing at this window and knew the scene would be a great image. So, I adjusted the camera and took the shot. I wanted to have some sense of what was outside of the window and also wanted to use chiaroscuro in the image. It's helpful to have an idea of what results you want before you press the shutter button. I find it's much easier to make the heavy adjustments in the camera than in post processing.

 

 

Step two: post process the image. My typical process with an image of this kind is to convert to black and white, so that I can get a handle on the tones. I can see them better without the distractions of the colors. I then switch back to color to make my initial adjustments. I could tell that I would have to lighten up the image quite a bit. I made my initial adjustments in Aperture. On the Mac.

 

 

Step three: step back and re-evaluate the image. In the case of this photo, I thought the brightness and contrast still needed adjustment. I also sought the advice of some fellow photographers. I was unsure of how far I should brighten up the image. Advice in hand, I had another go at the image. This required me to switch to PhotoShop. I would need the power of adjustment layers and layer masks.

 

 

Here, you can see the final image adjustments. I've significantly brightened the image overall, especially on her back. However, I was sure to keep the dark shadows under the window. This was done to force your eye upwards and away from the floor. I did leave the highlight on the floor to give some balance, I just didn't want your eye to stay there. Notice that I used the contrast between the shadows on the wall beyond her body and the highlights on the front of her to make her stand out from the background.

I think the result is an effective image. We can't see what she is looking at, leaving the subject of her gaze to our imaginations. We get to interpret the image, making up our own story.

 

 

I applied the same process to a second image from the same shoot. Getting two nice images from the same moment is as successful as you can hope to be. As much as I like the resulting images, I enjoyed the collaboration with other photographers even more.

You should take part in your own photo community. Chances are that there is a photography group in your area. Chances are even better that you can join a vibrant community online. Give it a try.

Also, don't be afraid to re-visit an image. I slept on this one before making the final adjustments. Sometimes having a fresh look at the picture is what you need to take your work to where it needs to be. Most importantly, have fun all along the way.

 

 

bottles

the photographic mindset

I took this image Sunday morning during a dawn drive through our local farm country. When I saw this cloud formation, I stopped the car and got out, camera in hand. The contrasting tones and the shape of the cloud front were what impressed me.

However, being a photographer, I couldn't settle with the beauty that I was looking at. The colors and light were not enough. I wasn't satisfied.

I wanted to see it in black and white. I knew that those tones would be spectacular in B&W. Sometimes color can get in the way of a great image, even when it is gorgeous. So, as soon as I downloaded the pictures, I made the conversion.

What do you think? Have you ever looked at a scene and just knew that it would make an impressive B&W image?

 

dc picture show

 

My trip to DC was a photographic experiment. I travelled without my laptop and retrieved, processed, and up loaded my images using only my iPad and the camera connection kit.

For image processing, I used an app named snapseed. The best $4.99 I ever spendt. The app has a remarkable collection of editing tools.  I highly recommend it for those of you in search of a powerful app that can handle almost everything you will need while travelling.

 

 

The Great Wheel

 

This is Sheep to Shawl weekend at Carriage Hill Farm. That means that the sheep are being shorn, some of the ladies are spinning the merino wool into yarn while others are weaving the yarn into shawls on the loom.

 

 

My good friend Debbie told me that she would be working her great wheel and asked me if I would like to come in early to take photos before the public arrived. I was pretty excited because I had never seen the great wheel in use and we would be shooting in the natural morning light from my favorite window.

 

 

The challenges started very early. The morning turned out to be rainy and the light from the window was weaker than normal. I had to run back to the car to get my tripod. I had hoped to shoot a little more agile, but I would rather be tied to the tripod than get shaky shots. I really don't like to shoot handheld slower than 1/30th of a second.

While Debbie prepared to spin, I set up the camera gear.

 

 

The great wheel is also called a walking wheel because the spinner walks back and forth while spinning the wheel by hand.

 

 

The larger wheel causes the spindle to spin very fast, adding a lot of twist to the yarn, perfect for wool.

 

 

Debbie made fast work of the wool and before long, she had a skein ready to go. For me, the shoot was as much about post processing as it was about taking the photos. I converted the images to black and white and thought they looked pretty good, I decided that they could use a little warmth. I decided to then add a little sepia tone, finally deciding on only 15% level. I didn't want the images to be brown.

Finally, I wanted to throw the viewer back in time and anchor them there. So, I added a vignette to each of the images.

I hope you like the images. Drop me a comment to let me know what you think.

Tim

 

sisters redux

 

Sometimes I just can't let go of an image. I know that someplace inside of the photo I took, there is a better image. In the case of Sisters, i knew that the real picture was located around the horses heads and the wonderfully contrasting light.

After allowing my thoughts to steep in my head for a couple days, I cropped the photo into a portrait aspect ratio instead of a landscape image. The photo now tells a different story, one that I prefer over the wider landscape shot.

What do you think? Is this an improvement?

 

maximize your color

 

This image was taken last night during civil twilight from our local marina located at Buck Creek State Park. What you are looking at is the final image after post processing. The "blue hour" after sunset is the perfect time to capture brilliant colors. The reds and blues that result from the sun setting behind the horizon can be spectacular. This kind of display begs for you to get the most out of your colors. Don't settle for ordinary colors.

 

 

This is the image SOOC (straight out of the camera) and though the colors are there, they are somewhat subdued. I want to maximize the color and make it explode out of the image. How do I do that?

I get over the top colors by making color adjustments in my photo editor. I use Apple's Apurture for my relatively straight forward image adjustments. However, when I need something more complex like multiple layers and localized adjustments, I turn to Photoshop, a tool that I use professionaly as well as on my personal work.  In thi simage, I want the blues and reds to come to life. Adjusting two seperate colors in different areas of the image requires multiple layers and layer masks... that means Photoshop.

 

 

First step is to copy the original layer twice, once for the blue and once for the red adjustments. I will save the original layer image unchanged in case I need to go back to it. In the image above, I have adjusted the reds so that they are stronger than in the original. I repeat the same process with the blues on a separate layer.

Notice that as I adjusted the reds, the entire image is changed. The blues are more purple and there is now a lot of red in the white boat that I don't really want. By placing the red layer on top of the blue layer and by adding a layer mask to the red layer, I can "paint" out the areas of the red layer that I don't like. This will allow the blue layer to show through from beneath. Using a soft brush with low transparency settings, I can slowly build up the blues that I need in the final image.

 

 

Once again, here is the final image. Notice the vibrant colors. I was able to showcase Ma Nature's color show without ruining the whites and greens that I wanted to remain untouched. Don't be afraid to maximize your colors when the occasion calls for vibrant hues. Go ahead, don't settle, knock your viewer's socks off.

 

internal conflict 2

 

As you can guess by the image, I am still playing around with the idea of multiple self portraits and what I could do with them. I continue to have a lot of ideas for what I could do and this image is another step forward in practicing and developing the Photoshop skills needed to pull it off. In this image, I wanted to get the individual portraits closer together and overlap the bodies. So, I had the right hand portrait overlap the center figure. The actual photographic process remained the same one used in The Five Tims image that I posted last week. On the post process ing side of the equation, I still struggle with the overlapping skin tones and have pretty much decided that the problem I am encountering starts in the photography and will make some changes on the front end. Stay tuned, there will me more images of this type to come in the future. When you have had enough, let me know.

The mustache? It won't last much longer. I have never had a full mustache in my entire life and I wanted to grow one while I could. The stache is on thin ice right now. Everytime I eat ice cream, I get the cold confection all over my upper lip and that my friends, is just silly. Who wants to waste perfectly good ice cream that way?

 

 

changing the light

 

Remember that in this morning's post, I wrote about a picture that I was not happy with? This is it... after I worked on the image a little.

 

This is the same image before I made any adjustments. The image just does not reflect what I felt when I took the picture. What did I do? I made tone, contrast and color adjustments in Aperture. As far as color adjustments, I tweaked the red channel until I got the morning light tones that I remembered.

I am still not completely happy with the image and am still toying with going back earlier tomorrow morning. If I do, you will be the first to know.