Jacking around this week…

I came up with a couple of nice shots to play with. Both were taken right outside the apartment after the rain. Neither is spectacular: I used too large an aperature on both, and ended up with shallow DOF. You can really tell in the second shot. But, the color… ooh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Good color to play with. Water really enhances colors.

I’m pretty much a n00b when it comes to PS, but I’m getting better. I’m figuring out a bit more about proper sharpening, and layer styles. I used “multiply” to really bring out some color in these earthy tones. Pulled the opacity down, so they didn’t get too dark. This combined with a “Velvia” plug-in really pretty the shots up.

Note: the light spots on the first picture are reflections. It’s hard to tell at first, but you’re looking into a puddle of water. I tried to get the shadiest part to cut out glare (I don’t have a polarizing filter), but there were some gaps in the leaves of the tree. If you look closely, you can see how the leaves are sort of floating. I think it’s neat anyway…

And now for something completely different…

This is what happens when you get bored and start playing with photoshop.

Too much?

Beware, full size image if you click.

I’m not real big on photographing people…

But, you know… sometimes it’s nice to try new things.

Steven wanted some profile pictures for Facebook, so I obliged.

The reason I don’t really care much for photographing people is that I prefer more literal photos of people, and more artistic photos of non-people. Unfortunately, a lot of folks don’t like real literal photos of themselves (I don’t either, for that matter). So, now you’re having to do a lot of touch up and composing on the photos, and this takes a lot of time. Not only does it take a lot of time, but you also have to be careful to ensure that the result still looks like the person in the photo. That’s a fine balance to have to strike, and I admit that I’m not real practiced at it.

All that aside, portrait work can be rewarding. It’s tough, but when you get a good result (and I don’t claim that I have here) it’s very satisfying.

On the topic of retouching portraits, I stumbled onto a couple of really cool tutorials/videos today, by way of http://www.ilovephotography.com.

First is a site with some great tutorials of how to do skin work, and other touch up stuff. You’ll be shocked at the adjustments and how they are made. The techniques are great.

http://www.christyschuler.com/retouching

From her site, she also links to a really neat video which will show you just how much work can be / is done on a person before you see their face on a magazine cover/billboard.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/bblank.asp?id=6895

Now, here are my most recent work. I’m putting up some before editing shots just to show the differences in what comes out of a camera compared to what I consider “finished”.