Blog 4 - Edit: Camera Raw

"Avian Neighborhood" - 1/28/12 - 4:20 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/4.0 - 1/4000 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I really liked the pictures I had of the birdhouses, but this was the only one that wasn't too underdeveloped. I did like the lighting on it too, but I knew it would take some work. Pulling it into Camera Raw, I adjusted the temperature, exposure, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, orange hues, and then used an adjustment brush with an orange coloring to paint some warm light over the light that was already there. Then I took it into photoshop and added some adjustment layers. I added levels, brightness/contrast and color balance.

"Net in the Trees" - 1/28/12 - 3:22 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/200 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

While ambling through the lesser known areas of Rexburg, I was walking past a tree and was transfixed by the light shining through the trees. I had a time trying to get a good picture though because the camera wanted to focus on EVERYTHING. I lucked out with this shot though. Once I pulled it into Camera Raw though, I got to work. I adjusted the temperature, tint, exposure, fill light, black, brightness, contrast, clarity, highlights, lights, darks , shadows, sharpening, radius, detail, hue and saturation of the yellows and greens, and used adjustment brushes to darken the edges and lighten the focal point. After that, I took it into photoshop and added vibrance and black& white adjustment layers.

Blog 4 - Panoramics

"Crystal Fish" - 1/28/12 - 4:34 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/5.0 - 1/125 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I wanted to take some pictures in the Geology Museum, but I couldn't get far enough away from them to get good shots. Except the fish tank. The guy that worked there had just fed the fish, so they were swimming all over the place. I was worried that it wouldn't work as a pano because of all the movement, but I really like how it turned out. Once I photo merged it, tried CA Fill and decided to crop instead, I started adding adjustment layers. First, I added a Vibrance layer, increasing the vibrance and saturation of the image. Then I added a color balance layer, adjusting only the midtones. Finally, I added a Brightness/Contrast layer, greatly increasing the brightness and decreasing the contrast slightly.

"Time to Play" - 1/28/12 - 2:52 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/4.0 - 1/4000 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I went wandering around Rexburg for a few hours taking pictures of things and decided to try doing a pano of the playground at Porter Park. After applying photomerge and trying CA Fill, which didn't work, I cropped the image a little. First I added a levels layer, pulling in the white tab a tad. Then I added a vibrance layer and upped the vibrance and saturation. Finally, I added a Hue/Saturation layer, increasing the saturation and masking out parts of the playground set.

Blog 3 - Edit: Adjustment Layers and Smart Filters

Adjustment Layers

"Kinetic Ooze" - 1/23/12 – 3:13 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/4.5 - 1/25 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I began with a levels layer at 100% opacity. I moved the black and grey tabs over to the right and moved the white tab in a smidge. On top of that, I put a hue/saturation layer at 100% opacity. I put the hue to +180, the saturation at -68 and leghtness at 0. I masked out part of the layer to have both colors show through. On top of that is a vibrance layer at 100% opacity with vibrance at 100 and saturation at +9.

Smart Filters

"Emergency Station" - 1/23/12 – 2:59 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/6.3 - 1/250 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I started out with a Neon Glow smart filter with a green glow, glow size 13, glow brightness 22. Opacity 100%, light building masking and 100% mask on the emergency station. Then I used a watercolor smart filter, brush detail 4, shadow intensity 4, texture 3. Opacity 50%, medium masking on the sky, 100% masking on the emergency station.

Blog 3 - Flora & Fauna

"On the Hunt" - 1/23/12 – 2:42 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/500 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I was walking around campus, happy that it had finally snowed, and lo and behold, I find a squirrel. I was apprehensive to get too close to it, but I zoomed as much as I could and inched slowly towards it until I got a shot that I liked.


"Faerie Hut" - 1/23/12 – 2:45 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/500 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

Taking random pictures of plants in the snow, and I found this. The angle of the shot that I took made it look like a little house, and I really liked it.


"Winter Waits" - 1/23/12 – 3:21 PM - Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/500 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

Walking home from campus, I periodically took pictures of the snow covered plant life and took this shot. I really liked how it turned out.

Blog 2 - Edit: Blends & Types

Blend

Through the Spokes - 1/14/12 – 1:38 PM - Romney Building, Rexburg, ID - f/32 - 1/160 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

Rusty Rock - 1/14/12 – 2:17 PM - Snow Building, Rexburg, ID - f/32 - 1/50 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I used tutorial 34 on this image. I began with the image of the bike spokes that I took, added a warm rust brown color fill layer with an 81% opacity and Overlay blending mode. Then I added the Blue Channel pixels from my rock texture at 44% opacity. Over top of that, I put two levels layers in hard light blending mode, one at 100% opacity and the second at 30%.

Type

Fred - 1/14/12 – 12:44 PM - Spori Building, Rexburg, ID - f/4.0 - 1/2500 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

Stripes - 1/14/12 – 12:58 PM - Spori Building, Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/500 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I used tutorial 17 on this image. The first layer is the image of the skull with flowers that I took. I put a warm brown color fill in overlay blending mode overtop at 50% opacity. Then I added the green channel of the rough marble texture at 80% opacity. On top of that, I put a levels layer at 100% opacity in Color Burn blending mode. The text on top consists of synonyms for romance that I found on a Thesaurus website, one set in white Adobe Caslon Pro 72 pt size, 150 pt leading, and the other set in red Adobe Caslon Pro 60 pt size, 150 pt leading. Both have layer masks. The word "Romance" is in white the King & Queen font 170 pt size, 60 pt kerning, and "is DEAD" is in white Adobe Caslon Pro 100pt size, 10 pt kerning.

Blog 2 - Color Study - Green

Slytherin Pride - 1/14/12 – 12:53 PM - Spori Building, Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/800 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

After situating myself in the shadows of the Spori building, I laid my hand-carved wand and my Slytherin tie on top of my roommate's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, opened to roughly the middle. I was amazed at how far away I had to be to get this shot. I had to spot meter the tie because my camera kept trying to auto focus on the text behind it or the wand instead.

Industrial Ribs - 1/15/12 – 4:53 PM - Hart Building, Rexburg, ID - f/4.0 - 1/100- Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I was sitting at a bench outside the Hart building when I took this shot, roughly at sunset. I looked down and really liked how the warm sunlight of early evening was shining off the side of the bench. It took me a bit to figure out what angle I wanted and to spot meter it because the camera kept trying to auto focus on the ground beneath.

Precariously Perched - 1/14/12 – 1:01 PM - Spori Building, Rexburg, ID - f/5.6 - 1/4000 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

In the shadows of the Spori building, I found a railing onto which I positioned my lime green rubber duck. Mostly I was just laying around with the aperture settings, trying to get a feel for my camera, but I liked how this one turned out. I probably should have given the duck some more lead room, but I kind of liked how he was turning away.

Sea of Gates - 1/15/2012 – 5:04 PM - Hart Building, Rexburg, ID - f/32 - 0.8 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I tried several different methods to get this shot. I tried lying on the benches, placing the camera itself on the benches, and finally positioning my camera on a brick ledge right next to the benches before I was able to get an image I liked. Taking pictures at sunset is really difficult without a tripod.

Death of Spring - 1/17/12 – 9:07 AM - Ricks Gardens, Rexburg, ID - f/11 - 1 /125 - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

I coerced my friend into taking pictures with me at sunrise. It was cold and snowing, but once the sun came out, we got some really interesting shots. This was one of my favorites. Despite the harsher lighting, the expression really draws you into the shot.

Blog 1 - Edit: Cutouts

"Alice and her Rabbit" - 9/17/10 - 4:49 PM - Anime Weekend Atlanta Con, Atlanta, Georgia - f/3.1 - 1/15 - Nikon Coolpix S203

The first thing I did in photoshop was to use quick selection to select the circle pattern on the carpet. Then I inversed the selection and filled it in white in a new layer. Then I used quick select to select Alice and the White Rabbit, refined the edges and pasted them into a new layer. I then adjusted the levels, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, added white space above the rabbit's ears and adjusted the color balance.




"Strongmarm" - 10/6/10 - 8:23 PM - Dixie Classic Fair, Winston-Salem, North Carolina - f/3.1 - 1/30 - Nikon Coolpix S203

First, I did used quick selection to select my Mom. After that, I refined the edges, then copied the selection on to a new layer. Below that layer, I put a black color fill on a separate layer. I then adjusted the levels and brightness/contrast. Then I cropped the image to reposition my Mom.



"Don't step on the Duckie" - 7/6/10 - 5:58 PM - Colonial House, Rexburg, Idaho - f/5.1 - 1/125 - Nikon Coolpix S203

First, I did used quick selection to select the duck. After that, I refined the edges, then copied the selection on to a new layer. Below that layer, I put a white color fill on a separate layer. Then I cropped the image to reposition the duck. I did not adjust any color, brightness or saturation on the image.

Blog 1 - Past Photos

"Take Me To Your Leader" - 5/14/09 - Spori Computer Lab, Rexburg, Idaho - f/2.0 - 1/18 - Camera brand unknown

This picture was part of a "pet" project for my Graphic Design class. I was given a bag of rubber bands and had to take pictures of them in various manners. I got bored, and wrote "Take me to your leader" on one of them and stretched it across my notebook before taking a picture of it. I used a crappy little camera that I got from my Mom and I didn't edit this at all.

"Drops of Jupiter" - 7/13/10 – 11:46 AM - Ricks Gardens, Rexburg, Idaho - f/3.5 - 1/250 - Nikon Coolpix S203

I was wandering around campus and decided to take pictures in the Gardens. I came across a little decorative pond area near the Benson building and it had just rained earlier that day, so there were water droplets all over the lily pads. I put my camera in macro mode and took a bunch of pictures. This one was my favorite. I didn't edit this in photoshop at all.

"Sunset Duck" - 7/6/2010 – 9:25 PM - Colonial House Apartments, Rexburg Idaho - f/5.6 - 1/140 - Nikon Coolpix S203

I was taking pictures of my lime green rubber duck for a color study assignment for my Intro to Photography class. I took 60-70 pictures trying to find the right one. While this wasn't the one I ultimately chose, I did like it a lot. I didn't edit this in photoshop at all.

"Hitler Duck" - 7/6/2010 – 5:44 PM - Colonial House Apartments, Rexburg Idaho - f/4.6 - 1/570 - Nikon Coolpix S203

I was taking pictures of my lime green rubber duck for a color study assignment for my Intro to Photography class. I took 60-70 pictures trying to find the right one. This was one of the ones I chose for my assignment. I call it Hitler Duck because it reminded people of the old propaganda posters from WWII. I think I adjusted the levels a bit.

"Camera Shy" - 7/2/10 - Outside the Snow building, Rexburg, Idaho - Black and White Film Camera

We had to do portrait shots for one of my Intro to Photography assignments. I coerced my friend Joel into being my victim, er, subject. At first he was a tad camera shy, which made for some fun shots, but then he loosened up some later. It was midday while we were shooting, so I dragged Joel into a shaded area for softer light. I developed this photo myself in the photo lab darkroom. I began with developing the film, then I used my negatives to imprint the image onto photo paper, and ran it through chemical processing. Once I was content with it, I scanned it to put on my Flickr for class. Later, I went in and did some levels and curves along with some photo touch-up and dodge/burn to further improve the image.

"Nature's Light" - 6/23/10 - Colonial House, Rexburg, Idaho - Black and White Film Camera

One of my Intro to Photography assignments was focusing on light as a subject. I woke up just before sunrise and ambled around outside taking pictures of things in the early morning light when I came across this leaf on the ground outside of my apartment complex. I really lucked out on this shot. I took a few different shots, but I really liked how this one turned out. After developing my film, I scanned in my negatives and adjusted the levels and contrast to get this to look the way it does.