Filtering through Italy

Portrait

This is the best portrait shot I got this week, it was taken as the sun was setting. The only difficulty was that my subject was not too happy with being photographed, but I managed to get a few really good shots. I tried to make some adjustments in Photoshop to make it  look more dramatic, but I didn't like what I got so I just posted the original photo. 

Cloning, Text Effects

I saw this cool tutorial on the internet for adjusting an old and faded photo. I thought it was really cool and wanted to try it myself, so the above two photos show this. I used mostly the clone tool to get rid of the missing parts, and to blend the different tones in the background, so it looks like the original. I spent a good few hours, but did not want to give up. There are probably other ways of retouching this photo, but using the clone tool has been enormous help for me.



The text tool was really easy to use, I was able to modify the text into different shapes and give it various effects. In the first photo I used the shape button from the Text tool Options bar, resized the text and applied a Color Dodge blending mode.







In the second photo I actually followed the video tutorial for applying a watermark. I just typed the text, resized and rotated it, then applied the Bevel and Emboss layer style.

Filters

I just realized when adding this week's photos that all of them include water and it really was not intentional. I think it's funny...
All right, filters were a lot of fun to play with and it's amazing the effects you can obtain when applying them. The first photo is of a sail boat on the lake, I used the zoom at full length to capture this and the photo came out with a lot of noise. So, I applied the Reduce Noise filter first and then the Stylize > Extrude filter to come to the final result.

The second photo was taken on Church Street, on one of the days the water fountain was actually working. I applied two filters to this image and those are Cutout and Poster Edge, both found under the Artistic group. I think the final photo looks a little cartoonish, or like it was hand-colored, but the effect is great.

Dodge and Burn

Here I used the Dodge and Burn tools... I started by adding a layer with the blending mode set to Overlay and filled it with neutral gray. I then took a brush with soft edges to darken some of the color in the wood covering the dock as well as the pillars. I added a dark blue gradient which starts at the top of the photo and fades to clear as it goes down, giving the sky a little more color.
Once done, I took a look at the modified photo and the dock seemed too dark, so I changed the blending mode of the layer from Overlay to Soft Light. The changes are more subtle now, but still visible.

Color correction

I really enjoyed this week's assignment... I've been trying different things in Photoshop to familiarize myself with the different tools and I'm getting more comfortable with it. I know there is much more to learn, but it's a good start. In this first set of photos I used the Color Replacement tool and changed the color of the train from red to green. I also used the Shadow/Highlight to bring some of the detail in the blackness (upper right in the photo) and added some light with the Brightness/Contrast. I had to try this a couple of times, but I like the outcome.





























The second set shows a photo of me taken without the flash in which my face came out really dark. I applied the Shadows/Highlight tool and was able to brighten up my face. I adjusted the Highlights, Midtones and Shadows individually and was really pleased because not only was I able to bring light to my face and clothing, I also changed some of the landscape in the background. The clouds in the sky and the mountains in the far back are a little more defined, same with the green in the grass and trees.

Photomosaic

I love Photomosaics... I have actually put together mosaics before with a program I downloaded from the Internet (it might even be the one Karen suggested, it looks familiar). I did this after a trip to Europe a couple of years ago, where I took tons of pictures and putting them in a mosaic seemed like a really cool idea. Looking at them now I feel like they may need a little more work (some of the pictures are too bright and they don't blend well), but at the time I though they were great. I will probably make a couple with the pictures I took for this class. I attached one mosaic here and will be posting some of the other ones on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinar/
:)

Photoshop tools

I apologize for posting this week's assignment so late, but I was out of town for a few days and had lots of homework waiting for me when I came back. And the fact that I spent almost an entire day going through the chapters in the Photoshop book. 

I have to say this assignment has been the most difficult and frustrating yet... going through the exercises was not easy when some of the photos that I needed to use were missing. Anyway, these two photos show the use of the cropping tool. In the first photo, I captured another rock on the waterfront which was left out of focus and looks like it does not belong in there (it's distracting the eye). By cropping the bottom section I was able to clean up the image and keep only the blueish colors. I also resized the picture from 9 to 3 megs.

For the second manipulated photo I took the butterfly from the first picture and placed it in a second one. My intention was to place a seagull in the second photo could not find any seagulls in any of my photos so I just used the butterfly. I used the Lasso tool to select the butterfly, the Move tool to move it and then played with the seize and position until I found the current placement to my liking. When I selected the butterfly in the first photo I could not help getting some of the background as well, and to remove that I used a soft brush with 0% opacity.

That's about all I did to combine these two photos. It was definitely a learning experience. :)

Fall Landscapes

I love fall in Vermont! Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by the amazing fall colors and scenery. The assignment for this week was a pleasure to complete, although, composing and taking the pictures is not as easy as observing the landscape. I had the most difficulty with choosing what to capture. Yes, there are plenty of great places around, but I wanted to include as much as possible in my photos. Only after seeing the pictures on my computer at home did I realize that I was going too far. However, I did manage to get some less "cluttered" shots (I think), which I posted here.

I have also posted some of my other photos on Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinar/
or you can see them in the little slideshow I have on the lower right of the page.

Framing

Rule of thirds

When using the rule of thirds for this week's assignment I realized that I was putting more and more thought into composing my photos and thinking about the aesthetics of it. What will everyone else will see in the photo, and will I be able capture what my eye and mind were already composing in my head?

It was a great experience to go through and I think the result is similar with what I was expecting. I have to admit in the first picture I really like how the shadows play out. I'm not sure why the same shadows did not appear in the second, but overall it is more pleasing. I think by using the rule of thirds in this instance the eye is not focused on the single screw, but on the lines formed by the wood as well. I also like the fact that there is a play of geometric figures, circles, star and the vertical lines.

Rules are meant to be broken

For the first assignment I decided to research photo composition. The internet is abundant with articles and tutorials on how to compose the best picture. The Rule of Thirds and the Golden Ratio are among the most recognized guidelines for composing better photos, but there are others to be mentioned like framing, foreground and background, line of sight, cropping.

"In its simplest definition, a composition is a combination, or arrangement, of elements. A photographic composition is the arrangement of visual elements and as such is the product of a photographer's vision and their skill in seeing, identifying, arranging, and framing the finished image. This is a clearly distinct skill from those necessary to successfully operate a camera or calculate exposure."
http://www.naturephotographers.net/np101/gt0804-1.html

The above link I believe is interesting in the fact that although it focuses on landscape composition, it touches on the main guidelines, which can be applied in all instances of of photo composition.

Fall Colors

When driving home one evening I looked up to the sunset and realized what I was missing. I pulled over right away and started taking pictures (luckily I had the camera with me). It was a matter of minutes before it was dark, but I was able to capture some great shots. Once I got home I realized that most of my shots had been blurred, fortunately I also had a few good ones. I like this one because of the colors and the shape of the lighting post. Not sure if these are analogous colors, but they make an interesting picture.


On Saturday I left my house in search for colors to capture for this week's assignment. Turns out I did not have to go too far. I made it to my parking lot and noticed a very colorful tree (half reddish, half greenish) and started taking pictures of its leaves. Actually this is after being sidetracked with taking shots of these beautiful butterflies who were just calmly moving from one flower to the next in a nearby patch of green. Back to the leaves...this is one of my favorites, I love the similar yet soo different hues of red and yellow (well more copper than yellow).



Ok, this last one was taken on Saturday as well while out grocery shopping. These mums were placed in front of the grocery store (they were all over) and I loved the vibrant colors. Conveniently enough this pair of mums were perfectly placed for capturing analogous colors. I have taken a few more photos of different color schemes, but I will post those on Flickr for everyone to see.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinar/

Favourite Macros

These pictures are among my favorites for this week's assignment. Of course they were all taken using the macro setting. The first one is part of a sculpture and what caught my eye is the expression that the man has which I believe is accentuated by the bluish color of the sculpture. 

The second one I took at an Civil War event this weekend. It's a book which has been shot with a rifle that was used in the war. I thought it was pretty neat to see the damaging efects of the weapon. 

The third one was taken at the Civil War event as well and it is a child's toy from that era. I liked how the colors came out. Even though the paint is faded and peeling the color is still strong.

Collage

My collage is made up of different pictures I took in Burlington and Boston. I used the macro feature on my camera as much as I could as well as the zoom. Some of my subjects were much farther and realized that once you zoom out past a certain level my camera was not able to focus on the subject anymore. I aslo have two different macro settings on my camera and used both when taking the pictures. I only noticed a slight difference when focusing on objects that were the farthest. Making the collage in Picasa was fun, I liked the different ways you can make it look.

Comparison

For this week's assignment I choose to photograph a piece of artwork that I have in my house. I was a little difficult due to the angles at which I took the pictures, but they came out all right. In this first picture I was looking to get the closest circles in focus, but it came out the other way. I am still  happy with the result.

The second picture is a detail of the artwork. I used the flash in this picture as opposed to the first one where the natural light was in advantage. What I like about this picture is

how clear the details in the metal are, as well 

as the contrast, it almost looks like black and white. 

First pictures.

Hey, it works!