Melissa Anderson: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

Bannack Best

Colored Lights || 5.25.11 @ 3.37 | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/6sec | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 6.0mm | no flash

Mourning Cup || 5.25.11 @ 6.43pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/4.0 | Shutter Speed: 1/1600sec | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 38.9 | no flash

Wagon Wheels Still Rumble On || 5.25. 11 @ 2.53pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/160 | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 20.1 | no flash

In the Window || 5.25. 11 @ 3.01 | Bannack Ghost Town | f/4.0 | Shutter Speed: 1/320 | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 22.4 | no flash

Stairs to Heaven [or not] || 5.25.11 @ 4.14pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.2 | Shutter Speed: 1/13sec | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 6.7mm | no flash

The first image, I edited in HDR (which is actually fairly obvious because of the banner-y thing). It was fun to adjust the colors and brightness. For picture two, I merely used a small aperture to blur the background and then focused on the cup things which blurred the background. I kind of like that it looks like the girl in the back is mourning. It was not planned at all, but ah well. Black and white filter adjusting the contrast, and I liked the wagon. It was a nifty angle (and I had tried several). For the sepia, I had to adjust. I found some instructions online that did not really help at all, so I fiddled with the hue/saturation until I got it figured. On the plus side, I now know basically how to sepia a picture. The last image I really, really liked. I spent forever, it seemed, getting those angles right and getting a shot of the staircases that were what I wanted. I came back with this image. In Photoshop I added a little contrast, brightness, and vibrance. It just looks super sweet to me!

Bannack: Landscape QEA

Land

Horizon

Sky

River Runs (Sky) | 5.25.11 @ 1.42pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/6.3 | Shutter Speed: 1/2000 | Canon Powershot SX120IS | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 20.1 | no flash

I set my settings. Then I started focusing on the different brightnesses (which is probably not a word) and snapping pictures (which certainly is). It was interesting how the different focuses brought out different colors. Since I did not want to change the colors of the images, I did not make any edits to it. I realize that not all the pictures are in the exact same frame, but I did try to make them at least similar.

Bannack: Reverse Shallow Depth

Through Glass (inside, outside) || 5.25. 11 @ 1.22pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/1600sec | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 18.1 | No flash

The focus of the first one was on the window crosses. This made the background more blurry. The houses are a little less... there then they might have been otherwise. Next, I can safely say, is focused on the outside of the window or the scenery. This made it significantly clearer.

Bannack: Macro Abstract

Piano || 5.25.11 @ 1.50pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/13sec | Canon Powershot SX120IS | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 12.8mm | no flash

Texture: Wall || 5.25.11 @ 1.52pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.2 | Shutter Speed: 1/125 | Canon Powershot SX120IS | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 8.2mm | no flash

Wood || 5.25.11 @ 2.57 | Bannack Ghost Town | f/ 3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/60sec | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 11.5mm | no flash

Fence || 5.25.11 @ 12.41 | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/1600sec | Canon Powershot | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 16.1 | no flash

For these pictures, I set my camera to the macro setting. Now as far as editing goes, I did some blending. The first two images, I used an overlay. The second two, I went with soft light. It was a little too harsh as overlay. I then masked out some out the effects after SIGNIFICANTLY decreasing the opacity. Then I was about done. No, then I was done.

Bannack: HDR

(Regular)

(+2)

(-2)

The Little Blue House || 5.25.11 @ 1.46pm | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/640 | Canon Powershot SX120IS | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 18.1 | no flash

Fractured Yellow || 5.25.11 @ 1.21 | Bannack Ghost Town | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/50 | Canon Powershot SX120IS | ISO 200 | Focal Length: 16.1mm | no flash

Okay, I like extreme, so sue me. My dad is color blind, and so one of my "things" is to bring out as much color as I possibly can: the more color, the better. I chose ultra-contrast, and then boosted the vibrance. Too make sure that I did not go overboard, I nudged the saturation in both directions to come up with these looks. I have decided that I love HDR.

Bannack: Action Blur & Freeze

Freeze:

Blur:

These were a fun set of pictures. I did not really do any edits except a little cropping here and there. I ran into some fairly embarrassing difficulties with the ghosting shots, primarily because I tried to take them at 1/5 of a sec at first. I think I have them figured out (partially) now. I tried to practice whenever I could... I will say some of them were a little bright, but it was fun. As far as the action shots go, I love the one where her boots are hovering right above the puddle!

Bannack: Portraits

Since portraits are quite a weak point for me, I took tons and tons to try to discover what are the best settings, angles, lighting, and focal lengths for a portrait. This was nice because I had willing... victims, shall we say. So, I took a barrage of pictures, trying to note what worked best for them and what worked best for any style that I may hope to develop. I have made at least one discovery... I really do not like taking pictures of people super close up (zoom or physically). It feels tremendously awkward to me as does the photo (but this really is just me, I suppose).

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Editing: Portrait

Enhancements

Original

Enhanced

I saw some cool light coming in from the window, so I quickly snapped a picture. For this image, I cleared her skin to start with. Then I darkened her hair and added a little flair to it. After this, I went about airbrushing her skin. I cleared the eyes up a little.

Replace Color

Enhanced

Original

Okay, I agree. Purple was an interesting color choice, but I was really shooting for something a little outside the general status quo. This was my decision. I like how nifty they look. I selected the tulips and then went to the color replacement to give them a little more excitement. Once I adjusted the hue, I toned it down a little.

Match Color

Original

Matched

Final Product

This little picture was fun, but it was little dark. So I cropped it to fit the image I wanted. Then I did match color. It reddened my model's skin a little, but after a little adjusting of the fade and color, I came up with this image. It is not a monstrous change, but it was enough to make me happy about the skin tone... and the back wall which lost its rather disgusting orange tint.

This picture was fun. I will admit that I had already cut out the WHITE wall behind me for the "original" picture, but I did not have the original, original any more. Primarily because it was awful, and partly because I used the picture for the sole purpose that I took it for.

However, I took the picture, then I cut out the fluff. I wanted to make sure that this was a nice clean cut because I had destructive plans for this picture... okay, not so much destructive as unique. I made isolated the shadows and mid-tones and merged those layers. Then I hid the original picture. After that, I created a couple of brushes, including: PRSSA, enhance, broaden, and network. I made a new layer then to put my stamps. Then I created a layer mask on my mid-tone/shadow layer and option clicked it to paste the stamped image on it (which took FOREVER!). After that, I went back to the regular mid-tone/shadow layer and applied a rainbowy gradient and saved. I had gone a trifle overboard with the stamps, so I got the stamp again and on a new layer, I white stamped some of the the words back into the image. Ta-dah!

Photography: Portraits

Individual: Side Composition

Individual: Head (Shoulders)

Group Posed:

Individual Environment:

This was a fun array of shots. The only real edits I did on any of them were to hide any blemishes or imperfections. I tried to make sure that it was fun. Thankfully the people I was working with are big hams (their own words) which made it enjoyable. I did blur the fence a little on the group posed picture. It brought the focus on the subjects more.