Big Format Picture

1. Techno-Town (24x36)

2. 6.3.11 @ 8.45PM Rexburg, Idaho
3. Canon Powershot SX120IS, Aperture Priority, f/4.3, Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec

4. Adjustment layer > Filter: Cutout (@ 7,1,2) > Poster Edges (2,1,6) > reduced opacity and fill on the left chimney and middle building to about 75% > sharpened these parts to define bricks and other details > Size of image and then crop

5. After sorting through the huge stack of images that I have taken this semester, I kept coming back to this one. I realize that it is a little out of the norm, but I loved this picture and felt that it would be something that I would not mind in my abode. I like that it is a little more stylized than most, but I like it.

As for my photographic technique... I was strolling around Rexburg on my way back into town when in the distance, I saw something that was not quite what I thought of Rexburg as. So I pulled out my camera and quickly made sure that I was on decent settings and then I zoomed... quite a bit (55.9mm). I tried to capture the essence of what I saw. I figured that while the picture itself did not really cause any heads to turn, this could be a picture that I could make into something.

When I took it into Photoshop, I saw it in my mind's eye. I kind of knew what I wanted, but I was willing to try some different stuff. I wanted to make it look more like paint, but with the cutout filter by itself, it lost tons of the detail that I appreciated about the original picture. However, I knew what I was looking for, so I went back to the poster edges and gave it back just that bit of detail that I wanted. Some still looked a little more interesting than I had anticipated, so I reduced the opacity there, and now you see the image before you that I created. 

Panorama

Sun Sets Over Rexburg | 5.10.11 @ 9.06PM | From the top of the stands in Rexburg, Idaho | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/80 | Canon Powershot SX120 IS | Focal Length: 14.4 mm | No Flash | ISO 200

Alrighty, for this picture, it all started when I was strolling home from the library. When I saw the sunset, I started to run... of course it was the one day that I had just left my camera at home. After grabbing my camera and chucking my stuff, I hustled myself up the stadium seats to get this shot. To be frank, the images were a little dull when I got home, but I had wanted to be careful to not grainify (which is not a word) the sky. After I let photoshop do all the work in merging the images together, I started to paint the color back into the sky. 

First, I ramped up the exposure to get a little more light into the shot. Then I boosted the saturation to bring back some of the richness of the sky. Once I could start  to see what I remembered, I went to the selective color layer and began to tweak. I adjusted the reds and blues to get back the contrast that I had originally seen when I was strolling. 

Originals:

Old Salvation | 5.14 @ 5.24 | Rexburg, Idaho | f/4.0 | Shutter Speed: 1/400 | ISO 200 | -.67 

Flora & Fauna

Over Time | 5.7.11 @ 1.29pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/8.0 | Shutter Speed 1/160 | Canon Powershot SX120IS | ISO 200, Focal Length 10.3, no flash

First, I opened Camera Raw. Then bumping up the vibrance and contrast, I moved to the saturation. Using the adjustment brush, I highlighted the upper bricks, then reaching it to barely touch the tallest flowers, I decreased the saturation. I kind of like that it looks as though the color is slowly creeping up into the whole picture... or slowly being sapped of color, depending on how you look at it.

 Big Brown Eyes | 5.7.11@ 1.31 pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/3.5 | Shutter Speed 1/1600 | Canon Powershot SX120 IS | ISO 200, Focal Length 14.4, no flash

I did not make many edits to this image. I will admit that I opened it in Camera Raw and lightened the dog's face. This was the only edit that I made to it. It was just so fluffy.

In My Pretty Garden | 5.7.11 @ 1.38pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/4.0 | Shutter Speed 1/1250 | Canon Powershot SX120 IS | ISO 200, Focal Length 25.2, no flash

Since I am trying to work on my Camera Raw, this is another study in the raw. I bumped up the blacks. I then increased the saturation. I increased the clarity of the picture, but I wanted to make sure that it would not compromise the colors that I had here. I loved how bright and cheery the flowers were, and with the addition of black in the background, I feel it makes the flowers pop out more! 

Strong in the Wind | 5.7.11 @ 1.38pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/8.0 | Shutter Speed 1/125 | Canon Powershot SX120 IS | ISO 400, Focal Length 25.2. no flash

I did not make any edits to these little flowers. They just looked so cheerful already, and after goofing around with some edits, I looked at the original picture, and I liked it better.