fall in winter (photoshop)

Stepping away from the flowers for right now. (I may return later in the week. ;) ) We don't get fall down here in Florida. In fact, most of the leaves don't fall off the trees until January or February. But we had a freeze last week so a lot fell. They didn't have great color so I thought the conversion was the best. It's "fall" in Florida.



Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/180~f/4.1~exposure bias 0.0~100 mm~iso 100~manual



Original



 



B&W conversion with vingnette



 

gerbera daisies (photoshop)

I started to play around in Photoshop today. I realized that I don't do much besides B&W conversions and other simple editing. I guess I am not into altering the pic so much, into getting all kinds of effects. But I decided to see what I could do with the flowers. I tried some filters. The first is mosaic tiles. The effect is pretty subtle at this size.







Next I tried some water colors. Again, it was too difficult to see at such a small size so I cropped in close and enlarged the image.  



 



It was kind of fun but I don't see myself using it too often.

fresh flowers (photoshop)

I got some flowers from the grocery store, gerbera daisies and mums. The first is the original, sooc.







I noticed that they magenta flowers were too close to the orange so I tried some color correcting. 







Now the colors may look more like the original flowers but I like the original photo better. Ah well.



Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/125~f/4.2~exposure bias 0.0~113 mm~iso 100~manual



A few comments suggested I try defog. I looked for defog and could find nothing. Ah.. I need to learn a new language. Defog is the shortened term for unsharpen mask filter. Thank goodness for google. ;) So I went back and applied it using the suggested settings. I think it helped. Thanks!

wind chime

It was rainy today. I thought I could get something with the rain but nothing I tried worked. I guess you have to a fast camera to get water droplets hitting a puddle. ;) Later, we went out and the neighbor boys came over to play on the ramp. I got q few I could have used but then remembered I didn't ask permission to put their photos online. So I went back to one I took earlier during the rain, the wind chime. Actually, it's only the top because I couldn't fit the whole thing in the frame. The first image is sooc, and the second is after I opened up the shadow areas in photoshop.  



 



 


Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/40~f/4.2~exposure bias 0.0~113 mm~iso 100~manual

crape seed conversions

I am ON THEME! I love Photoshop now that I know how to do a few things. ;)



Here is Andy. I liked the sooc but just had to do the B&W conversion.

Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/60~f/4.2~exposure bias 0.0~113 mm~iso 100~manual



  



  



Next I did some photos of my crape myrtle which I had just pruned. I did another B&W conversion.

Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/60~f/3.6~exposure bias 0.0~150 mm~iso 100~manual







 



Then I decided to try some clouds. I need more work on this. I'm sure they will be really fun when the summer storms come back in June.


Here is the sooc; Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/500~f/3.7~exposure bias 0.00~53 mm~iso 100~manual



   



I thought the sky could be a little bluer. I don't think it is blue enough but I didn't know what else to try. 







And finally 2 more cloud pics with B&W conversions.



Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/400~f/3.7~exposure bias 0.0~53 mm~iso 100~manual



   



  



Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/640~f/3.7~exposure bias 0.0~53 mm~iso 100~manual



 



 

glider

This bench has a long history. My mom sent it her cousin when she had a baby. The cousin sent it back to my mom when she had my oldest brother. He will be 53 this year. It had sat on my parents porch for years. When I had my boys, my dad repainted it for them. He has had to repair it several times. I know it has no monetary value but I prefer sentimental anyway.



The original, sooc



  



B&W conversion



 



selective coloring  







Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/80~f/3.6~exposure bias .3~45 mm~iso 100 

black-eyed susan

Back to the watering can. This time I added some flowers. No, they are not real. They are silk from petals.com.



First up is the original (sooc)



  



Next came a B&W conversion because I can.



 


Then I got a little brave and tried for spot coloring. I have never done this before and perhaps the flowers were a bit ambitious for my first try. But I like the way it came out.  


  


Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/60~f/3.9~exposure bias 1.0~68 mm~iso 100 

tricked

I pulled out my old remote today. I was making sure it worked and showed Ryan. He thought it was cool and actually looked at the camera! I have one of him smiling too but his eyes get squinty when he smiles and you almost lose the catch lights. I might just like taking pics of my kids. ;) 



 



Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/10~f/3.9~exposure bias 1.0~71 mm~iso 100 

outside upside down

The boys got a bike ramp for Christmas. Each day at 4, they carry it out and go over it a few times. They are not daring enough to try any tricks so they get bored after a while. Andy thinks it is a stage for him. He let me take some photos of him. Lately he has been in an upside down mood especially when sitting on furniture. Anyone remember Mork?






Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/125~f/4.4~exposure bias 1.7~141 mm~iso 200 

tin can

I am running out of interesting objects to photograph. I guess I may have to (gasp) take photos of my kids who don't like to sit still. I love watering cans. I would love to have more but the ones I like are too expensive. And now I have to save my pennies for more camera equipment!







I did another B&W conversion, just to see and to practice. I like the colored version better.







Olympus Evolt-410~Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6~shutter speed 1/125~f/4.3~exposure bias 1.7~134 mm~iso 200

garden gnome (hats)

This is a garden gnome. I thought I'd start a collection of them when I started gardening. He is the only one left intact. The others were cheap and didn't last long. Maybe that is why my garden didn't do so well as garden gnomes are supposed to help out at night. Maybe they were too hot in this climate.





Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6 /shutter speed 1/200 / f/4.1 / 100 iso / 95 mm

birder bob (hats)

This is Birder Bob. Bob is in sad shape these days. When I got him, he had both hands and held binoculars to peep over the fence. I got him years ago and had him facing my neighbor's yard. She thought it was funny because it would spook her MIL every time she came to visit. I think Birder Bob is ready for the landfill. 



Today, I was playing with B&W conversions. All 3 are from the same original.



#1 uses Gradient Map & Channel Mixer






#2 uses Channel Mixer with Scott Kelby's settings: Red +94; Green +16; Blue +8





#3 use Channel Mixer


Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6 /shutter speed 1/400 / aperture priority / f/4.0 / 400 iso / 84 mm

yellow bench

OK, off theme again. We are in Florida, we don't wear many hats. ;)Today I went outside to look for cool stuff in the backyard. Before I started scrapping, I would have found lots of lush flowers and plants which have mostly died. I didn't get to shoot too many things before Andy was asking for his picture to be taken. (I did quite a few of him on the trampoline, I will share them later.) But I did get this bench and knew it would do well to convert it black & white. (BTW, I have been reading Scott Kelby's books and realized my love for landscape and detail photography, things I used to focus before kids.) 



Here is the photo as shot, even with color it's kind of nice.







Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6 /shutter speed 1/80 / aperture priority / f/3.5 / 400 iso / 40 mm



Here is the converted using Kelby's high contrast method with CS2.

worn & loved (hats)

Thanks for all of your comments. One of the reasons I am not using a flash is that Andy has terrible red-eye. He was born with partial ocular albinism so he missing some pigment in his eyes. It really shows up with a flash. (Someday I may get an external flash.) And Ryan HATES the flash and will only sometimes sit for a photo if I don't use it. That said, I keep forgetting that I can use my flash with non-kids. ;) For today's pics, I went back to the theme. I thought taking some photos of their baseball hats would be fun. But not easy. I had to keep moving the table to get a good focal length. And then there was too much like coming from the window so the one shot I like (composure wise) is blown out.  Oh well, this is why I am doing this, trial and error.




 


Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 /shutter speed 1/4 / aperture priority / f/5.6 / 100 iso / 42 mm





Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 40-150mm 3.5-5.6 /shutter speed .625 / aperture priority / f/4.0 / 100 iso / 68 mm

willing to grin

While I was playing around with the ornaments, Andy wanted me to take his pic. So after I was done, I had him move to my scrap room/office in front of the window. He sat on a stool that rotated so he kept moving about and I kept snapping away. We took dozens of pics. I realized my need for a reflector and I have put one on my wish list. ;) I'd also like to get a backdrop so I can ignore the mess in the background. :0

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​Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 / aperture priority / f/3.5 / 400 iso / 14 mm

snowman (hats)

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I took SO many pics yesterday that I had trouble picking one. But I will save the others for a day I might miss. ;)Again, I was working on depth of field and I did figure it out. But this photo is early in the day before I realized what I needed to do. Instead, this should have been shot with macro but it wasn't. But it did make me pull out my tripod I haven't used in years. I did some tweaking (ok, more like playing with the sliders in iPhoto 08).Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 / aperture priority / f/22 / 400 iso / 37 mm

jaunty angle

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My first shot. I was trying to figure out depth of filed to make the background blur out. I think I got it but I don't think there is enough range in this lens to really tell.Olympus Evolt-410/Olympus Lens 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 / aperture priority / f/5.6 / 100 iso / 42.0 mm