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Jeanne

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Sep 28, 2004, 8:29:08 AM9/28/04
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Greetings all. This summer I purchased a new camera, a Kodak 4.0MP, also films
video. The camera is OK. One of these days I will spend the $1K or more needed
to get the high quality detail I'm looking for in photos. But anyways....

There are some cool techniques that can be applied to photos. I actually prefer
the digital/enhanced photos over the untouched photos (probably because my new
camera sucks)..heh. One technique I picked up over the summer was to blur the
original, adjust hue/saturation, a little levels work (this is in Photoshop)
and then change the layer mode to darken. Does nice things to photos. In
Photoshop Elements it's called Oil Pastel, I tried a demo copy and figured out
the method.

There are other tricks I've used but I like the oil pastel technique described
above. I usually place my photos in an outlined box only because the weight of
the photo remains low, whereas using a fancy jagged edge increases file size.
But I would love to explore that technique instead of spending $$$ on the
applications that create the look.

Do any of you have a digital photo technique they like? Please share! Thanks.

Here are some of my digital enhanced photos:

http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/terns4.jpg
http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/seabrook.jpg
http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/cosmos2.jpg
http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/wheat2.jpg
http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/grey_kitty.jpg
http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/mtmajor3.jpg
http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/tree_sparrows.jpg

http://www.jeannedecarolis.com/boats2.jpg - poster look

Jeanne

Fred Doyle

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Sep 28, 2004, 3:05:20 PM9/28/04
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Jeanne,

Nice work thanks for posting. Thats an interesting technique. Thanks for the
explanation, too.

I am also involved in photography as well as graphic design, and recently
have spent a lot of my free time working on digital photos. Although I don't
do a lot of manipulation, I do enjoy it now and then. I recently spent two
days taking photos at the Lake George Jazz festival, and the first day was
straight ahead reportorial photos. The second day I tried to switch it up
and "improvise" a little more with the music. I got a great response to the
second batch. Much stronger than the response I got to the straight ahead
ones. Here's some results. Not all are strongly manipulated but all have
been worked on in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy them, and they give you some
ideas

http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg1.jpg

http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg2.jpg

http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg3.jpg

http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg4.jpg

http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzsax.jpg


lime

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Sep 28, 2004, 7:51:42 PM9/28/04
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Wow, they are great!

The only one I have to share is one that replicates a darkroom method of
"bleaching" a sepia photograph.

From memory I go to, hue/saturation & check the 'colorize' box. Add value of
26-ish to hue for sepia.

Duplicate this layer and add a gaussian blur (only slight) and adjust the
levels until the light areas look bleached.

Anyway, here's the outcome:
http://www.limelightstudio.com.au/Sepia-Bleach.jpg


Tomas Holm

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Sep 29, 2004, 3:06:16 AM9/29/04
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Nice effect!

My techniques are limited to enhancing and making colours more natural for
print...

/Tomas

Tomas Holm

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Sep 29, 2004, 3:07:57 AM9/29/04
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Nice!

I liked the "jazzsax" image. It looks as though he's holding melted metal.

/Tomas

Fred Doyle

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Sep 29, 2004, 6:52:55 AM9/29/04
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"Tomas Holm" <tomasU...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:BD802BED.1AD65%tomasU...@hotmail.com...

> Nice!
>
> I liked the "jazzsax" image. It looks as though he's holding melted metal.
>
> /Tomas

Thanks, Tomas. I appreciate you taking the time to look and comment.


--
Fred Doyle
www.leafpublishing.com

Jeanne

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Sep 29, 2004, 9:08:49 AM9/29/04
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Fred,

Those are great. I bet Lake George was fun!

<< http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg1.jpg >>

He looks familiar, nice composition, strong.

<< http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg2.jpg >>

I like tight shots. Jazz2 has a newspaper feel to it. What else besides
converting to duotone did you do?

<< http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg3.jpg >>

Mmmmm, cool. That must be the Smart Blur/Edge only mode - very nice.

<< http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg4.jpg >>

Another nicely composed photo, looks like you blurred the background. My new
camera has very little depth of field control.

<< http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzsax.jpg >>

Very cool again. Those are wonderful. Thanks for posting.

Jeanne

Jeanne

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Sep 29, 2004, 9:14:26 AM9/29/04
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<< From: "lime" nut...@here.com >>

<< The only one I have to share is one that replicates a darkroom method of
"bleaching" a sepia photograph. >>

I like sepia treated photos. I even have that setting on both of my digital
cameras for sepia videos. Now that looks cool. I'm not familiar with bleaching
sepias though.

<< From memory I go to, hue/saturation & check the 'colorize' box. Add value of
26-ish to hue for sepia. >>

I love the hue/saturation feature. I do get carried away with it sometimes.
Thanks for sharing.

Jeanne

Jeanne

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Sep 29, 2004, 9:16:50 AM9/29/04
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Thanks Tomas. What feature do you use in your image editor to do color work?
Hue/Saturation or other? Thanks.

Jeanne

Tomas Holm

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Sep 29, 2004, 9:29:17 AM9/29/04
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I use them all! (in Photoshop that is)...

My life got really easier when I started using a black, grey and white index
in all my photos. It has come to the extreme measures that I find myself
looking for ways to add bgw index in my personal photos...

/Tomas

Fred Doyle

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Sep 29, 2004, 10:12:59 AM9/29/04
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"Tomas Holm" <tomasU...@hotmail.com> wrote
> My techniques are limited to enhancing and making colours more natural for
> print...
It is hard to recommend books for other people because you don't know their interests, skill levels, tools available for use, etc., but a book that has helped me immeasurably is "Adobe Photoshop CS for Photographers : Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative Use of Photoshop for the Mac and PC."
 

Fred Doyle

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Sep 29, 2004, 10:48:12 AM9/29/04
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It was two great days of cutting edge jazz, and I got a little bit of pay
for the reportorial shots, so yeah it was a lot of fun.

Thanks for looking and commenting. Its always great to get feedback.


> I like tight shots. Jazz2 has a newspaper feel to it. What else besides
> converting to duotone did you do?
>

Actually, I desaturated the color and then recolorized it. I added random
noise to the background while masking out the player as the background was
very distracting. I increased the contrast on the player after reversing the
mask

> << http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg3.jpg >>
>
> Mmmmm, cool. That must be the Smart Blur/Edge only mode - very nice.

I again masked out the musician, and the background is the result of an
extreme Gaussian blur. the musician himself was the result of several filter
applications. I'm can't remember here which, esactly, but I do have it
written down at home and can look it up if you'd like.

>
> << http://www.leafpublishing.com/drebel/jazzimg4.jpg >>
>
> Another nicely composed photo, looks like you blurred the background. My
new
> camera has very little depth of field control.

That's the real strength of an digital SLR. You have all the lens controls
you get from any 35mm rig. That shot has very little enhancement to it other
than white point setting, increased saturation, some sharpening. The blur on
the background is the result of controlling the DOF with the focal length of
the lens (shot at 300mm) and aperture.

> Very cool again. Those are wonderful. Thanks for posting.

You are more than welcome. Thank you for looking and taking the time to
comment.

Fred


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