2 Minute Cemetery Shots

 1. Twisted: 2-22-2011; 5:28 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 3.4; 1/125 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Edited in Camera Raw. Temperature, recovery, blacks, contrast, claarity, vibrance were raised. Saturation was decreased.


2. Brick & Mortar: 2-22-2011; 5:29 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 3.5; 1/200 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Temperature, recovery, fill light, blacks, contrast, and clarity were raised.


Above are my two favorite pictures that I took during the 2 minute cemetery shot contest on our way home from Bannack. I suppose they are not very creative but I enjoyed taking them. Since we were being timeed, I simply switched my camera to Auto mode and snapped as many shots as I could. The one I selected for the contest was "Twisted". The picture was taken on macro mode (Tulip). To bad we didn't have any time to take some ghost shots.

Bannack HDR

HDR:

Originals:

HDR:

Originals:

HDR (1 shot):

Original:

1. Decay: Combination of photos 2, 3 & 4
 Cropped to reduce ghosting since I did not have a tripod at the time.


2. Decay Normal: 2-22-2011; 12:24 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 7.1; 1/10 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 

3. Decay Dark: 2-22-2011; 12:25 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 7.1; 1/50 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS

4. Decay Light: 2-22-2011; 12:25 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 7.1; 0.4 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS

5. Hotel Mead: 2-22-2011; Combination of photos 6, 7 & 8
  Cropped to reduce ghosting since I did not have a tripod at the time.

6. Hotel Mead Normal: 2-22-2011; 3:44 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 8.0; 1/125 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS  

7. Hotel Mead Dark: 2-22-2011; 3:44 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 8.0; 1/500 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 

8. Hotel Mead Light: 2-22-2011; 3:45 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 8.0; 1/60 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 

9 & 10. Dusty Chair: 2-22-2011; 3:25 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 3.4; 1/80 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 


On the trip, my tripod broke; thus, when shooting my photos that I wanted to use for my HDR shots, I had to be very careful to capture the exact same shot. Since my camera did not have a bracketing option, I would take one shot with a regular exposure. Then, I would take the same photo with a -2 exposure and then a +2 exposure. The exposure of the picture could be changed by pressing the plus/minus button on the side of my camera. Once the photos were taken, I opened them in Dynamic Photo. The program then tried to line up the photos as best as it could taking the best lighting from each shot. Sadly, my images were not perfect matches so I had to adjust the images manually using the sliders in Dynamic Photo. Due to some ghosting which could not be erased, I then cropped the edges of the image which I could not match together. From there, I went through the tone mapping area, adjusting the brightness, vibrance, and source of light for the picture. Lastly, for the chair picture, I simply used one image and allowed the program to bring out the colors. Aside from the edits available in Dynamic Photo, I did not make any other edits.

Bannack Macro Abrstract

1. Rusty Wagon: 2-22-2011; 12:47 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 3.5; 1/500 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Increased recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation.


2. Peeling Wallpaper: 2-22-2011; 11:29 a.m.; Bannack, MT; f 3.4; 1/3o sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Fill light, recovery, blacks, brightness, contrast, and clarity were increased.


3. Wagons of Old: 2-22-2011; Combination of pictures 1 & 2
Vivid light blending mode was used at 100% opacity.


I captured the picture "Rusty Wagon" on Aperture Priority mode (AV) with the tulip (macro mode) turned on. I set my aperture low to get the background blurry. In addition, I metered my shot on the screw and then re-framed my shot. For "Peeling Wallpaper", I simply selected the tulip mode and took the picture on the auto mode. After editing both the images in Camera Raw, I opened the shots in Photoshop. Using the move tool (V), I clicked on my texture photo and dragged it on top of the "Rusty Wagon" picture. From there I went through the blending mode options listed in the drop-down menu at the top of the layers pallet. After testing the majority of the modes, I decided to use Vivid Light. Although the result is a little over the top, I though the effect looked really unique and dynamic. Also, it added a bit of a grudge aspect to the image. After all, it is supposed to be abstract. 

Bannack Reverse Shallow Depth

1. Winter Foliage: 2-22-2011; 12:04 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 4.0; 1/200 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, and vibrance were heightened. 


2. Winter Brown: 2-22-2011; 12:04 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 4.0; 1/320 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
 Recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, and vibrance were heightened.

On aperture priority mode (AV) I selected a relatively love aperture. Then, by pressing the shutter half way, I metered on the plant. Then I re-framed my shot, still holding down the shutter, and then pressed the shutter all the way down.  Next, I followed the same process but focused on the background instead so that the foreground would be blurry. It was difficult to re-frame the shot exactly the same, but I did the best I could. All in all, I liked how the pictures turnout. While I tried this method on several different objects, I thought that these two photos displayed reverse shallow depth the best.

Bannack Action Blur & Freeze

1. Sleeping Ghost: 2-22-2011; 1:57 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 8.0; 8 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
 Recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation increased. A black vignette was added.


2. Snow Fall: 2-22-2011; 2:33 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 5.4; 1/125 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Saturation, sharpness, vibrance, clarity, fill light, and blacks were raised. 

3. Snow Blur: 2-22-2011; 2:30 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 4.5; 1/125 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Recovery, clarity, sharpness, vibrance, saturation, blacks, contrast, and brightness were increased. 

These photos proved to be very difficult since my tripod broke upon arriving to Bannack. Thus, it took multiply tries to keep specific items sharp. For "Sleeping Ghost" I borrowed a friend's tiny table tripod. Placing it on a table, I had my subject sit in a dime location in the Bannack Chapel. On manual mode (M), I set my aperture as high as it would go and changed my shutter speed to 8 seconds. Next, I had my subject sit in the seat for six seconds and then had him quickly move out of the scene. I though the resulting picture turned out quite nicely. As for "Snow Fall", I went to a really bright area outside and had my subject throw snow in the air. On shutter priority mode (TV), I set my shutter to a fast speed to catch the action. It took a couple tries but this photo turned out to be the sharpest. Even though I wanted "Snow Blur" to come out sharp, it didn't. However, I really liked the coloring of the picture, so I deiced to post it anyway for fun. 

Bannack Portraits

1. Alone in the Rubble: 2-22-2011; 12:36 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 8.0; 1/3 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
In Camera Raw, recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation were increased.


2. Photographer at Rest: 2-22-2011; 1:02 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 5.6; 1/30 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 
Recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, and clarity were increased. Also, sharpness was added.

3. Hearing the Music: 2-22-2011; 1:03 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 5.6; 1/20 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Vibrance, clarity, fill light, recovery, brightness, and contrast were raised.

4. An Autumn Glow: 2-22-2011; 2:16 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 5.0; 1/60 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Recovery, sharpness, blacks, contrast, fill light, brightness, clarity, and luminance increased.


5. At the Saloon: 2-22-2011; 3:29 p.m.; Bannack, MT; f 8.0; 1/25 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Contrast, sharpness, luminance, clarity, vibrance, saturation, brightness, blacks, and fill light were increased.


While taking these pictures, I experimented with several different aperture settings in an attempt to capture the appropriate amount of light. Often I tried to find south facing windows to place my subjects near. However, due to my lack of a proper sense of direction, I'm not sure how many south facing windows I actually found. I really wanted a natural feel to my pictures, so often I asked my subjects to look away from the camera. I felt this would create wonderful profile shots. Nevertheless, some of my favorites ended up being a the shots in which my subject was looking at me, such as photos 4 & 5. Once I began editing the photos, I made the general edits mentioned above and I also used the patch tool and the brush tool (B) on the color dodge blending mode to reduce blemishes and even out the light on my subjects face. Naturally I used a very feathered brush on a low opacity (30%). Also, I used color burn to darken my subject's lips in photo 4.

Fine Art

1 & 2. Delectable Dessert: 2-5-2011; 3:20 p.m.; Rexburg; f 5.6; 1/40; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Edited in Camera Raw. Recovery, fill light, blacks, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation were increased. An adjustment brush was used to sharpen and brighten the berry.


3 & 4. Harvest Home: 2-4-2011; 3:21 p.m.; Rexburg; f 5.6; 1/20; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Recovery, fill light, contrast, brightness, and clarity were increased. 

To create the fine art template, I opened a blank 18x12 inch document in Photoshop with a 150 ppi. Using the rectangle shape tool (U) with the shape layer option selected, and having my foreground color set as black, I drew a black box on the side of the document. Then I hit Option-Cmd-T to bring up the transform tool. Next, I held shift, clicked and dragged the black rectangle, and hit enter to lock the rectangle. In essence, this merely duplicated my black shape. Then I hit Shift-Option-Cmd-T three more times to copy my action over and over until I had five evenly spaced rectangle boxes. Then I held shift and clicked on both of the layer. Selecting the move tool (V) I clicked on the "align horizontal center" option from the top menu bar to center my black squares. After selecting the image I wanted to insert, I re-sized that image to match my template and then simply dragged the image on top of the template. Then I right clicked the image layer and selected "Create Clipping Mask" which placed the image inside my black squares. At this point all I had to do was insert text and add my signature. To get my signature into the program, I scanned it in as a bitmap, saved it as a brush preset, and then simply used the brush tool to paint it on. Lastly, I lowered the opacity to make it less dramatic. 

Night & Light

1. Need for Speed: 2-20-2011; 11:25 p.m.; Rexburg; f 6.3; 15 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
In Camera Raw, blacks were darkened, sharpening added, contrast, fill light, recovery, and vibrance were raised.

 2. The Gift Giver: 2-20-2011; 7:34 p.m.; Rexburg; f 3.4; 15 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 
Brightness, recovery, fill light, blacks, contrast, clarity, sharpness, and vibrance was added.

3. X-Troid: 2-20-2011; 8:05 p.m.; Rexburg; f 3.4; 5 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 
Fill light, recovery, contrast, sharpness, brightness, and clarity were raised.

4. Crazy Love: 2-20-2011; 6:47 p.m.; Rexburg; f 3.4; 15 sec; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 
Lowered saturation and heightened vibrance, blacks, clarity, contrast, recovery, and fill light.  

This week was very challenging for me. Using my tripod at an array of angles, I captured the above shots by maxing out my shutter speed on the shutter priority mode (Tv). Since 15 seconds was the longest my shutter would stay open, I had to act fast. For "speed" I hit the shutter button as a friend drove in circles in a empty parking lot. Then for "The Gift Giver", upon compressing the shutter button, I drew a girl with an xbox controller while my husband drew a boy with an I-clicker. During the last second, we flashed a flashlight  towards the camera to get the desired glow. Next, for "X-Troid", I focused on the light from the xbox controller and pivoted my tripod slowly moving it for five second. Lastly, "Crazy Love"  was written on the wall with a head-lamp. As you can see, I struggled to find good light sources.  

Borders

1 & 2. Candy Apple: 2-4-2011; 3:21 p.m.; Rexburg; f 5.6; 1/20; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
This photo was edited in Camera Raw. Main edits include, raised fill light, slightly heightened blacks, raised contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation.

3 & 4. Ice Fall: 1-30-2011; 3:39 p.m.; Sugar City, ID; f 8.0; 1/160; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
 Contrast, brightness, sharpness, clarity, vibrance, fill light, and blacks were increased.


5 & 6. Snow Cabin: 2-5-2011; 11:31 p.m.; Driggs. ID; f 6.3; 1/1250; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Fill light, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, saturation, blacks, and sharpness was increased.


After editing each of the original images in Camera Raw, I opened the images in Photoshop to add some interesting border effects. For "Candy Apple" I created a double fade border. I did this by first, cropping the photo to 9x7 inches using the crop tool (C). Next, I changed the image size to canvas adding a 1 inch brown extension around the photo. Next, using the rectangle tool with shape layer selected, I drew a white box in the center of my photo. After adding a layer mask, I selected the rectangle tool again, but with fill pixels selected, and drew another rectangle in the center of the white rectangle. This allowed my picture to show through. I reduced the opacity of the white border, used the paint bucket tool to make the border light brow, and added a vertical and horizontal motion blur. As for, "Ice fall" I simply added a flexible vignette.  this was done by adding a new layer (Shift-Cmd-N) and filling said layer with black. Using the marquee tool, I cut out the center, then added a intense gaussian blur filter and lowered the opacity of the border slightly.  Lastly, for "Snow Cabin", I first added a slight paint dab filter then I hit Cmd-A to select the whole image and deleted everything. Using an assortment of heavy brushes from the brush pallet, I selected the history brush (Y) and painted back in the parts of the image I wanted. Then I added more canvas space at different colors to get the thick black and blue border.

Scanography

Originals:

1. Flowing Hair: 2-11-2011; 11:29 p.m.; Rexburg; Cannon Scanner
Edited in Photoshop. Vibrance, saturation, brightness, and contrast were raised.

2. Wedding: (Combination of 3-5)
Used black and white paint to mask in and mask out parts of the images.

3-5. Wedding Items: 2-12-2011; 9:30 - 10:59 p.m.; Rexburg; Espon Scanner
 All three were slightly altered the same way in Camera Raw. The blacks were darkened while clarity, vibrnace, saturation, contrast, brightness, and recovery were all increased. Each image was slightly sharpened.


For "Flowing Hair", all I did was arrange the items of choice on the scanner, turn the lights in the room off, lay my hair across the surface of the scanner and hit the scan button. While that may sound like an easy process, it took several tries. The items you see in the picture (the scissors, comb, and necklace) were not the original items. I had to test several objects before I arrived to the displayed combination. Then there was the problem that sometimes I would accidentally moved while it was scanning or move an item out of place with my hair. Once I had complete the scan, I just added a few basic edits to make the scan more dynamic. As for the wedding combination, I scanned each item with a black cloth laid over it. Then, after making some general edits in Camera Raw, I opened all three of the photos in Photoshop. Deciding to use the veil as my base I double clicked the thumbnail to unlock the layer, then dragged the two other images and laid them on top of the veil. Next, I added masks to each layer. Using black paint, I masked out parts of the different layers I did not want to see (like the black background of the top image that was covering everything else). Next, I used gray so that the veil could cover part of the crown and the swatches, but the crown and swatches would still be visible.

Enhancements

Portrait Enhancement:

Original:

 Edited:

Match Colors:

Edited:

Original:

Color Source:

Replace Color:

Original:

Edited:

Original:

Edited:

1 & 2. Snow Girl: 2-4-2011; 2:17 p.m.; Rexburg; f 4.5; 1/60; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS

Edits made to the original include, a white vignette, increased exposure, fill light, blacks, brightness, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. Edits made to the second version in Photoshop will be explained in the final paragraph.

3. Mountain Friends: A compilation of photos 4 and 5.

Extra edits include a slight gaussian blur, increased contrast,  and decreased brightness.

4. Mountain Friends (Orig. 1) : 2-5-2011; 10:57 a.m.; Driggs, ID; f 8.0; 1/60; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS

No edits have been made to this  photo. 

5. Mountain Friends (Orig. 2) : 2-5-2011; 10:57 a.m.; Driggs, ID; f 8.0; 1/320; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 

On camera flash was accidentally used. Increased recovery, vibrance, saturation, fill light, and darkened blacks. Noise reduction was used. 

6 & 7. Sit Back and Laugh: 2-4-2011; 10:08 p.m.; Driggs, ID; f 4.0; 1/8; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 

Exposure, recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, saturation, and luminance were increased. Shoe edit will be explained in the final paragrah.

8 & 9. Say Cheese: 1-29-2011; 12:25 p.m.; Rexburg; f 4.5; 1/8; Canon PowerShot SX130 IS 

Slight adjustments to vibrance, saturation, contrast, and brightness were made in Photoshop. Also some sharpness was added.

After editing "Snow Girl" in Camera Raw, I opened the image in Photoshop. Then I hit Ctrl J to make a copy of the background layer. On the copied layer, I acquired the brush tool by hitting B. Wanting to smooth out the harsh lighting on her face and lighten some problem areas, I held alt. This turned the brush into an eyedropper. I used the eyedropper and selected a color from her face below the harsh light and shadowed areas.  Next, on the "Mode" drop down box near the top of the screen, I selected the "Color Dodge" mode and moved the flow and opacity boxes next to the "Mode" drop down box to 30% each. Zooming in, I painted over the areas of her face I wished to smooth. I did not want to make her look plastic, so I only made a light enhancement. Using the same method, I then added a few highlights to her hair. Once I was done, I lightened the opacity of the entire area to make the enhancements blend better with the picture. Moving on, for "Mountain Friends" the original photo I took came out really blue due to a white balance problem. To be honest, I just forgot to change a few of my settings. Not realizing how blue the picture came out, I took a new picture from a different angle, while this photo did not turn out blue, the flash accidentally fired making the lighting a little to harsh. Since the colors were bright in the flash photo, but the positioning was better in the blue photo, I opened both pictures in Photoshop selected the image menu, went to adjustments, and selected match color. I selected the flash photo as my source and hit enter. Photoshop did the rest. Lastly, for "Sit Back and Laugh" and "Say Cheese", all I did was open the photo in Photoshop and use the lasso tool to make a rough selection around the item I wanted to be a different color. From there, I went to the image menu, adjustment, and replace color. After that, I just had to select the new color and play with the sliders until I found the effect I was looking for.