Sunday, March 16, 2008

Making Something From Nothing

click image for bigger view

Here's another shot from yesterdays impromptu trip to the park. I am really happy with this shot, but I almost sent it to my recycle bin.

MY PROCESS:
I asked my kids to lay on their tummy's next to each other and pose like this. When I view the shots later, almost threw this one away because I didn't like Eddie's face at all. (click on original below for better view) And I didn't like the tree growing out of his head.

But I loved the look on Hopes face!

I like how she's holding the flower. Also, I like that she's not looking at the camera - I think it adds to the quality of the image.

In the process of trying to crop Eddie out, I realized that I'd have to cut off the top of Hope's head to use a normal crop ratio (or cut off her elbows)... and I almost gave up on this picture, but after a few tries the crop started to grow on me.

I've really been wanting to explore B&W lately, so went to work in Photoshop CS2. I desaturated it. I adjusted levels (lightened the skin and blackened the black for more contrast). I lightened the sky to get rid of the clouds. Then I used a glow filter to soften her skin tones. Over all, I like the way this image turned out compared to what came straight from the camera. It's been "favorited" twice on Flickr since I posted it yesterday (that's High traffic for me!)

Click here to see the color version of the crop... no post process.

original - straight from camera

5 comments:

Angela Christenson said...

Beautiful work....I love it!! I am a new user to photoshop CS3. I have been a elements user for years...but then I was in a 6 week photography class and I learned about CS3 through my instructor. If you ever check out my blog or flickr and you like the borders around a few of my photos there is a sight that CS2 and 3 users can download to add artistic texture, and borders to a photo. Just go to http://sloppy.jamescookphotography.com/ after downloading this to your CS2 it is very user friendly. When going to this website you can watch a tutorial on how it works. I love it..

I really like your reasoning for this blog. I love finding out how someone manipulated a photo. I will have to take note for sure.

One thing though.....And this is just my opinion, when the background is black it makes it hard to read, kind of hurts the eyes. And then when you look at the picture you can see the lines of the words in the picture. I think you should change your background to white.

I am looking forward to checking out the rest of your blog.

Angela Christenson said...

Also I really like the crop you did. You followed the rule of thirds. And you gave extra background space to the right of the photo where Hope's eyes were looking too. Thats good!!

Angela Christenson said...

Hello Joe, I am near the Lake Geneva area about 20 min. or less.

Rachel is a very nice person and talented as well. Never met her in real life though.

Good Day!

Whitnee Megan said...

Hey joe! I love the new blog! The photos are excellent, I can't wait to explore more. :) Its good (and not silly) to have your camera on you, sometimes I wish I had mine on me more, but after tasting a Rebel, it's hard to break out the point-n-shoot. heh.

good luck on all the job stuff, my sister is in the same boat right now.

Whitnee Megan said...

ps, apparently my layout looks pretty funky on my sisters and my friends laptops.. Idk if its a mac/pc thing or a resolution thing.

what are you running? OS and res?

anyway, I might buckle and change it once again, although I love the layout right now :(