The RAW Deal: A Day In The Life Of A DSLR (A Photography Dynasty)

[Lorena]

Thanks Bonegavel for posting the Interesting photographic technique (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=50827) thread as we went back and forth on digital vs. film photography and to wade moore for the motivation to start a photography dynasty thread.

I've had a total of 3 cameras: 2 Minoltas (I can't remember what they were) and my beloved Canon EOS 10D. You can look at the body HERE (Canon Website) (http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/EOS10D/) or HERE (Amazon.com) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008OT2G/sr=8-1/qid=1151700997/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8568572-6821429?ie=UTF8). Antmeister and I went back and forth on what type of camera to buy. I wanted a traditional SLR and he wanted a Digital SLR. Like a lot of people, I was a bit nervous with the new technology because I wasn't familiar with it but after a week of disagreements, I finally caved in to the *dark side*.

So there's the backstory. Follow my adventure as I strive to become better at post processing and most importantly, a better photographer. Antmeister is awesome in the digital darkroom and if I can have 1/10th of his experience, it'll make it all worthwile.

Thanks for sticking around, 'til next time.

[Lorena]

I'm my own worst critic. I took several pictures today and was dissapointed when they were downloaded on my computer; a lot of them were blurry! I should have changed the settings so I had everything in focus... ugh. Now I have a whole bunch of blurry images :mad:

This was one of my favorite pictures but while I was doing the post processing, Antmeister noticed that I had areas that were pure white. Dammit, no burning could help there :mad: :mad:

So, what did I learn? I learned that you MUST avoid taking pictures with an overexposed white background because well, you're pretty screwed... no matter how much you burn those areas, they remain white. How do you know something is true white? Click on the eye dropper and point it to any white areas, if you have 255 in the R, G, and B setting under Info Palette, you have pure white and no matter how much you burn, that section stays white. Freaking A man... I was a bit upset.

Oh, the info palette looks like this:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/course/ps/psc5-136.gif

So this is to help me remember WHAT NOT TO DO!! Next time, I'll position her or myself differently so this doesn't happen again.

Here's are the pics (before and after):

<table>

<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/063006B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/063006A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>

[Lorena]

dola,

In case anyone is wondering what I did post processing, I gave the image a soft glow, removed some minor impefections, and burned her shirt a little bit to bring out more color.

[Lorena]

Larissa (our 5 year old) and I went to the library today and I was planning on taking pictures outside of it when whoooosh... the rain came out of nowhere! So I had to scratch that idea. That's definitely something I'll be doing later though.

Since it rained/sprinkled most of the day, I was very hesitant on taking my camera out. Shoot, sometimes I treat it as though it's a baby. "Larissa... DON'T TOUCH MY CAMERA!!", "Larissa, if you're gonna take pictures, make sure you put the strap around your neck because I don't want it falling on the ground", yadda, yadda, yadda. I was really careless with my other cameras... banging them against the car, chairs, just about everything I got close to.

We get home and it's still pouring... dang. I grabbed my camera and book bags, grabbed Larissa's hands and dashed to our apartment... soaked. Antmeister checked the camera and it was safe... ahh... sigh of relief.

I changed clothes and my camera and I took a little walk around our apartment complex. It was still sprinkling so I took only 5 pictures... I didn't want my poor baby to get wet. The pictures turned out pretty decent. I forgot about the whiteness of the sky so most of them were a little blown out. It'll sink in one day I'm sure.

This picture was right outside our apartment shortly after the downpour.

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070106B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070106A.jpg

So what processing was involved in the "darkroom":

Adjusted brightness pre-Photoshop
Sharpening
Burning and doging
Some "LAB" coloring

Antmeister has been very supportive throughout my project and sits next to me offering advice and giving suggestions on different ways to do the same thing which I totally appreciate.

For more on LAB, check out Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321356780/sr=8-1/qid=1151803134/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8568572-6821429?ie=UTF8)

Hasta manana everyone!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Question (from someone who knows zilch about photography) ... in the backyard picture, the fence at the back looks very blue to me, as opposed to a more brown look to the fence on the left. Are they actually that differently colored or is that something caused by the retouching?

[Lorena]

Question (from someone who knows zilch about photography) ... in the backyard picture, the fence at the back looks very blue to me, as opposed to a more brown look to the fence on the left. Are they actually that differently colored or is that something caused by the retouching?

The colors aren't that different actually. I probably "burned" (darken the pixels) one section once, but burned it twice on another section, thus giving it the bluish color.

[MacroGuru]

Awesome Dynasty, I meant to post say so when you started it...the Digital SLR is my next major purchase (Well, besides our home that we are looking for)

I am big time into photography and trying things with my camera, but it isn't anything compared to yours.....

[Lorena]

7/2/06

Just my luck, as Larissa and I grab the camera and head out the door, I can feel it sprinkling again. I take a few pictures in 10 minutes and came home. To my dismay, they're blurry... again. I gotta figure out what I'm doing wrong and correct it.

Well, after uploading the images on Ant's computer our daughter wanted to play on our porch. There are 3 ways to get access to the porch: master bedroom, 2nd bedroom, and living room. We decided to go through the second bedroom and as soon as we got out, we noticed a couple hornets so we ran in. I decided to look on top of our screen door and holy crap... there's a hornets nest between the glass door and the screen door!!! WTF?! Two hornets entered our kid's room so I told everyone to get the hell out, grabbed my chancla (flip-flop in spanish) and smashed them. I called Antmeister to look at our unwelcomed guests and he was a bit fascinated actually. Anyway, we decided this would be a good photo-op so we grabbed the tripod and a 70-300 mm lens and started taking pictures.

I can't take credit for this picture, it might have been me, or Ant, but nonetheless, here it is:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070206B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070206A.jpg

Post processing:

Dodge - to brighten the nest
Sharpen - to improve the bluriness a bit
Hue/Saturation - to make the colors pop
Levels - to adjust the brightness

I noticed it's 12:29am our time, so technically, I missed a day. I'll have to start posting these images earlier.

Later on.

[MacroGuru]

7/2/06

Just my luck, as Larissa and I grab the camera and head out the door, I can feel it sprinkling again. I take a few pictures in 10 minutes and came home. To my dismay, they're blurry... again. I gotta figure out what I'm doing wrong and correct it.

Well, after uploading the images on Ant's computer our daughter wanted to play on our porch. There are 3 ways to get access to the porch: master bedroom, 2nd bedroom, and living room. We decided to go through the second bedroom and as soon as we got out, we noticed a couple hornets so we ran in. I decided to look on top of our screen door and holy crap... there's a hornets nest between the glass door and the screen door!!! WTF?! Two hornets entered our kid's room so I told everyone to get the hell out, grabbed my chancla (flip-flop in spanish) and smashed them. I called Antmeister to look at our unwelcomed guests and he was a bit fascinated actually. Anyway, we decided this would be a good photo-op so we grabbed the tripod and a 70-300 mm lens and started taking pictures.

I can't take credit for this picture, it might have been me, or Ant, but nonetheless, here it is:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070206B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070206A.jpg

Post processing:

Dodge - to brighten the nest
Sharpen - to improve the bluriness a bit
Hue/Saturation - to make the colors pop
Levels - to adjust the brightness

I noticed it's 12:29am our time, so technically, I missed a day. I'll have to start posting these images earlier.

Later on.

I love this shot!

[wade moore]

First Note: You've convinced me that I REALLY need to learn post-processing on the PC... of course, I really need a DSLR too... *sigh*...

Second Note: I hope you're willing to take suggestions here ;)... On the picture of Larissa in the blue-shirt where you were concerned about the "pure-white" Do you know what you were metering off of? If you were metering off of a dark color (i.e. the leaf) that would tend to give you the pure-white also. When taking a shot, particularly in the bright sunlight, I always try to make sure I'm metering off of a medium color (i.e. her shirt) when I can in order to bring out the biggest range of colors.

[Lorena]

I love this shot!

Thanks! We must have taken about 8 pictures to get this one.


First Note: You've convinced me that I REALLY need to learn post-processing on the PC... of course, I really need a DSLR too... *sigh*...

I'm glad the before and after have made you come to that conclusion. Isn't technology amazing? I don't think we could get this same effect if we were in an old-fashioned darkroom.

Second Note: I hope you're willing to take suggestions here ;)... On the picture of Larissa in the blue-shirt where you were concerned about the "pure-white" Do you know what you were metering off of? If you were metering off of a dark color (i.e. the leaf) that would tend to give you the pure-white also. When taking a shot, particularly in the bright sunlight, I always try to make sure I'm metering off of a medium color (i.e. her shirt) when I can in order to bring out the biggest range of colors.

Not at all!! On the contrary, *please* do! I have taken a couple beginning courses so I'm not quite where I want to be yet. Any suggestions/comments you have about my pictures will help me grow and learn, so go ahead, I welcome them :)

BTW wade, where's your dynasty? ;) I would love to see your pictures; I'm sure I can learn a thing or 2 by reading your posts and looking at your images.

[wade moore]

BTW wade, where's your dynasty? ;) I would love to see your pictures; I'm sure I can learn a thing or 2 by reading your posts and looking at your images.

I know, I know ;)... I was thinking about running out right now and take a few quickies actually, you have inspired me ;)... Biggest problem being that without the DSLR I either use my little Powershot (meh) or I have to wait until I finish a role, process, and get it on the PC...

[Lorena]

I know, I know ;)... I was thinking about running out right now and take a few quickies actually, you have inspired me ;)

No sir, you inspired me by mentioning it on Bonegavel's thread. It was something I thought of doing for the longest time and the mere mention of it gave me the kick I needed.


Biggest problem being that without the DSLR I either use my little Powershot (meh) or I have to wait until I finish a role, process, and get it on the PC...

Ahh yes, the good 'ol days when we had to finish a roll, develop the film and scan it to get it online.

[wade moore]

Ahh yes, the good 'ol days when we had to finish a roll, develop the film and scan it to get it online.

I think what I'm going to do is have them developed on CD and see what the quality looks like there.. I'm never happy with scanning prints and I just don't really want to put the money out for a negative scanner when I'm looking and an EOS XT camera body is about the same price ;).

[Lorena]

07/03/2006

So today we had to go to the post office. I looked for the closest post office using Yahoo Yellow Pages and found 2. We looked for the closest one and didn't find it, so we went with option #2. We passed the turn and ended up on Springwood Drive, way the hell off. So we make a u-turn and finally saw signs, showing us how to get there. We find this dinky little shop with a sign that says "Post Office" at the top. It was right next to some railroad tracks so I got out and started snapping away. I was gonna post the post office pic, but didn't like it much; that will be another day.

Anyway, here is the before and after of the railroad:
<table>

<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070306B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070306A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>

Not my favorite picture in the world because it's very slanted, but if I cropped it, I would lose the long railroad and have the building in the background right smack in the middle... a no-no in photography.

Post Processing:

LAB Stuff
Sharpen
Hue Saturation
Levels...

the usual stuff.

We have the book How to Wow : Photoshop for Photography (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321227999/sr=8-3/qid=1151978753/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-8568572-6821429?ie=UTF8) and used one of the techniques today. Lots of useful hints I'll be looking through it often.

So there's today's image, thanks for viewing and please feel free to comment on my images k? :)

[wade moore]

Nice clouds... the more I take pictures, the more I learn that with bad clouds, there's no point in taking landscapes...


My opinion, the post-photoshop picture washes out the detail of the sign too much, but besides that I actually kind of like the angle...

[Wolfpack]

Neat dynasty. I'm a bit of an amateur photographer myself and especially like doing landscapes. However, I've never really figured out the digital darkroom like I should. I can see the examples in the book and they always say do this or do that until it "looks right". I suppose it's the computer programmer in me who craves things to be logical and therefore structured and defined when it comes to what I should be doing, rather than doing things in "skoshes" or "hairs" or whatever. :) I can look at something in Photoshop Elements forever and still not be sure whether I've done it right or not (of course, I can see when I mess up... :) ).

At any rate, your last image was pretty good, but maybe a little too much on the ethereal side of things. The tracks themselves look quite alright, but the slight fuzziness and brightness of the distant objects like the sign and the buildings seem incongruous with the subject matter. Railroads are by nature generally dirty, grungy places. At least to me. It doesn't seem quite...real enough somehow. It could be the compression for web delivery had something to do with that. Images crunched down to web jpgs tend to lose something in the fine details.

[Lorena]

I can see the examples in the book and they always say do this or do that until it "looks right". I suppose it's the computer programmer in me who craves things to be logical and therefore structured and defined when it comes to what I should be doing, rather than doing things in "skoshes" or "hairs" or whatever. :) I can look at something in Photoshop Elements forever and still not be sure whether I've done it right or not (of course, I can see when I mess up... :) ).

You just described me. I like to know what exact settings look good and when the book says, "keep adjusting until you get the desired effect", well, I feel stumped. We used a glow and per the book, the typical settings are between 5-50. Well, that's quite a range and for someone like me that's not quite used to the darkroom yet. Every picture is an experience but it's like, how much is too much? How much is too little?

Thanks for the comments wade and Wolfpack.

[Lorena]

07/04/06

As I drove around the neighborhood on a cloudy rainy day, I stopped 1 block short of our apartment and saw a faint rainbow behind a flag. I rolled down my window and took 1 picture and came home before the downpour.

We tried different methods to make the rainbow stand out, but after many attempts, I said enough! This is what came about.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

<table>
<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070406B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070406A.jpg
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Darkroom - All I remember are lots of curves, and layers upon layers. The usual LAB, sharpening, healing, some white balance adjustments (via threshold), and dodging with a gradient.

Well, my brain cells are depleted, c-ya!

[Wolfpack]

Given where you started from, that's a marked improvement. Good effort.

[Lorena]

07/05/06

Here's Larissa blowing bubbles right outside out apartment complex. It would have made a better image if she actually blew a bubble.

BEFORE

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070506B.jpg

AFTER

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070506A.jpg

Post Processing:

- Changed Profile to LAB

- Added curves layer and adjusted the Lightness A & B channels to make the image pop a little more.

- Changed profile back to RGB once the curves adjustment was completed.

- Adjusted contrast using levels.

- Sharpened image (Filters --> Others --> High pass - adjusted until I saw a vague outline of the image) and changed it to Overlay.

- Dodged a little bit on the right side of her face.

- Healing brush: removed specks on her cheeks.

I was very conservative on this picture and didn't get carried away with the colors as you can see. I seem to be getting the hang of the digital darkroom but there's SO much more I need to learn.

Baby steps Lorena... baby steps.

Someday, I would like to manipulate an image to look like this:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/249786pVxt_w.jpg

[wade moore]

Photographing people is by far my favorite, I like this one a lot... Even though she wasn't able to blow a bubble, I'm a big fan of the detail of the bubble liquid that you can see...

[Lorena]

Photographing people is by far my favorite, I like this one a lot... Even though she wasn't able to blow a bubble, I'm a big fan of the detail of the bubble liquid that you can see...

Thanks wade! I'm not the biggest fan of photographing people, but it helps when I have a model that's willing to cooperate :)

[wade moore]

Thanks wade! I'm not the biggest fan of photographing people, but it helps when I have a model that's willing to cooperate :)

My interests in photography in order of preference..

1) Sports
2) "Artistic" candid shots of people.. (this is hard to define, but I do not mean like snapshot candids)
3) Wildlife (plant and animal)
4) Buildings
5) Landscapes
6) Posed people

[Lorena]

My interests in photography in order of preference..

1) Sports
2) "Artistic" candid shots of people.. (this is hard to define, but I do not mean like snapshot candids)
3) Wildlife (plant and animal)
4) Buildings
5) Landscapes
6) Posed people

For me:

1.) Sports photography - definitely agree with you. Sports photography is right up there, if not my most favorite thing in the world. The first time I took sports photos was at a Chargers game back in 1998 or so with my Minolta camera. The adrenaline I felt going through my body was like nothing I've ever felt before! I felt bad we only had 1 roll of film otherwise forget it!! The anticipation of a QB releasing the ball and snapping the shot *just* as the ball leaves his hand; or when a pitcher throws the ball and taking the picture as the ball leaves his fingertips... wow, just thinking about it gets me pumped up.

2.) Architecture - a building can look so different when taking shots at different angles. I have a thing for tall buildings... it's their bigness that make them quite appealing. I have yet to take a picture of The US Bank Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=116498) in Los Angeles, but that building is impressive. It's the tallest building West of the Mississippi River. The Frost Bank Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=101593) here in Austin has beautiful angles that make it so beautiful; at night, it looks amazing.

These are my top 2, the rest are a toss up but people is definitely last on my list. Candid shots, I don't mind because there's less planning involved.

[wade moore]

My personal opinion/advice for Sports Photography - Forget about going to NFL, MLB, etc... go to Minor Leagues, Small College games, etc... You can get MUCH better positions for taking your pictures in general... You can often get basically right up next to the field so therefore you have so many more options for what to do from a framing perspective and you're not forced to use as extreme of a zoom.

[Lorena]

07/06/06

I kinda procrastinated a bit today on my image. At around 8:00pm or so our time, I grabbed my camera and tripod and walked around the complex. This is our apt. complex's office.

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070606B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070606A.jpg

Post Processing:

LAB Stuff
Sharpen
Dodge the door a little bit
Blurred the Nissan truck's license plate
Hue/Saturation to make the flowers pop
Added a couple of curves layers to darken the sky and roof

I've been spending about half an hour taking pictures about triple that in post processing. There's a lot of hard work going into this but I am determined to get better and one day, I'll be able to do this on my own. So far, Antmeister has hung in there with me.

Hasta manana amigos!

[MacroGuru]

What are the better sites to read up on Post Processing?

[Antmeister]

What are the better sites to read up on Post Processing?

Tips from the Top Floor - They also have an excellent podcast.
http://www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com/psc/

PhotoshopSupport.com - There are a number of tutorials here, mainly due to the fact that they are promoting their books.
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials.html

[Lorena]

07/07/06

I took a Terrel Davis powernap around 7ish and woke up around 10pm... whoops. I grabbed my camera and tripod and looked around the house for a subject. At first I grabbed a few coins but that didn't work. Antmeister suggested using a candle for lighting and took a few images but nothing popped. My Junior Assistant 5 year old Larissa came in the door and wanted to help so I asked her to push the Remote Switch (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009R6VZ/sr=1-1/qid=1152345470/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8568572-6821429?ie=UTF8&s=photo) button on my cue. She accidently blew the candle and we kept shooting. I asked her to push the button while I lit up the candle.

I was absolutely not gonna use this image because I thought it was lost. We played around with some post processing and finally, Antmeister said, "You know what? Have you looked at how to enchance a black and white image with the Lynda.com (http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=116) tutorial?" I viewed it and was thoroughly impressed with the images and tried it. WOW, that tutorial reinforced what Antmeister had been telling me all along, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A LOST IMAGE.

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070706B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070706A.jpg

Post Processing:

Curves Layer- for color/saturation

Levels Layer - for contrast

2 Hue/Saturation layers: saturated one layer to -100 (to remove color), and the other, adjusted the red channels for the desired effect

Screen Layer - to lighten and bring out detail

Softlight Layer - softer contrast

Overlay Layer - harsher contrast

Multiply Layer - darken overall image

Sharpen Layer - for less blur

I was really impressed. For $25.00 a month, or $250 a year, Lynda.com (http://www.lynda.com) offers several video tutorials on Photoshop, Access, After Effects, Paint, Publisher, File Maker Pro, they have an impressive list. Check them out, it's so worth it.

Thanks for viewing and don't be shy... say hi will ya? ;)

[Antmeister]

What are the better sites to read up on Post Processing?

Darn it, I should have added this site as well. He frequents the board at Tips from the Top Floor and is really good at post processing.

http://www.photowalkthrough.com/

[wade moore]

You know, I love the B&W...

But honestly, I REALLY like the original photo too - nice job!

[oliegirl]

Very cool pics DC...I especially like the candle, but like wade moore, I like the color one as well! Can't wait to see more...

[JeeberD]

You know, I love the B&W...

But honestly, I REALLY like the original photo too - nice job!

Same here.

Great pics all around, Lorena! :)

[Lorena]

You know, I love the B&W...

But honestly, I REALLY like the original photo too - nice job!
Very cool pics DC...I especially like the candle, but like wade moore, I like the color one as well! Can't wait to see more...
Same here.

Great pics all around, Lorena! :)
Thanks guys, I really appreciate your comments! I must be really harsh on myself because the color image seems to have too much light (overexposed in photography terms)... what can I say, I'm my own worst critic.

[wade moore]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your comments! I must be really harsh on myself because the color image seems to have too much light (overexposed in photography terms)... what can I say, I'm my own worst critic.

Overexposure can be a beautiful tool sometimes when you learn to harnass it. In this case, I think it was accidental, but I still think it makes for a great effect.

You might really enjoy night photography. I'd recommend looking it up or asking me about it and I can explain it to you. I've never seen how it would work on Digital because you have to overexpose, but I'm sure you can make it work.

[Lorena]

07/08/06

Today was a bit tough. I started a bit late as the sun was going down and most of my images were good in concept, but very, very blurry. So I walked a little more and came across this tree. It was the only image that wasn't blurry so I went for it. It's more of a post processing project, as you will see.
<table>
<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070806B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070806A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>

Post Processing:

Curves - for color/saturation
Levels - for contrast
Dodge - to lighten the flowers
Burn - to darken the sky
Curves 2 - to darken the blue in the sky
Heal - to remove the 2 specks in the sky
Sharpen - for less blur

I'm gonna have to step it up a bit; this one looks amateurish compared to yesterday's image.

[wade moore]

Nice post-processing work...

I have to ask... are your lenses dirty? You seem to get a lot of spots on your photos to me...

[Lorena]

Nice post-processing work...

Thanks!

I have to ask... are your lenses dirty? You seem to get a lot of spots on your photos to me...

:o Umm.. yeah, sure looks that way. At first I thought it might have been speckles of dust or water droplets from the rain, but I guess not.

[Lorena]

Today, I knew exactly what to take an picture of. We gave our son Landon a Plasma Ball that looks similar to THIS (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FXLP0/sr=8-1/qid=1152509008/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8568572-6821429?ie=UTF8) for his birthday so my intent was to place it in front of a mirror and take pictures. I called Jr. Assistant Larissa to come in and help. I took about 8 shots or so and she asked if she could take a few. I hesitantly said yes and she basically directed where my hands should go and this was one of the shots. My favorite actually.

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070906B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/070906A.jpg

Sometimes I get so involved in the post processing that I lose track of what I did, but I remember the usual LAB adjustments, Sharpen, and added a second Curves layer with an overlay to boost the contrast a tad.

I appreciate you coming by, thanks and I'll c-ya tomorrow!

[MacroGuru]

Definately like the shots....

[Lorena]

07-11-06A

Yesterday was a very long, tiresome day and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures so today, I will upload 2 of them.

This image was taken right behind Larissa's school. We registered her today for Kindergarden which is very, very exciting. She's been waiting to go to school for about a year now. She wasn't allowed to start kindergarden in Phoenix because she missed the age requirement by 1 week. It actually worked out because now she'll be starting school in our permanent home as opposed to starting school temporarily in Phoenix and then having her transfer out here.

So anyway, Landon is a hard kid to photograph. Most of the time he's out doing his own thing and to get him to pose is really something; I usually follow him around while he's playing around and take pictures of him. In this image, he picked up a few rocks and was fascinated with the way the little pebbles fell off the pole.
<table>
<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071106aB.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071106aA.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>

Post Processing:

Changed image to LAB

Curves Layer - to adjusted Lightness A (green and magenta colors), and B (blue and yellow)Channels

Levels Layer - to adjust contrast

Hue/Saturation Layer - to adjust greens (the grass) and blues (the sky)

Burn Layer - burned the outside of image to make subject stand out

Cya in about an hour or so. Actually, this is a perfect opportunity to see how long it takes me to work the digital darkroom.

It is 12:00am our time... adios.

[Lorena]

07-11-06b

I decided to do something different with these images. Since I've never created a gif animation, I figured these would be perfect. As I learned how to create a gif animation, Antmeister also taught me how to create an action (kinda like a macro in Excel) in Photoshop. First, I adjusted levels for contrast, adjusted hue/saturation to make the sky and basketball stand out and sharpened the image using the High Pass option under filter -> other. After the images were fixed, I changed the image size. After that I created the gif.

So I used the continuous mode on my camera to take a picture of Antmeister shooting the basket.

As you will notice, I must have moved a little bit while taking this picture because the hoop looks like it's moving.

Here it is:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071106gif.gif

So how do you create a gif in Photoshop? I used THIS (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/tutorials/ps_animatedgif_ab.shtml) short tutorial.

[wade moore]

I like both of them!

[Lorena]

07/12/06

Whoa, I actually finished before midnight! Yay, this is a good time to catch up on some reading.

I had to do some grocery shopping so I grabbed my camera and off I went. As I drove through the nasty traffic off of Mopac, I saw this unusual bench on the side of this very busy street/highway and took a picture of it from inside the car. No, I wasn't driving and taking pictures, there was so much traffic I actually had time to adjust the settings and snap real quick.

<table>

<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071206B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071206A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>

Post Processing:

Converted image to LAB.

Added a Curve Layer to adjust the Lightness, A & B Channel.

Converted back to RGB.

Added a 2nd curves layer to find the darkest and lightest areas of the picture.

Added another layer to combine all layers into 1 (cntrl, shift, alt E).

Adjusted sharpness by using High Pass.


When the image is finished, we started changing the profile of my pictures to sRGB. The reason is because once the images get saved for the web, the details get lost (as mentioned by Wolfpack (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=1188716&postcount=17) above). For more on this go HERE (http://www.gballard.net/psd/saveforwebshift.html).

[Lorena]

07/13/06

Not a good day photography-wise. It seems as if I'm running out of ideas or something. Maybe I'm just becoming a lazy... I dunno. At around 10pm I realized I hadn't taken a picture so I walked around to see what was out there. Nothing caught my eye but as I looked over our fence, I saw these trees surrounded by light. Well, they looked really nice but I'm not sure if they come across the way I saw them. I might have let too much light in... shoulda left it at 15 seconds or so instead of 30.

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071306B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071306A.jpg

Post processing:

The usual stuff: LAB to make the colors pop a bit more, minor hue/saturation for the greens, some sharpening, 2 curves layers: one went with the lab ajustment, and the other to make the highlights surrounding the trees stand out some more.

[Dutch]

Wow, I had no idea you could make photos look so great! I definately have to figure out how to do this.

Thanks for sharing these before/after shots. Keep 'em coming!!!

[Lorena]

07/14/06

Today was a good day and I felt very confident (thanks Dutch) so I grabbed my trusty camera and took exactly 13 pictures, but most were of trees with a sunset in the background... they didn't quite come out like I wanted to... tomorrow is another day. So anyway, I drove by Mopac for a little bit and noticed the stop sign and the beautiful sunset in the background so I grabbed my tripod, mounted the camera on it and snapped away, this is the result.

<table>

<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071406B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071406A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>

Post Processing:

Usual LAB and curves layers

2 Hue/Saturation layers - 1st layer: masked sign and adjusted hue/saturation to my liking; 2nd layer, inverted mask so I can get the sky and adjusted hue/saturation to my liking.

Usual sharpen using high pass

If anyone has any questions about any of the post processing or techniques used in any of these, feel free to ask. I'm on the board 18/7 ;)

[Lorena]

07/15/06

We had to drive to South Austin today so I brought my camera. As we were driving I noticed it started getting dark really quick, so I adjusted the ISO (film speed) on the camera. I took a few images with a shutter speed of 8 at 100 ISO, then changed the ISO to 1600 and the shutter speed jumped from that to about 60 or so. I figured what the heck, let me go one up to 3200 and it made a huge difference. I'll post the settings of the picture below.

So anyway, as we were driving, I look out the window and noticed the reflection of the sunset on the rear view mirror.

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071506B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/071506A.jpg

Post Processing:

LAB stuff

2 curves - 1 for LAB adjustments, and other for lightness (after converting from LAB to RGB)

Levels - to adjust contrast

Gaussian Blur - to minimize noise (you get noticeable noise [or grain in non-photography terms] when the ISO is anything more than 400)

Hue/Saturation - adjust overall saturation

Highlights - adjusted highlights to make windows stand out

dodge - dodged the bottom of image to decrease darkness so you can see the bottom edge of the mirror

I love that my camera has the capability to increase the ISO to 3200, but the drawback is you get tons of noise. To fix the noise, we applied a gaussian blur filter to tackle the color specks. The disadvantage was that it made the image slightly blurry. We erased some of the blurry spots to make the edges of the car and windows look closer to the original image.

Here are my camera's settings:

Exposure: 1/125 sec
Exposure program: aperture priority
F-stop: f5.6
ISO: 3200
Focal length: 80.0mm

[Wolfpack]

Interesting photo idea. Just me, but I probably would have kept the original, maybe worked to brighten up the sunset a bit. The treated one looks a little harsh to me. The original one seems to have the twilight look pretty well captured. You also seem to lose the perspective that you're looking at a rearview mirror, which I think adds a neat little artistic touch to the original. The "surround" of the mirror in the second shot blends too much into the mirror. Perhaps if you could combine the mirror of the second with the "surround" of the first....

Otherwise, neat photo idea.

My own personal twilight story: I remember last year we came out of a Target near our house and it was quite possibly the most wildly colorful and interesting sky I'd ever seen. I didn't have my camera (who'd think you'd need it in the middle of a Target parking lot?), but I really was wishing I had it. It was a perfect transition sky working from an orange horizon to a fairly deep blue overhead with a thick crescent moon off to the south and just the right amount of clouds floating by. It was almost otherworldly. I wonder if I'll ever get to see a sky like that and have a camera handy to capture it in the future. But, I digress. :)

[Lorena]

Interesting photo idea. Just me, but I probably would have kept the original, maybe worked to brighten up the sunset a bit. The treated one looks a little harsh to me. The original one seems to have the twilight look pretty well captured. You also seem to lose the perspective that you're looking at a rearview mirror, which I think adds a neat little artistic touch to the original. The "surround" of the mirror in the second shot blends too much into the mirror. Perhaps if you could combine the mirror of the second with the "surround" of the first....

Otherwise, neat photo idea.

My own personal twilight story: I remember last year we came out of a Target near our house and it was quite possibly the most wildly colorful and interesting sky I'd ever seen. I didn't have my camera (who'd think you'd need it in the middle of a Target parking lot?), but I really was wishing I had it. It was a perfect transition sky working from an orange horizon to a fairly deep blue overhead with a thick crescent moon off to the south and just the right amount of clouds floating by. It was almost otherworldly. I wonder if I'll ever get to see a sky like that and have a camera handy to capture it in the future. But, I digress. :)

You're absolutely right; last night right before saving for web I chose 30 quality instead of the original which takes out a lot of detail from the image. After working on the picture for about an hour and and off I might have been looking too hard and didn't notice the significant difference.

About your story, I had a similar experience. When living in Phoenix, I went shopping at a Toys r Us and looked over the parking lot at the most beautiful sunset I think I'd ever seen. Luckily, I had a camera with me and took several shots and this is what came about:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/sunset.jpg

It was one of the first times I've ever taken my camera for a ride and was very thankful. After that, I started carrying it everywhere I went. You just never know ;)

[wade moore]

That is my favorite picture that you've done...

[Lorena]

That is my favorite picture that you've done...

I really got lucky with that shot. Antmeister suggested I take my camera for a ride and I actually listened to him that day and captured that beautiful sunset.

You just never know what one can capture on any given day. On my way to work in San Diego, a fire hydrant gushed water up to 8 feet high and I cursed myself for not having a camera... it was quite a site.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, thanks for your comment wade :)

[Schmidty]

That sunset picture is amazing.

My wife has been a photo tech for Costco for the past 7 years, and loves do photography as well. As soon as she gets home, I'm going to have to show her this thread.

Great work!!!!!

[Lorena]

07/23/06

A week later and here's another post. I think after doing this for 2 straight weeks my brain became mush so I took a break for a little bit.

Jr. Assistant Larissa wanted to join me and off we went. I took a few good pictures but the one I enjoyed most was of her beautiful hazel eyes as she sat looking at some ants outside our apt. complex. I called her, she looked up and I snapped the pic.

Oh, before I continue, the before images on my earlier posts weren't *true* before. What I did was open the original image, adjusted the RAW settings and transferred it to Photoshop. I created an "original" layer to keep the original look. After making my adjustments, I cropped the image and when I did that, the "original" image was cropped too. From now on, I'll be keeping the *true* original image pre-crop so you can see what it looked like before anything was done.

Hope that made sense, here are the before and after pics:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/072306B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/072306A.jpg

Post Processing:

Changed image to LAB to adjust A & B channels and a little Lightness.

Levels - for contrast

Healing/Patch - removed a few skin imperfections (via healing brush tool) including dark circles under the eyes (used patch tool at 50% so it looks a bit more natural).

Selected her eyes using the eliptical tool and created a hue saturation layer to change them from hazel to bluish.

Dodged the white in her eyes to make them stand out a little

Sharpened via High Pass filter.

As always, if anyone has a question with anything involving these images, feel free to shoot me a PM or ask here.

Thanks for viewing!! :)

[wade moore]

I just got ahold of my mothers DSLR for my trip to San Francisco/Lake Tahoe next week, so expect my dynasty to finally start while I learn how to use it this week.. Probably not as much digital dark room as you, but still...

[Lorena]

I just got ahold of my mothers DSLR for my trip to San Francisco/Lake Tahoe next week, so expect my dynasty to finally start while I learn how to use it this week.. Probably not as much digital dark room as you, but still...

How cool wade! I'll be on the lookout for your dynasty... take lots of pictures and have fun on your trip. I can hardly wait ;)

[Lorena]

08/01/06

I'll be honest, this image wasn't taken today. I've been slacking a little...hell who am I kidding, I've been slacking a lot :o. This image was taken about a week ago (same day I posted the last image).

When I took the picture, I liked the repetition of the whateveryoucallems and it seemed like a pretty decent image. But after the post processing, I noticed there was a lot of contrast so I fixed it with a curves and levels layer.

BEFORE

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080106B.jpg

AFTER

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080106A.jpg

POST PROCESSING (what can I say, I got lazy :p ):

http://almarks.com/apicaday/layers080106.jpg

After I sharpened, I converted the profile to sRGB so the image doesn't lose detail after saving it to web. After that, I cropped it, and resized it to 6x4 100 pixels.

As always if anyone has any question, holla ;)

[Wolfpack]

Interestingly, my first glance reaction was that it was too dark compared to the original. However, having looked at it more, I'd say it is a good improvement over the source. Has that gritty/industrial kind of look, even though it's only meters. The initial one looks like something shot in a back alley in Austin at dusk ( ;) ), while the new one looks like it came from New York in the bleak shadows of early evening or something like that. :)

[Lorena]

Interestingly, my first glance reaction was that it was too dark compared to the original. However, having looked at it more, I'd say it is a good improvement over the source. Has that gritty/industrial kind of look, even though it's only meters. The initial one looks like something shot in a back alley in Austin at dusk ( ;) ), while the new one looks like it came from New York in the bleak shadows of early evening or something like that. :)

This was actually an accident: After the Burn Layer, I was going to sharpen it ( I go to the filters option, other, high pass ), but Antmeister suggested I change the blending mode to overlay so I can see what the actual picture would look like ( when sharpening through this option, I get a gray overlay and can see the outline of the image vaguely, but can't see what the picture actually looks like until I change the blending mode ). We liked the look so much we kept it.

Hope it made sense, but yeah, it does look kinda gritty huh?

Anyway, thanks for the feedback Wolfpack :)

[Lorena]

08/02/06

I had to run a few errands today so I grabbed my camera and out the door I went. Before opening the car door, I noticed what seemed to be a frog, but wasn't sure. I knelt down to get a closer look and low and behold, there was a dead frog right by our car! It didn't really look like one because it was really flat, but upon closer inspection, I noticed a few ants and looked at it's legs and yup, a frog. I grabbed my camera and here it is...

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080206B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080206A.jpg

POST PROCESSING:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/layers080206.jpg

After the sharpening layer, I cropped the image, changed the image size, and saved it as an sRGB.

[Lorena]

08/08/06

Antmeister, the kids and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. Larissa brought her little camera so she can take pictures as well. I took a few, among them a worm getting eaten by ants. I'll probably post that some other time. Anyway, one thing about photography is always try taking pictures at different angles to make an image look interesting. I'm either kneeling; bringing the camera down to ground level, point it up and shoot; or lift it up over my head (which in my case makes a difference being that I'm 5' 1.5") and shoot; there's so many different angles that make an ordinary picture look interesting.

So we were walking around and I notice the lightpost and asked myself, how can I take a picture so it looks different? This is the outcome:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080806B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080806A.jpg

Post Processing:

Shoot, I forgot to copy my layers. Same ol' stuff:

Convert to LAB
Curves
Levels

The only thing different was that I added a Glaussian blur because I forgot to change the ISO (film speed) from 1600 back down to 100, so it caused a lot of noise.

Thanks again for viewing.

[Schmidty]

I LOVE the above picture. It's got an awesome modern art/structural thing going on. Absolutely an amazing shot. Great job, and sorry I didn't notice it before. :)

[Lorena]

I LOVE the above picture. It's got an awesome modern art/structural thing going on. Absolutely an amazing shot. Great job, and sorry I didn't notice it before. :)

Thanks Schmidty :)

I don't blame you for missing it; I haven't updated my dynasty in a while and it slowly made the second page, so it's easy to miss.

[Lorena]

08/10/06

This picture was taken on the 10th of August but kinda forgot about it and processed it tonight. I went to the library to drop off some books and took an image of these weird figures outside the library.

I started messing around with some settings and the "solarization" tool seemed a little creepy, but given how funky these wire figures were, I felt that it would be suitable.

Definitely hit or miss (before and after):

<table>
<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/081006B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/081006A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>


POST PROCESSING:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/layers081006.jpg

[Wolfpack]

Interesting. Gives it a "Night of the Living Dead" kind of appearance. :D

[wade moore]

Not my style, but an interesting exercise in technique...

and I know, I know.. I'm supposed to post some pictures ;).

[astrosfan64]

08/10/06

This picture was taken on the 10th of August but kinda forgot about it and processed it tonight. I went to the library to drop off some books and took an image of these weird figures outside the library.

I started messing around with some settings and the "solarization" tool seemed a little creepy, but given how funky these wire figures were, I felt that it would be suitable.

Definitely hit or miss (before and after):

<table>
<tr>
<td>
BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/081006B.jpg
</td>
<td>
AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/081006A.jpg
</td>
</tr>

</table>


POST PROCESSING:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/layers081006.jpg


I love these pictures. Especially the after shot.

[Lorena]

Alright wade... it's on :p

[wade moore]

Oh I'm ready for it!

[Lorena]

DATE/LOCATION: August 10, 2007 - outside our apt. complex

SUBJECT: This is a telephone post (?) behind our apt. complex.

CAMERA SETTINGS:

Focal Length: 28.0mm
Exposure Time: 1/30
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 100

DIGITAL ENHANCEMENTS:

LAB (Lightness, A and B channel) - aka curves
Levels - corrects tone and color balance

IMAGE:

Almost a year later and here's a picture I took on Friday. I meant to do more post processing but forgot how to do certain things so I'll just post them otherwise they never will.

BEFORE: http://almarks.com/lorena/08.12.07B.jpg

AFTER: http://almarks.com/lorena/08.12.07A.jpg

I meant for them to look like meters above but oh well, I'll have to ask Antmeister for a little help in the future.

[wade moore]

Almost a year later and here's a picture I took on Friday. I meant to do more post processing but forgot how to do certain things so I'll just post them otherwise they never will.


I meant for them to look like meters above but oh well, I'll have to ask Antmeister for a little help in the future.

I like it a lot, including the post processing... taking something from an unusual angle like that is something that I find very appealing...

What do you mean by "meant for them to look like meters above"?

[Lorena]

I could have made the texture really stand out, but forgot how to do it. This is what I was trying to accomplish:

BEFORE

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080106B.jpg

AFTER

http://almarks.com/apicaday/080106A.jpg

I like the grittiness of the after shot and wanted to do something similar.

[Lorena]

dola,

I agree with taking pictures from a different angle, it makes things look interesting.

[wade moore]

Ah, gotcha.. I'm not a ton of help in the post processing unfortunately :(.

[Lorena]

DATE/LOCATION: 8/12/07, Ant's Work

SUBJECT: Building off of Congress in downtown

CAMERA SETTINGS:
Focal Length: 32.0 mm
Exposure Time: 1/180 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 400

DIGITAL ENHANCEMENTS:
LAB
Curves
Levels
32% Overlay

IMAGE: We went to Ant's work on Saturday and I really liked the repetition of the bricks of the building. I cropped a little off the bottom to get rid of the light.







BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/lorena/08.13.07B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/lorena/08.13.07A.jpg

Hmm... after looking at the end result more closely, I might start adding a border to make it stand out more.

[wade moore]

I've thought about the border thing also and haven't decided where I stand...
Anyways.. I REALLy like the sharpness of the deep blues..

[Lorena]

Alright, I'm just gonna post a before and after... we're getting our Battlestar Galactica on :)

I had the camera touching the ground and pointed it up when I took this picture. Antmeister did all the post processing:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/lorena/IMG_1033O.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/lorena/IMG_1033.jpg

[Lorena]

Here's another one. I'm a big fan of awkward angles so got down a little bit and pointed the camera up. Antmeister did the post processing on this as well; I wanted a sort of Caprica-kind of look. Like this:

http://pat.suwalski.net/film/bsg-locations/112-1.jpg

and this was what came about:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/lorena/IMG_1048O.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/lorena/IMG_1048.jpg

[wade moore]

I need someone like ant to do my post-processing ;)...

Not sure if you noticed this - but does your lens have some dust on it that you need to clear off? I've had way too many would be great pictures ruined by that - you just can't clean it up... (I'm seeing several spots in the sky)..

Anyway - on to the picture.. I like it overall... I personally think that maybe a little bit too much definition was taken out of the sky though in the touchups.. I'd be curious as to how it would look if it was left a little darker, but maintained some of the detail of the original clouds..

Edit: Oops, this is about the plant picture not the stop-sign picture.

[wade moore]

Stop Sign Photo:

For me, the original is perfect - I actually prefer it to the touch-up. I really like your eye for strange angles on inanimate man-made objects...

[Lorena]

Not sure if you noticed this - but does your lens have some dust on it that you need to clear off? I've had way too many would be great pictures ruined by that - you just can't clean it up... (I'm seeing several spots in the sky)..


Oh yea... I'm really bad about cleaning my lens.

[wade moore]

Oh yea... I'm really bad about cleaning my lens.

I used to be as well. It took one photo that I absolutely LOVED that had like the perfect composition, lighting, blah blah blah, with a big black spot right in the core of the background to convince me to be WAY more anal about cleaning them. Especially if you're changing lenses frequently and you may be getting stuff on the inside.

I know whipe down my lens each time I go out to take pictures - just make sure you have a true lens cleaning cloth or one of those things that blow air.

[Bonegavel]

Sweet photoshop work DodgerChick! I found this thread via the ABC's of Photography thread you started in the Main Forums.

I love the picutre of your little one with the white edge on the left which makes it look like he is dropping the stones off the picture itself.

[Lorena]

test

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/25/100639338_5bcdbdbed4.jpg?v=0

[Lorena]

This picture was taken a few months ago. I took the picture and Antmeister worked his magic:

BEFORE:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/CRW_0847B.jpg

AFTER:

http://almarks.com/apicaday/CRW_0847A.jpg

[Lorena]

Before:

http://almarks.com/lorena/arches.jpg

After:

http://almarks.com/lorena/LamarArch2.jpg