Photo Projectz - Share and Compare

Chica at Photo Projectz is running another project - 'share and compare' exercise. Presenting 4 objects to - well - Edit! Edit has a diverse number of meanings to artists - so I just had fun. What can you come up with - see Photo Projectz to have a go!

Back to the Beach

Back to our beach. I had hoped to explore the waves - but they were lower than my ankles - so I just bent low aimed and shot. I'll have to wait until I can get into dirty clothes and wriggle into the sand to explore the focus and maybe use my better camera. Actually I have two cameras - a Canon 20D and a Sony Cybershot. Can you tell which photos are taken with which. Maybe I'll do a poll one day.

Intently Reading

I'm not a protrait photographer - though I do wish I was better at it. I do feel that I captured a warm image of Fiona doing something she loves - reading! What do you think? Do we have any hope in portraiture?

A photo from around the world

NicoleB Photography has set a challenge - encouraging everyone to post a photo from where they live. Here's mine above - you can't quite see our house - it is off to the left and tucked into the trees. Thus we call ourselves the Treehouse Dwellers and have a blog about our dreams and adventures here in Whangarei

A Walk along the Beach

We try to walk along this beach as often as possible. It's just beautiful. The tide was out today, leaving great patterns from the trickles of water left behind.

Actually after working with this photo I kept being struck by how different it looked cropped - what do you think. Same photo - different crop...



Continuing to explore this photo through cropping I have added another version of the same photo. Which one do you prefer?

Our only potplant to produce flowers.

I took a photo of the first flower that burst open on our arrival home and posted it on SilverSpikes Photography Blog. Then today the another flower peaked open. I'm not usually one to take photos of flowers - but I'm really enjoying these ones. Haven't a clue what they are called.

Photo Competition - Vote Today!!

Voting has begun for the PhotoShop competition. See my entry


and again



and then VOTE at....
PhotoProjectz

Auckland City

Been in Auckland recovering from surgery and today I go HOME to Whangarei. Can't wait. Been lovely being taken care of by my Mum and Dad, but eventually every big girl has to go back to the real life. Thanks to all well wishers, txts, emails and skyping from the kindergarten. I look forward to seeing everyone again this coming week.

The Professional Pics

Professsional Shots of the Patial Eclipse of the Sun



Well - with very little photoshop work - I'm sure I could get my little shadows looking like the pro's. Hahahahahahaha!
Nice one Glenn Jeffery

Partial Eclipse of the Sun

Quite incredible. My father showed me how to veiw the partial eclipse of the sun without actually looking at it. He used 2 pieces of paper, created a pinhole in one, floated it above the other and the image reflected onto the second piece of paper showed the silhouette of the sun being eclipsed by the moon.

Dr Stuart Tea

Not a technically great photo - but if you know my Dad (he's an anesthetist), it was just one that I had to take!!

Photo Graphic Competition

Thanks to Chica over at BlogCatalog there is a great competition/challenge on the go. Check it out and enter yourself. Chica provided us with a great photo she had taken and said "Go For It" - so we did. It was a great opportunity to re-oil my photoshop skills. Here is the photo Chica provided us with

Great photo - but I wouldn't be an artist if I didn't think I can always add my touch.. so here are my contributions.

Penguin Bridge

Blue Day

Blue Day was inspired by Chica's own edited entry as can be seen here which I thought was cropped really nicely. It was a requirement to explain how we came to our designs - I got kinda long winded about that so will publish in another post below.

Chica's Photo Competition - What I did.

How I did it...

Blue Day
I wanted the look of a really cold day, but I wanted the warmth of the walker to be evident. After altering the colours on the jacket I selected it and inversed the selection. Then I went into the Channels and selected the Magenta Channel and deleted (or filled with white can’t remember) everything except that jacket. I did the same with the Yellow Channel. Once I flattened the picture I played around with the curves until I had the balance and mood I was looking for.

Penguin bridge
I worked with many layers and layer masks.

The penguins are photos I took at Boulder’s Beach in CapeTown South Africa (they don’t usually wear scarves but this was a particularly cold day! ☺

1. Select All
2. Copy and then Paste (this should create a new editable layer that is exactly the same as the original)

Jacket
3. Zoom into Jacket (make it big on the screen)
4. Select the Pen tool to make a path around the Jacket.
5. In the Path Dialogue Box click the right arrow at the top and select “Make Selection.
6. Top tool bar Edit>Copy then Edit>Paste (this should create a new layer with just the jacket on it)
7. Top Tool Bar Image>Adjustments>Curves
8. Select the Red Channel – have a play and make it redder (I tend to play in the CMYK channels so I’m not sure how the red channel will work – but have a go). Click OK When Done
9. KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR LAYERS – or you will edit the wrong layer
10. Remember the HISTORY Pallet – great help when needed.

SKY
11. Make sure you are in the copy of the background layer
12. Select the Magic Wand
13. Click on a common colour in the sky (give the wand a tolerance of about 40)
14. Top Meu Select>Similar and then Select>Grow. Keep doing that until heaps of the sky is selected. You may get bits of the bridge too – don’t worry
15. Go to Quick Mask Mode (under the colour swatches in the main tool bar). Here you can edit your selection with a paint brush – Black will paint red in this mode. Paint in the bits of the sky that were not selected and erase red in areas you don’t want selected. (It might be the reverse depending on your settings - but I’m sure you can see whether RED if for selected or unselected parts).
16. When happy go back to Standard Mode and the selection should become little running ‘ants’
17. Top Menu – Select>Save Selection (call it SKY)
18. Open a photo of a sunset - not too red or it will look false in this setting
19. Select All in your new photo of the sunset and Edit>COPY
20. Click back to the Bridge Photo and Edit>PASTE. (the new sky should be pasted into It’s own new layer
21. Top Menu Layer>Add Layer Mask>Reveal All
22. In your layers pallet the Mask of the SKY layer should be highlighted – this is what you should be working in.
23. Top Menu Select>Load Section – choose SKY
24. Top Menu Select>Inverse
25. Top Menu Edit>Fill – fill with black. Now your new SKY should look like it is behind the bridge.

Well the picture took me a fairly dedicated day and in this minutia detail I might be able to write a book on this one post. But if you follow the basic rules above and have a play – you’ll get the same result

Watermelon Pip Spitting Competition

Grandma teaching Grandson them ol' fashioned games!!

And another day

--- a never ending puzzle ----

Another Summer Day

I had planned a much more boring photo of the scene from my room. However having a nephew hanging around and his devoted Grandfather on an incredibly hot day provided much entertainment.