photograph: 2009

cheers!

Today is one year since I started my blog. I had a little video message planned, but I didn't have time to upload it. I'd like to thank all my readers and everyone who comments on my blog. It means so much to me that there are people who care about what I have to say and what I wear. Blogging has really opened up my eyes to the world of fashion, and I'm so glad that I've had the chance to add my own little part to it.

Here's to another wonderful year of blogging!

Anyways, here is my New Year's Eve outfit. Have an amazing night everyone and bring in the new decade with a bang!

dress, Club Monaco. shoes, Nine West. tights, unknown. jewelry, gifts.

I feel like walking the world

I can't believe there is only one more day left in 2009. I hope everyone is taking their time to enjoy what is left in the year.

I've never worn a poncho before, but I found this one in a closet in my house and I instantly fell in love. This outfit, especially with the glasses really reminds me of the 60's, and the way that the black sweater dress looks with the white shirt underneath makes me think of those striped shirts you see mimes wearing in Paris...if that isn't a completely random comparison.

I'm off to watch countless reruns of Friends, hope you all have a great night.

Ps. I've noticed that I've exceeded my photobucket bandwith, so until January 3rd, you'll all have to wait to see my photos from my previous posts. Very sorry about that.

poncho, sweater dress, glasses, vintage. tights, unknown. shoes, Enzo Angiolini. shorts, shirt, AE. leather gloves, bracelet, gifts.

"Developing" The Image

Today's image (the large shot on the right) started with the small image on the left. I can think of a dozen things that needed to be done to get from one to the other. The first thing that is quite evident is "how" a camera's meter reads a scene. You can see the proper color in the finished image. The inside of the cab of the old steam train is painted black. The camera's sensor was pointed directly at a large black mass. It did a great job of trying to produce an 18% grey. Lately I've seen a lot of ink talking about "exposing to the right". Well, that's exactly what the camera's meter did in this case. It really had no choice. It has no intelligence, it's there to "record" what's in front of it, period. It did a fine job doing what it was asked to do. Is the original a "work of art"? No, it's a place to start, it's the negative from which we can start the image making process. The first thing that needed to be done was to straighten up the image. In the original you can see the handle cord hanging on a slight angle. It's unnatural, so we can use that to square up the image. To learn about a couple of the other things this image needed to fully develop, hit the "read more".

The first step is to decide what's a keeper and what can be dropped out. In order to hold the viewer in the shot the upper and lower right corners could be brought down to black. The upper left could be burned in, but not quite to black. A little detail needs to be there to allow the viewer to "enter" the shot. The same goes more the lower left. Without detail there would be no image. You can't have a complete black ring and expect someone to be able to jump into the middle.

Take a look at the left face of the square bolt in the original. See anything? I didn't either. It had to be rebuilt from other areas. The texture had to just about match other surfaces without looking like just a cut and paste job. Once the basic textures were brought in to form the side of the bolt, burning and dodging was used to sculpt the entire bolt. Attention to detail is a must for this type of shot.

Next, check out the handle of the whistle pull. No matter how far down the tone was brought I just couldn't get detail on the left side of the wood. If you look carefully you see light coming from two directions. The general light on the scene is left to right. The light on the handle appears to be on center. To create the left half of the handle, the right half was duplicated, flipped and aligned. The metal ferrule on the handle proved to be too difficult to rebuild convincingly, so it was eliminated and the handle made to look like it was all wood. Again, dodging and burning was used to make the two sides appear different from one another. The horizontal stripe of darken wood was added to give the impression of the placement of the engineers hand over and over again for many years.

The pull cord had to be built for scratch, using the original as a guide for placement only. One side was made, duplicated, offset by one thread and put together.

To put just a little color into the composition the area just above the bolt head was "rusted" by the introduction of a hint of red.

Without a fairly high amount of sharpening (using the High Pass filter technique) the texture wouldn't show properly. The vignette was discussed earlier and the "normal" Multiply technique was not used in this case.

so i got my cappuccino to go

I love the period between Christmas and New Years. It's filled with taking advantage on the deals in stores, eating tons and tons of leftovers, and spending time with friends I haven't seen in a while.

I've never really liked New Year's before, but this year I'm really looking forward to it, probably because the coming year is hopefully going to bring lots of adventures. I'm actually making some New Year's resolutions, willingly. In elementary school we used to have to make some as an assignment and after that they'd be forgotten. In high school I think I made some once, but they were forgotten again. This year I feel differently about the whole celebration of the new year, and I hope that I'll be able to stick to my resolutions.

Are any of you making resolutions as well?

skirt, Club Monaco. shirt, La Vie en Rose. tights, gift. shoes, Aldo. cardigan, vintage. jewelry, gifts/random.

Improving On Nature

Every once in a while you come upon the scene that's 90% there. there's just something missing. Today's image is just such a scene. The tranquil stream in the southern US, during the fall was too much to pass up. It drags you deep down the stream and lets you explore all the nooks and crannies along the shore. The problem, the issue, the thing that draws your attention in the original, as shot version of the image is a dominate sky. The top quarter of the image was a pale to white patch of pretty dull sky. Being bright it drew your eye like a magnet. The strange thing is the fact that the reflection gave the sky a much richer appearance. It didn't need to be "fixed". In fact, messing with it would have wrecked the shot by not giving you the "pathway" into image. So, what to do with the sky that wouldn't show up in the reflection? If you've followed the blog from the early days you might remember the foreground bough that creates the "frame" of the image. I did an article about it called "A Very Simple in Camera Technique" back on May 22, 2009. It discusses "how" the pine bough was taken on a completely white background and "how" to properly expose for the "white out" conditions. Today's image uses that image to fill in or cover the fairly uninteresting sky. One that was in place the sky showing through was still a little too white. It didn't match up with the reflection in the water. It still needed more texture than what was apparent. Easiest fix was to toss a cloudy sky in back. If you'd like to see how easy it is to add the bough and the sky as components, hit the "read more".

Actually, it's the same technique used twice and all it involves is changing the Blend Mode of the two inset images. Since the sky is pretty much bald, the cloud shot was added and the Blend Mode changed to Darker Color. Anything that's white in the base layer (the stream) drops out and the textured sky shows through.

The bough is nicely colored and the whiteout behind was very white. On the bough layer, switch the Blend Mode to Darker Color and all the white disappears.

In Photoshop you have several complimentary blending option. One set is Darker Color and the other is Lighter Color. Photoshop groups blending functions by like uses. The "Darker Color" mode is found in the second group down, along with "Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Darker Color". The opposite, Lighter Color, is found in the third group down. The group containing "Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge (Add) and Lighter Color".

Until you learn how to manipulate the Blend Modes you'll typically fight your way to a similar result. Often times I hear people say "there's more than one way to get the same result in Photoshop". That's true, but most of the time there are many ways you can use to fight your way through and one or two ways to get the job done (better) with just a couple of clicks. Stunting your Photoshop growth by knowing how to battle a job to the ground means you're losing time and costing yourself money. Continue to learn new pieces of Photoshop. You get faster and things get easier when you do.

is it just a rock in the sky?

The Personal Moon is a series of photographs by two Russian artists, Leonid Tishkov and Boris Bendikov. Each photograph depicts people sharing a special relationship with the crescent shaped moon, or the moon is displayed in a certain situation. The idea is that the moon has a different meaning to different people. After studying these photographs for a little bit I came to realise that I understood the deep connection people have to the moon. This series made me realise how important the moon is to myself. It's always been something to calm me, and at times when I am able to see it from my bedroom at night, I open up my drapes and stare out the window while lying in bed. It's something to rely on, for when the world turns its back, there is the moon, always there.

What does the moon mean to you?

Ps. I'm only posting some photo's, but there are much more. Just do a google search. :)

heart on my sleeve

Happy Boxing Day! Today my attempt at boxing day was terrible and I gave up quickly. There really was no point in shoving through the immense crowds of people everywhere. The deals weren't even that great. To be honest, I think that on a regular day of the year I can find better deals. Today was the emergence of the people who never go into a store, it was very similar to a zoo, everyone was acting like animals. Not my cup of tea.

Hope everyone else has a better shopping experience than I did...I left empty handed.