Panoramic

This was a brand new concept for me. I had never realized before that you could take several pictures (without the panoramic option on your camera) and blend them together with Photoshop. Photomerge is a great tool and that is what I used to create this image. I took five separate pictures of the temple and then blended them together with photomerge. I added some brightness and contrast to the image and cropped it slightly as well. I also used the content aware tool in CS5 (it's totally awesome) to help increase my borders so I didn't have to crop in as much.

 

 

 

Rexburg Beauty: 1/30/11—5:24 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/5.2; 1/400 sec; Sony DSC-S930

Edit: Camera Raw

Camera Raw is pretty awesome. I am still learning how to use it, but I am having fun in the process. For this first image, I just did a few edits with Camera Raw. It definitely makes things easier and faster with editing. I increased the blacks, and added a little brightness, clarity, and vibrance. The original is first; the edited version is second.
 

 

Sunset; 1/30/11—5:27 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/8; 1/250 sec; Sony DSC-S930

           

For the second image, I actually took a raw image with a DSLR. The lighting wasn't very great when I took the picture, but I was able to fix it up quite nicely with Camera Raw. I increased the recovery, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation in this image. I also cropped it in.

Magic?: 1/29/11—7:52 PM; Blackfoot, ID; f/3.3; 1/10 sec; Nikon D70s; raw image

This image is of a little trick my brother-in-law taught me. Pretty cool, huh?

Flora & Fauna

For this assignment I wanted to find plants that weren't dead (slightly hard in January in Idaho). But, I was able to find some really cool plants in the greenhouse in the Benson building on campus. As for my animal, there's always ducks and geese at Nature Park. So, I was set.

 

 

 

Photo Information

Palm Leaves: 1/21/11—1:48 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/2.7; 1/400 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100, macro

-I adjusted the levels, brightness/contrast, and color balance to make the green palm stand out against the purplish background.

On Fire: 1/21/11—1:46 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/4.5; 1/160 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100, macro

-I adjusted the brightness/contrast and saturation to make the colors even more vivid. The lighting in the greenhouse kind of dulled the colors in the photo from what I actually saw.

Close-Up: 1/23/11—4:19 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/4; 1/500 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I adjusted the brightness as well as the hue/saturation. I darkened the background to make goose in front stand out a bit more.

Edit: Adjustment Layers and Smart Filters

This was a fun assignment for me. I love nondestructive editing! 

Adjustment Layer

Original

Edited Version

For this shot I really wanted the flower to pop. So, I created a couple of adjustment layers to play around with. I changed the brightness/contrast on the whole picture to make the flower stand out. I then added another adjustment layer to adjust the saturation slightly to bring out the pinks and yellows in the flower. I added another hue/saturation adjustment layer and lowered the saturation and made it a little darker. Then, using the mask of that layer, I carefully removed the effects of that layer from the flower so it remained only on the background.

Smart Filter

 

 Original

 

Edited Version

For this picture I used a smart filter by first making the original layer a smart object. I then applied the palette knife filter to the picture, and using the mask tool, removed the effect from the subject's face and part of his body. I feel that this effect made the subject look like he was starting to blend into a painting. I also cropped it to bring the viewer closer to the subject.

 

Original

Edited Version

I also edited this picture using a smart filter. Using the palette knife filter, I made the picture look like a painting. I used a mask to remove the effect from the geese. I cut out part of the background, copied it, and applied a Gaussian blur. This way, the foreground and the geese are sharp and clear, but the car and the background are blurry.  I also added a couple of adjustment layers to brighten it up a little and add some saturation to the geese.

Photo Information

Christmas Cactus Flower: 1/21/11—1:50 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/2.7; 1/500 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100, macro

Alone: 1/23/11—4:22 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/8; 1/500 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100

Geese in a Row: 1/23/11—4:20 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/3.5; 1/250 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100

Color Study: RED

Oh Rexburg. I was really worried about this assignment because the light has been so awful in Rexburg the past week. I put off taking pictures because it was so cold and nasty outside. I took some inside, but then Monday morning there was sun! 

 

Veggie Jars: 1/12/11—4:14 PM; my apartment—Rexburg, ID; f/2.7; 1/50 sec; Canon PowerShot A1100 IS; self-timer, tripod

-I edited this picture slightly by adding some contrast and sharpening the image a bit.

Snowed In: 1/17/11—8:30 AM; Rexburg, ID; f/3.5; 1/160 sec; Canon PowerShot A620; macro

-I edited the contrast on this picture and also changed the aperture to a lower number so it would just focus in the front.

 

Flag: 1/17/11—8:50 AM; Rexburg, ID; f/3.2; 1/1250 sec; Canon PowerShot A620

-I added a little bit of contrast to this one as well because by the time I took it, the light was a little too strong.

Good Ol’ Webster: 1/17/11 8:20 AM; my apartment—Rexburg, ID; f/8; 1 sec; Canon PowerShot A620; tripod, self-timer

-I cropped this one, but that is the only editing I did to it. I used an f/8 so both the foreground and background would be in focus. (You have to click on this one and enlarge it to really see the detail, the smaller picture didn't turn out as well.)