Bannack: Portraits

Welcome to Bannack, Montana! The next several blogs (all labeled beginning with Bannack) are all pictures I took in Bannack. It is a wonderfully preserved ghost town and definitely worth the trip. I hope you enjoy a little view of what Bannack has to offer.

 

Kaylissa: 2/22/11—12:34 PM; f/5.3; 1/160; Nikon D70s

-I had fun editing this portrait. I added some vibrance and contrast to begin with. I then copied the background layer twice. For one layer, I used a soft brush at 30% opacity to make a few minor adjustments to the image. I also added some highlights to her hair. I then added a Gaussian blur on the other copied layer with a black mask and smoothed out her skin just a bit. I liked using both techniques together.

 

Jake Steel: 2/22/11—12:42 PM; f/4; 1/500; Nikon D70s

-For this portrait, I upped the sats and contrast and just let the feel of the picture do the rest.

Bannack: Action Blur & Freeze

This assignment was all about playing around with shutter speed. The action shot has a very fast shutter speed whereas the ghost shot has a very slow shutter speed.

Action Blur

  

Longing for the Light: 2/22/11—1:14 PM; f/3.5; 5 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100; used tripod

-To get this effect, I had the subject stand in the frame of the picture for about 2.5 seconds (half of the actual shutter opening time) and then move out of the frame very quickly. I made this picture black and white and increased the brightness and the contrast to the image just slightly. I added a flexible vignette to the picture as well.

Action Freeze

Heel Clickers: 2/22/11—2:00 PM; f/16; 1/160; Nikon D70s

-I applied a smart sharpen to this image and also boosted the contrast a little bit.

Bannack: Reverse Shallow Depth

For these shots we were supposed to show depth of field. So one of my shots is focused on the background and one of them is focused on the foreground.

 

Weeds (out of focus):2/22/11—1:31 PM; f/10; 1/400; Nikon D70s

-I added saturation and contrast to this image.

 

Weeds (in focus): 2/22/11—1:31 PM; f/10; 1/400; Nikon D70s
-I added saturation and contrast to this image.

 

Candle Sticks (foreground):2/22/11—3:58 PM; f/2.7; 1/40; macro mode, used tripod
-I added saturation and contrast to this image.

 

Candle Sticks (background): 2/22/11—3:59 PM; f/2.7; 1/40; macro mode, used tripod

-I added saturation and contrast to this image.

Bannack: Macro Abstract

For this assignment we were supposed to blend two images together using the blending modes in Photoshop.

I used this abstract picture for both of the following pictures:

-Stained: 2/22/11—3:47 PM; f/2.7; 1/60; Canon PowerShot A1100

Original

Blended

 

McGuffey’s Readers: 2/22/11—4:00 PM; f/2.7; 1/50; Canon PowerShot A1100; used tripod

-I used the linear burn blending mode for this picture. I increased the brightness as well as changed the opacity of the abstract layer to 77%. 

Original

Blended

 

Metallic Abstract: 2/22/11—12:39 PM; f/5.6; 1/100; Nikon D70s; used macro mode

-I used the soft light blending mode to create this picture.

Original

Plus abstract

 

Crackled: 2/22/11—3:47 PM; f/2.7; 1/125; Canon PowerShot A1100       

 

Buckle: 2/22/11—4:11 PM; f/2.8; 1/6; Canon PowerShot A1100; used tripod and macro mode

-I used the lighten blending mode for this picture. I increased the brightness on the buckle layer and I put a mask on the abstract layer and made the buckle stand out a little more.

Edit: HDR (High Dynamic Range)

All of the pictures below were taken in Bannack, Montana. For these pictures I used the trial version of Dynamic Photo. You can get some pretty awesome lighting and effects with this program.

Three shots: For this picture I took three shots on a tripod at three exposure levels (-2, 0, +2). I then took all three photos into Dynamic Photo and blended them together. Once in the program, I edited the picture to bring out the saturation and I also played around with the artistic lighting.

Original with all three exposure levels

HDR

Abandoned Bannack

-2: 2/22/11—12:52 PM; f/8; 1/1600; Canon PowerShot A 1100; exposure -2

0: 2/22/11—12:52; f/8; 1/640; Canon PowerShot A 1100; exposure 0

+2: 2/22/11-12:53; f/8; 1/125; Canon PowerShot A 1100; exposure +2

One shot: For this one, I just took a single image and then followed the same steps above.

 Original

 

HDR

The Mask: 2/22/11—2:12 PM; f/2.7; 1/60; Canon PowerShot A 1100; exposure +0.33

Here are a couple of others I did just for fun:

Original

HDR

 

Original

 HDR

 

Cemetery Shot

Here is my best cemetery shot from the Bannack Cemetery.

How Sweet a Flower: 2/22/11—5:34 PM; f/3.2; 1/250; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I made this picture into an HDR image.

Night & Light

I loved doing this assignment. I have done a little night photography before, but it was fun to experiment with new techniques.

Camera Motion Painting: For these two shots, I set my shutter for a longer exposure and moved my camera around to create the dancing light.

Swirls: 2/18/11—8:16 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/2.7; 2.5 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I increased the contrast and saturation to this picture.

Dancing Light: 2/18/11—8:15 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/2.7; 1.6 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I increased the contrast and saturation to this picture.

Moving Light Capture: For this picture I set up my tripod and put my camera on a self timer. My shutter was open for six seconds and so I got cars stopping and going. I cropped the image down to make the composition better.

 Light Motion: 2/18/11—8:12 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/2.7; 6 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I added contrast and bumped up the saturation to this shot.

Light Painting: For these two shots I used the "painting with light" technique. We were in a completely dark room and the only light source was the small lights we were painting with. It was fun to see what kind things we could come up with (my husband helped me). 

On the Lighter Side of Love: 2/19/11—10:03 PM; Blackfoot, ID; f/2.7; 15 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I lowered the contrast on this picture.

To Paint a Flower: 2/19/11—10:15 PM; Blackfoot, ID; f/3.2; 15 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I increased the contrast and made it a little darker.

This picture was an experiment, but I thought it turned out kind of cool. He stood in one location for five seconds, moved quickly, then posed for another five seconds. The result:

Fatal Blow: 2/19/11—10:09 PM; Blackfoot, ID; f/2.7; 15 sec.; Canon PowerShot A1100

-I added a little contrast to this shot, as well as lowered the brightness.

Edit: Fine Art Template

For my signature on my template, I used my mouse and made it in Illustrator instead of scanning my own signature. I tried to make it as close to my signature as possible and it is actually really close. I thought this would be just as easy and it is already on a transparent background so it works quite nicely.

 

Scanography

Scanography is so cool. I had never heard about it before this class, but I had a ton of fun playing around with it. For those of you who don't know, scanography is taking a picture, but with a scanner instead of a camera. You can get some really neat effects with light and focus that are very unique to this style of art.

For this assignment I was supposed to do two images. One just with everything on the scanner (a one scan) and one that was at least three different images that I blended together in Photoshop (a collage scan). Here's what I came up with.

One scan:

Girl Power

This scan was created by placing all the items on the scanner bed and placing a box over the top (to block the light) so the background would be black. I increased the contrast and the saturation in the advanced options on the scanner.

Star-Gazing

 

For this one, I just placed the bouquet on the scanner bed and put ribbon all around it. I also increased the saturation and contrast on this one too, as well as boosting up the fuchsia tones.

Collage Scan:

 Original Scans

Final Edit:

 Ode to the Uke

 This one was a little more tricky than I thought it was going to be. I scanned all three images in, only editing the contrast and saturation on the ukulele. I then took the three images into Photoshop. I used the music as the background, so I didn't make any changes to it except to up the contrast just a bit. I then removed the black portions off the ukulele image and the book image. I wanted to use the book picture because it is a book I inherited from my grandparents, and it's pretty cool. The song in the back is one of my favorite songs to play. I used the linear light blending mode on the book and decreased the opacity of the ukulele to 90%. I rotated the images slightly to get the composition I wanted, and I really like how the final image turned out.

Edit: Borders

I had a lot of fun learning different border effects. It really can make a regular picture really turn into a piece of art. Here are three different effects I have learned.

Original

Edited

 

Little Chickadee: 2/2/11—1:00 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/5.6; 1/800 sec; Canon PowerShot A 1100

-I added contrast and more saturation to help the picture look better. For the edge effect, I used the #11 Flexible Brushed-on Effect. I used an all black mask and painted the picture back into view with white paint. I changed the opacity several times on my brush to give it a more realistic brush stroke look.

Original

Edited:

Always Watching: 1/31/11—1:23 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/3.5; 1/125 sec; Canon PowerShot A 1100

-I increased the saturation and made the skin more even using a soft paint brush at 30% opacity. I used the #9 Sprayed Edge Effect for the border on this picture.This effect is obtained by adding a sprayed strokes filter and a border to the photo.

Original

Edited

La Bandera: 1/30/11—6:26 PM; Rexburg, ID; f/6.8; 1/500 sec; Canon PowerShot A 1100

-I increased the saturation and contrast. I used the #12 Double Fade Border for this picture. This border was created by increasing the canvas size to put the black border around the edge. The inner border was created by using the rectangle shape tool. First, I added a white rectangle to the inside of the black border and then, using a mask, got rid of the inner part of it. I added a strong motion blur to the inside so it would fade into the picture and decreased the opacity of the layer.