Blog 4: Panoramas

Yay for Panoramas!! For both of these, I went to the outskirts of Rexburg, as I call them, because I'm not really sure where Rexburg begins, and where else this would be. Its out up by the temple. I had fun taking pictures here a few weeks ago, and decided it would be a good place for a panorama.

The first panorama is made up of just 4 images. I took about 8, but only merged 4 of them together after some trial and error (the 4 looked better than all 8 together). I used my tripod so that I wouldn't have as much waste on the top and bottom of the image, then used the Content-Aware Fill to fill in some of the sky, and some of the snow in the foreground. After that, I used a brush to blend some of the sky a little more. I then saved it as a psd & a jpeg. I opened the jpg in CameraRaw and used that to crop it. I then increased the saturation, blacks, and contrast, and brightness. I decreased exposure a little. I used an adjustment brush to
get the blue in the sky more vibrant, as well as darkening the tops of the buildings, and the sides of the up close buildings.

The second panorama is made up of 7 images. I followed the same steps for photomerge and content aware fill and cropping. I used Camera Raw to increase saturation, especially the yellows and oranges. Even though there was no pink in the original sky, I used an adjustment brush to add some pinks and purples to the sky to make it more interesting. I may go back and edit out the powerlines, cellar, and sprinkler.

Panorama 1: Outbuildings 

Panorama 2: Rocky 

Panorama 1 Images: January 28, 2012; 11:35pm;
Rexburg, ID; f/13; 1/320; tripod




Panorama 2 Images: January 28, 2012; 11:49pm;
Rexburg, ID;f/13; 1/200; tripod

Blog 4: CameraRaw

These images were edited using CameraRaw. I have been using CameraRaw for awhile now, but am learning new things about it! This first image was rather dull and unappealing. Looked like nothing special, but I began playing with the first palette of tools. I used the HSL/Grayscale pallette to move around the saturation of certain colors. I wanted the reds to be more orange, and the blues more aqua. I used an adjustment brush with a decreased exposure and brightness, but increased saturation to make the sky more vibrant.

The second image I also edited in CameraRaw. The original image was way over exposed and flat. I increased the recovery, decreased the exposure, and increased saturation. I then went to the HSL/Grayscale pallette and adjusted the reds and blues. I then added two adjustment brushes. One I decreased the exposure and brightness, but increased the saturation. This brush I used to add the dark edges that made the outbuilding look a bit more menacing. I then used another brush with normal exposure and added brightness to create the brightest spot in the center of the building/image. Overall, I really like how this one turned out!

Gorgeous Decay

Enter Your Doom

Gorgeous Decay: January 16, 2012; 4:11pm;
Ouskirts of Rexburg, ID; f/5.0; 1/320

Enter Your Doom:  January 16, 2012; 4:15pm; Outskirts of
Rexburg, ID; f/3.5; 1/160

Blog 3: Flora & Fauna

For this project, I used the plants on campus to find my 'inspiration'.  I edited the images in CameraRaw after loading them into Bridge. I really like the bokeh I can get with a low f/stop and so you'll notice that the apertures are all close numbers.  The lighting that I was able to get on the "Rain on the Leaf" is my favorite because its dark in the background, but so focused and well lit in the foreground.

Scarlet & White: January 8, 2012; 4:15pm;

Rexburg, ID, BYU-I Campus; f/1.8;

1/1250

Green Whispers: January 8, 2012; 4:37pm; Rexburg, ID; f/1.8;
1/200

Rain on a Leaf: January 12, 2012; 1:40pm;
Rexburg, ID; f/2.5; 1/2000

Blog 3: Flexible Edits

Winter Glass: January 16, 2012; 4:11pm; Rexburg, ID -
Outskirts by farming; f/5.0; 1/320.

 This first image I used the 'distort filter' and chose 'glass'. I moved the distortion to 17, set the smoothness at 2, picked canvas as the texture, and put the scaling at 151%. I then used the built-in mask to remove the glass distortion value from just my husband's face.

For the second image I used the brightness/contrast adjustment. I then chose the "screen" option. I used the mask option to remove the adjustments from the background.

Meter: January 16, 2012; 3:50pm; Rexburg, ID - farming
outskirts; f/11; 1/200.

Original Image

Original Image

Blog 2: Blends & Type

Sorry if the pictures and text are mis-aligned, I was having problems with the blog and finally got fed up :/

Process:

For The Image Blend, I used three different photos (images 1-3). I created masks so that I could still allow various parts of the photo to show. As you can see in the Blend, I covered up the background of the original picture so you cannot see the second car. I also tried to cover up more of the license plate. I used the wire texture and used the channel palette to grab only the 'green' aspects. For the Blend & Type, I started with Image 5 and pulled Image 4 on top of it. I changed the layer to a low opacity and used a mask to hide the basket weave from the leaves, but left it on the ground area. Then I used the overlay blending mode on my text box so that the word 'nature' is a lighter version of the background.

Image Info.:
Image 1: Wheatgrass: January 8, 2012; 3:36pm; Rexburg, ID, f/1.8; 1/320; Nikon d90

Image 2: Car: January 13, 2012; 12:48pm; Rexburg, ID; f/7.1; 1/250; Nikon d90

Image 3: Wire Texture: January 8, 2012; 4:32pm; my home, Rexburg, ID; f/1.8; 1/25; Nikon d90

Image 4: Basket Weave: January 8, 2012; 4:31pm; my home, Rexburg, ID; f/2.8; 1/50;  Nikon d90

Image 5: Life in Winter; January 13, 2012; 12:45pm; Rexburg, ID; f/2.5; 1/1250; Nikon d90

Blend

Blend & Type

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5 

Blog 2: Color Study

The Rainbow Has Been Tasted: January 13, 2012; 1:51pm; f/3.5; 1/640; Nikon d90 

Pine Needles: January 13, 2012; 12:59pm; f/1.8; 1/500; Nikon d90

Bike Wheel: January 13, 2012; 1:50pm; f/3.5; 1/1250; Nikon d90

Locker Locks: January 13, 2012; 1:46pm; f/2.0; 1/100; Nikon d90

The lower f-stops in the second and fourth photos produced very nice bokeh. I used a larger f-stop for a deeper depth of field in the first and third images. My husband had the car all week, so my ability to get off campus during daylight hours was not really an option. I took the picture of the bike wheel at a low angle as the sun was shining onto the spokes. The center circle thing was a neon green, but when the light shone through, it changed the look of parts of it.

Blog 1: Cutouts

Babylove: December 24, 2011; 5:30pm;
Blackfoot, ID Client Home; f/1.7; 1/160;
Nikon d90 50mm

3rd Babe's A Charm: December 21, 2011; 11:30am; Rexburg, ID - Ballroom;
f/2.0; 1/160; Nikon d90 50mm; natural light through windows

The first image I used CameraRaw to edit. It looked much better in black and white and I love black and white pictures. Both of these photos used all natural lighting that was streaming through windows. The first image was taken in an Idaho Falls hospital a few hours after little Keegan was born. Luckily, it was still light outside and so we were able to get some great pictures. 

Completing the full cutout wasn't difficult because I had already done that in my Visual Media class last semester. However, learning to do the partial cutout was a little trickier. I followed the tutorial's directions and created an outline of the woman's body and the new layers. I refined the edges, saved the selection, and copied it and pasted it. I used levels and brightness and contrast to edit my image.

Blog 1: Past Photos

One Smoggy Day:  July 13, 2010; 5:30pm;
Hibbard, Idaho; f/7.1; 1/125;  Nikon  d90 18-105mm

Skin on Skin: December 11, 2011; 3:45pm;
Idaho Falls, ID Hospital; f/1.8; 1/100; Nikon d90 50mm

The Old Ways: May 2010;
 a few hours before sunset; near Heise Hot Springs; film camera

Analisa's Flash Back: October 15, 2011; 11:15am;
Egin Lake, ID; f/3.5; 1/640;  Nikon d90 50mm

Guess My Secret: October 15, 2011; 11am;
Egin Lake, ID; f/2.5; 1/1000; Nikon d90 50mm

Mommy to be: December 21, 2011; 11am;
Rexburg, ID - Ballroom; f/2.0; 1/250; Nikon d90 50mm

A Father's Love: October 20, 2011; 3:30pm;
Rexburg, ID - client home; f/1.8; 1/200; Nikon d90 50mm

Hottie Hubby: September 13, 2010; 6pm;
St. Anthony, ID; f/4.5; 1/60; Nikon d90 18-105mm

Flowers for a Bride: April 16, 2011; 1:15pm;
Portland, OR - LDS Temple;
 f/5.3; 1/200; Nikon d90 18-105mm

Marissa's Day: December 26, 2011; 2pm;
Springfield, ID; f/2.8; 1/2500; Nikon d90 - 50mm

The photos that I have taken most previously were edited using CameraRaw. I barely learned the basics of CameraRaw at the end of this last semester and got a copy of it for myself to use at home. I love learning to use it and love the effects it has on my images. The photos at Egin Lake and the one in Springfield were edited in CameraRaw, adjusting exposure, contrast, fill light, saturation, and other basic fixes.

The two nature scenes - 'One Smoggy Day' and 'The Old Ways' remain mostly unedited (with the exception of image resizing). The photo of my husband 'Hottie Hubby' ;) was edited in Picasa, playing with saturation and levels.