Fun with Photoshop

The photography course I just finished included a few weeks of playing in Photoshop, learning how to make our images really come alive. There are a few tricks I've enjoyed playing with, and I decided to turn my attention to an old picture of my parents' cat. He's a lovely creature, but the source image never really did him justice:


After a little playing, I've ended up with a picture that I think is much closer to what the cat actually looks like in real life.

Yes, it really is a photo

I was back out at Hog's Back last weekend and got a bunch of pictures. Unfortunately, between dirt on the lens and foolish shutter speed selection, very few turned out. This one suffered from dirt on the lens, but a few minutes in Photoshop sorted that out. In this particular shot, the slow shutter speed was deliberate, because I wanted to catch the motion of the water. Between that and a slight shake of my hand, it almost makes the whole thing look like a painting rather than a photo.

New software, same sock

So decided to have a little fun... I took the same picture I used last time and used my new version of Photoshop to adjust the white balance properly. That's the left-hand side of the picture. On the right, you'll see the same picture I posted last time -- which was colour balanced already, just with a less-capable program.

I gotta say, Photoshop CS2 is teh awesome.

Knitting! -- and also, comments requested

First, a fun pair of felted mittens that Andrea just finished. I don't think I managed to really do them justice -- they're really quite funky, but because of that cuff they're a little chunky at the bottom and that made them lie strangely. I'm not entirely thrilled with the results, but oh well.


Next, a funky sock that Andrea knit! She's making the matching one right now, I believe. I posted up two versions, one with a black background and one with a white background, so everyone could compare the two.

What I'd like from you folks is a comment telling me which of the two versions you like better, and why (if you know why). I have my own thoughts, but I'd prefer to hear other people's ideas.

More beer!

I took a red and a black version of the beer photo from earlier. The red turned out really weird and almost painful -- which I find cool in a really ugly way -- but the black one was boring and crappy. So I didn't bother posting it.

Beer = happy

So I finally got my light tent built and set up on the weekend and took a few test shots. For lack of other suitable subjects, I decided to use a bottle of one of my favourite types of beer, Sleeman Fine Porter. (Very tasty. If you like dark beers, I highly recommend sampling it.)

Overall, the tent worked, but not to my satisfaction. The lighting was too dark and a little too spotty, but by shooting in raw mode I was able to adjust the white balance fairly easily. I also had a little fun with the background colour... I'm not sure, but I think I like the blue better.



So, now I have to experiment with alternative lighting. I have a few ideas, I'll try them out and see what comes out of it.

DIY photo studio

Interesting... A case of beer, a few sheets of paper towel, and a few sheets of printer paper combine to form a photo studio. A pretty decent one, actually, at least for the purpose this guy's putting it to -- taking decent photos for eBay.

DIY eBay Photo Studio, from a person named Jesse, apparently.

I think I'll create my own version of this... I have some larger items that I need to take pictures of, so a case of beer probably won't be big enough. Still, I should be able to produce something relatively cheap. :-)