Making Something From Nothing?

Not an especially dramatic photo, but I'll go with the term "subtle"...

This was taken at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area.  It was overcast, around 50% chance of rain, unseasonably cool (70's) and a bit breezy.  But we had the grandkids for the weekend, and decided to take a chance to show them the sunflower fields.  Anyway, once we arrived, I decided to grab a shot of the open bottomlands, with the low clouds skating along.  I was even deliberate about setting my zoom to get a 50mm equivalent, just because....  But I realized the "straight out of camera" probably wouldn't meet my expectations, and that notable post-processing would be needed.

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There's actually a fair amount of work here.  Starting with a slight leveling, and the normal brightness / contrast adjustments (Levels). Then adjusting white balance.  I had the camera set to "Daylight", and there was a distinct blue cast.  Then I decided to crop from the starting 4x6 ratio to a panorama ratio.  This is 2.44:1, "standard" seems to be 3:1.  Oh well!

Once I settled all that, it was time to take the big swing with effects.  I use Topaz Simplify for range percentage of my photos, because I like the suite of controls.  I usually either tuen off the simplify filter, or tur it way down.  It has great ability to to work with dynamics, structure, saturation, etc.

In this case, I couldn't get happy with a single version where the sky and the field suited me.  So I did a separate edit for the sky, and combined them in Photoshop (Elements).

Anyway, here's the "Straight From Camera" version:

SO:  was it worth it?

Prairie Flower

Taken about 2 minutes before yesterday's post.  There's a good bit of effects going on with this one.

A Place To Perch

Red Winged Blackbird hanging out on a piece of driftwood, at the edge of a pond....

Riverlands Migratory Bird Santuary, West Alton, MO

What would you do?? (#183)

One of the fun challenges over at 365project is called "What Would You Do?.  The concept is that the host selects a photo, and posts it.  Participants then tweak it however they like, and post back to the site.  Some folk go really crazy, some not so much.  After the prescribed time, the host selects finalists (usually 5) and folk vote for their favorite.  the winner gets the honor of hosting the next round.  This is one of the challenges I try and do all along.

Here's the current starting point:

WWYD183

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Here's what I came up with.  Not exactly what I envisioned, but close:

Cropped to square, exposure adjustments, convert to B&W, a little red filter....  some burn and dodge....  then overlaid with a texture.  I thought about adding a frame to approximate a polaroid, but didn't.
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And if you're interested, here's all the entries (so far):

https://365project.org/tags/wwyd183

Wildcat Hollow

Some folk think that any post-processing of a photo is heresy, anything except "straight-out-of-camera" (SOOC) is invalid.  I'm not one of those people.  Now, I'm not opposed to SOOC, and I agree that we (photographers) should strive to get the best possible image on the front end.  But...  things like crop, rotate, exposure tweaks, burn/dodge, adjust contrast?  I was doing all those things in a wet darkroom 40+ years ago.  I've always liked Ansel Adams' quote:  "The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance."

Now, all that is fine and dandy, but generally, the processing we're talking about is usually limited to the kinds of things I noted above (crop, rotate, exposure tweaks, burn/dodge).  That's not what we have here.  If Ansel Adams was talking about a symphony, this is free-form improvisation Jazz.

The original photo (see below) is quite dull.  I was trying to get a sense of layers, and the pt-quite-yet aspect of spring on this cool morning. The light was a bit harsh, the colors were a bit flat, my expectations were a bit low.  But I had a bit of a struggle finding this spot, and felt the need to try for a photo.  And I hoped that I could make something interesting with it.

Perhaps surprisingly, there's no crop or rotate or even exposure adjustment here.  I skipped the "normal" tweaks and went straight to the hard-stuff.  Now, I said it was Jazz, which means it's all improvised.  And not documented.  But my workflow was something like:  New Layer: Topaz Simplify to soften some of the harshness, and boost the colors a bit (significant tweaks from defaults).  Blend that layer with base.  Merge, then copy new layer.  Topaz Impressions on that layer, don't remember exact preset.  Resize for display size, then addtexture in Photoshop Elements.  Fram effect was manually added in Elements, there's 6 or 7 steps in that..


Here's the original:

Under the bridge

Just a little something, playing with an image taken this weekend.  Taken from the trails that meander around the Chain of Rocks Bridge...  That's the bridge, of course.    From Choteau Island.

This one is also posted at 365project,

 Here;s the Straight Out Of Camera version, click for larger version.:

Summer Day

 Yellow wildflowers, with significant tweakage.  Lunch time at St. Ellen Mine Park, not far from my work.  Straighten, crop, levels...  they typical stuff.  The key tweak is using Topaz Impression plug-in, which is a rather cool toy.  I don't remember which specific preset I used, though.

Here's the SOOC (straight out of camera) version, for comparison:

I really like the iPhone for these sort of low perspective images.  It has good depth of field and pretty wide angle (28mm effective).

Springtime On Campus

Way behind on posting.  Life is being "like that"...

This is from last month, our visit to the campus of Vanderbilt University.  Obviously, there's a lot of OTSOOI (post processing) going on....  But I like how it turned out.

Cold and Lonesome

Every once in a while one has to go fully into the world of effects.  This is one of those images....

This one is actually from mid January, not sure why it didn't get posted here at the time.  Here it is at 365project.  But, better late than never.  I was really pleased with t he way this turned out, pretty close to exactly what I was thinking when I pressed the shutter release.  That doesn't seem to happen all that frequently with highly manipulated images (for me at least).

Maybe I should get a print of this one....

Get The Point?

Another little thing for a 365project challenge.  It is called "Flash Of Red";  during February, folk are challeneged to shoot b&w, except for 2/14 when they add a flash of red.  Obviously, I'll all down with the month of b&w, but wasn't sure about the flash of red part...

Naturally, I wasn't going to do some valentine-y hearts and romance thing...  nothing wrong with that, just not my style.  The above is what I came up with.  I dunno, I kind of like it.  even though it is sort of forced, and besides the selective color also includes a bit of the somewhat cliche Dutch Tilt. 

I ended up doing a couple of other "flash of red" shots in the subsequent days, included herre for your viewing pleasure.  Click for larger versions.:

Ol' 55

1955 Chevy wagon, a little worse for were and tear...  Seen on my evening commute.  Lots of effects here, I was going for a timeless, painterly feel...  softening some of the age apparent on the carm, and rendering the surroundings as generic as possible...

The title is from the Tom Waits song, covered notably by The Eagles on their "One Of These Nights" album.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW0vTY7rNt0

Indian Summer

Just a little something from Pleasant Ridge Park earlier this week.  Rather heavily effected...

I suppose the term is not politically correct these days, but I was reminded of the old Poco song....  the title track from their 1977 album, which would be their last with Timothy B. Schmidt (before he joined the Eagles).  Not their best album, and a little bit of a letdown after "Rose Of Cimarron".  But it has some high points (including the ttitle track).

Throwback Thursday - On The Run

Throwback Thursday, looking back at the Better-Photo years.  Many of these may have been posted here before, but probably not recently.  Hope you enjoy:

More Buzz Simplifier...  Along the Foster Bike Trail, in Glen Carbon, ILIIRC, this is just north of where it crosses under I-270...

Challenge

One more from the Criterium last weekend.  I was trying to get some panning-motion shots, but didn't ever get anything quite right.  But several of them made nice basis for effects...

Watershed, Van Gogh Style

Playing with Topaz Impressions...

McAllister Covered Bridge #11

Indiana Covered Bridges Continue...  will they ever stop?

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An Impressionist take on the approach:

Affected Effects...

Playing with effects today, with a simple iPhone photo..  There's dozens and dozens of presets, here's a handful...   What do you like?  What do you HATE?

Click on photo to see larger view:

Starting point (cropped, levels, etc):

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Topaz Simplify 4 - BuzSim

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Topaz Simplify  4 - Impressions Color (tweaked)

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Topaz Impression 2 – Impasto

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Topaz Impression 2 – DaVinci Sketch 2

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Topaz Impression 2 – Rembrandt Portrait 2

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Topaz BW Effects 2 – Classic, with (lots of) red filter & film grain

What Would You Do? (142)

Over at 365project, folks do periodic challenges.  I've posted frequently here about the album cover challenges, for example.  Another is What Would You Do/ or WWYD.  The previous winner posts a photo, and others show how they would edit it.  I think it's a fun challenge and I usually participate.  Above is my image for the current WWYD (#142).  Below is the starting point:

And a link to all the entries.  There are some that are quite clever.

Abstract #8750

Over at 365project, they have a term, ETSOOI.  It's an acronym for Edit The "Stuffing" Out Of It.  This one certainly qualifies.  Started with a simple iPhone image of a birch tree, transferred to iPad (bigger, better screen) and tweaked... and tweaked.... and tweaked some more. And then some more.

I had an abstraction in mind when I took this, but this ended up a bit more extreme than I planned.  I rather like how it ended up, though.

Here's the SOOC version, with the (approximate) crop noted:

SOOC = "Straight Out Of Camera", by the way.  Which is NOT something you'll see often from me.  Most of my images have only minor tweaks (crop, exposure, etc)...  But few have none.  Fewer still have this much massaging.

Sylvan Song

Leap day, 02/29/2016, bright sunny and temperature in the 60's. The midday sun was streaming through the bare trees, into this not-quite-dry creek bed. A calm and quite moment...  Leap day, 02/29/2016, bright sunny and temperature in the 60's. The midday sun was streaming through the bare trees, into this not-quite-dry creek bed. A calm and quite moment...

Title is an old song by the band Heart.

Title is an old song by the band Heart.