Interesting Take on Shooting in Color vs Black & White

I thought this was a great way to explain this concept.

Wedding Photography Tips - Black and white photography explained

Digital Backgrounds

Here's Brooklynn-the youngest of the beautiful blond sisters I photographed early last week. I decided to go digital with these first two because of the expression and pose of little Brooklynn. She was actually chasing a balloon when these were taken.
Safe to say she has the "curious" look in these.

This expression was too cute not to include.

Her clever "Home Alone" interpretation.

MAD AT THE WORLD!

" Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry." ~Lyman Abbott

I wanted to share this one from the shoot with my daughter the other day. As soon as I reviewed the images I had this photo manipulation in mind for the photo. The first one is the original photo that my idea formed from. And the story goes like this-

My son was watching the photo shoot and my daughter wanted him to stop whatever it was he was doing when she stared him down as you see in the photo. I am so glad I captured the look on her face at that moment because as all of you with teens out there know-this look is the typical "Mad at the World" or "Stop Bugging Me" look we all can do without on most days. This day I didn't mind her being a little mad!


"The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough." ~Bede Jarrett


So...how do you get a manipulation like this? Well, it's a lot of playing around in your favorite editing program. I knew I was going to use some of the cloud photos from my "Heaven's Above" blog, but didn't know which one until they were each tried one by one. I went with one that had both a dark side and a brighter blue side to it. I don't know why I picked it, it just looked good to me. My edit of the original photo already had extra noise added in to make it a bit more interesting and kind of deep. Sometimes I add noise to give extra interest to a photo. Normally photographers try to reduce the noise in their photos, which is at most times true for me too, but in some cases, usually when doing artist manipulations-adding noise is the better choice. I next added an adjustment layer to my existing layer (the original photo), positioning it just right. I then duplicated that layer and erased the clouds and sky from her face giving it the effect you see. I also tweaked the opacity on the second layer so that there was a bit of both layers (photos) present in my final piece. I think I added in some contrast and adjusted the hue on this as well. If you haven't tried this type of photo-reworking-do so! You may just find you love it like I do!

Anyhow, I loved the result...my daughter? I'm not so sure...I can say she didn't seem to hate it as she sometimes feels about my digital creations.

This brings up a topic to mention...what about ethics and photo manipulation? Is it unethical to alter photos in this way? Here's some interesting reading on the subject of digital manipulation and ethics if you're interested.

Also, I see your watching my posts closely...leave a comment now and then and let me know what you think-especially about my photo manipulations like this one...after all they are one of my favorite things! :)

Take this to bed with you tonight and wake with it in your head every morning-I dare you!

"If you're angry at a loved one, hug that person. And mean it. You may not want to hug - which is all the more reason to do so. It's hard to stay angry when someone shows they love you, and that's precisely what happens when we hug each other." ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997

You see...there is a message to find in every image created, there is something to be learned in every struggle we go through, something to be gained in every emotion-if you are willing to embrace it!

Nature Part 2 (Echoing Flowers)

So... I promised more nature and here it is! I finished editing the bright flowers and came up with some unique images to share. I placed the group of flowers (I believe there were 5 total) behind a single flower in order to get more color into the photo. I tried to do this without losing any of the wonderful reflections of the main flower. You will see that the background is blurred out which is called "bokeh" in photography terms. This technique isn't as easy as one might think and can take lots of practicing to get just right. This first photo has so many neat things going on. It has all the different colors in it, a great reflection of part of the flower and the wonderful flower bokeh in the background. I was super happy with this image. The next images will be a photo manipulation that I've made from this original photo.

This look is attained by making a mirror image of the same flower in the first image. Because the flower has the dark circular center it creates a look of "eyes" in the second image when mirrored. I think this photo looks like an insect and it has a feel of being made out of tissue or origami paper because of the petals looking like they've been folded and carefully crafted to make the mini creature. Some people won't like my manipulations, but I find them to be fascinating and fun to create...you should try playing with your photos this way too!




This image here is simply
straight off the camera.












This next image is yet the same photo, but turned into a "painting" style finish. The colors were enhanced a little by adding in more contrast to the photo. I think it gives it a very unique look and can be used as a great piece of art if printed onto the right material-such as canvas or linen textured high grade photography paper.













On to a different image all together. This next flower is actually one that I posted yesterday as the third image down on my blog. I wanted to show you how much you can do with a single image. It can have so many different looks. I basically used a one step editing tool to "punch" the image. What that means is the images becomes enlarged some and almost pops out of the photo. That's all I did...and you see it's so different from my previous post of the same flower! You can also "pinch" images to make them shrink backwards into the photo. I only encourage using these techniques when shooting objects or flowers. It doesn't work that well on people because it may make them look distorted.

This last flower is a twist on the previous one. It looks like I just converted it to a black & white photo, but that isn't the case. I used a special combination of effects to remove color from the photo while increasing the contrast and at the same time creating a "hot spot" within the photo. This is basically a more in depth way of brightening certain parts of a photo. So in the photo you will notice the flower is bright while the reflection is dull and barely noticeable. I sometimes find that creating several different versions of the same image-in this case-a flower, works well for collages or groupings to hang together as art.

That's all for now. Check back to see some wild dandelions tomorrow!