3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

Photoshop

Day 97/365: Antique, 1889 Silver Dollar

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Effect: On One Photo Tools

My Mother had a collection of Lady Liberty silver dollars from the late 1800’s and I thought this was a good example on how photo editing tools can subtly improve on the original.

I used the Super Sharpen, and Fill Flash tools on the PhotoTools 2.5 Free Edition then spot lightened to the hair on Lady Liberty and the stars to give them more definition. In the regular workspace of Photoshop I cloned out the dust and artifacts on the left side.

Can’t wait to play around more with the program. This is fun! (Maybe I’ll even post my son’s senior party invitation from the pages and templates download)

SOOC original

Day 93/365: Cat on the Porch

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Day 93: Cat on the Porch
Day 93: Cat on the Porch

Another trip to the mailbox and a stop at my neighbors house, her cats will be a common subject as the weather gets nicer.  It was a drab overcast day and I was disappointed with the original picture. No sun, no oomph, so I worked some photoshop magic.

Photoshop CS2 Notes: Regular adjustment layers with smart sharpen, then went in and decreased the lighting, bumped up the contrast, and added a warming filter. What a difference! After adding some additional sharpening on the face and whiskers and  I was happy.

SOOC (Straight out of camera)
SOOC (Straight out of camera)
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Day 91/365: Zebra Stripes

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Day 91: Zebra Clutch wallet at Coop de Ville

Yes, I bought it. I guess every three years I need a new wallet. I’m drawn to classic style with a bit of flair. Black and white will go with everything, any color purse, and I can carry it by itself. Ok, you can’t see the whole wallet, but just the fabric the watch is sitting on, but trust me it’s a soft faux suede with leather like corners and silver buttons. I LOVE how it feels.

The watch I liked too, but today it just had to be an accent piece in my photograph. This is a teaser for the Coop de Ville series of pictures which will come later, don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of the page to an email update, or click on the WordPress link at the top (if you’re signed in of course) There’s also the RSS feed, if that’s what you prefer.

Photoshop notes: I cropped and straightened the photo slightly, then added the standard layer actions/ My Finepix S1500 camera does a poor job in artificial light, I should try using the white balance more often or the lighting option and see if that improves things, but I often forget when I ‘m in a hurry. So I adjusted the color (decreased the yellow and green), desaturated and sharpened the embellishments. The original SOOC (straight out of camera) is below.

SOOC for comparision

Day 90/365: Bangles at Coop deVille

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Bangle jewelry bracelet
Day 90-: Bangle bracelet,

This week I went shopping at one of my favorite stores, Coop DeVille & Feathers, in Louisville Nebraska. Both stores are a woman’s shopping heaven. Everything from funky jewelry, purses, whimsical gifts, and decorating doodads made out of the most unique items. Everything is displayed in the most creative fashion the whole place is a feast for the eyes in an array of color.

These bangle bracelets  is just of one of my favorite pictures, love the way I captured the sparkle and shine, but I took so many that I’m going to break the rule of the 365 project and post pictures from the same day in this series. Hey, it’s my project, so I can make the rules.  Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.  In the meantime you can visit the Coop de Ville & Feathers Facebook page.

Photoshop Notes: Cropped, added standard action layers, added more sharpness to the rhinestones, adjusted layers brought the right marker to the edge of the histogram,adjusted the color to get the original pink color of the bracelet. The original image is  below.

SOOC (straight out of camera)
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365 Extras: Experimenting with Photoshop CS2

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Ok, I couldn’t resist. I just tried some black and white effects with some past photos and absolutely love the result. I’ve been so hesitant to work with black and white but Bonnie’s image of a classic car on her 365 Blog has inspired me tonight. So here goes. Hints and tips are welcome!

My daughter at age 13

I decreased the saturation, added a soft light posterization, and used the Burn tool on the shadows setting at 10% and touched up her hair. Sharpened the eyes which I think made them pop a little.

Color Optimized version

Below is the original for a comparison. I like the black and white better.

Before images: w/o post production