Not a photo, but a question

I read 10 Reasons to Turn Off Your Autofocus from Digital Photography School this morning. I agree with the points, and have had some of the missed shots the article warns against because I have used autofocus.

BUT.

I have crappy vision. Even with contacts, I don't see 20/20, and the viewfinder of my camera is very small. I love photos -- portraits, especially -- with super shallow depth of field, where the eyes are sharp as a tack and everything else dissolves into buttery lovliness. I've got a great lens for it, my 85mm f/1.8. But how can I be sure I'm manually focusing well enough when my own eyes don't know how to focus?

Is there a solution? Or do I just need to suck it up and count on some of my AF shots and many/most of my manually focused shots to fail?

Hmmmm.


~RCH~

Three ways of looking at the temple

My last Photo-Off Challenge assignment was romance. When contemplating what to shoot, I thought, "Well hey, what's more romantic than love that lasts beyond death?" I was in the neighborhood anyway for a family birthday party, so I headed up to the Bountiful LDS temple -- where we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that marriage and family relationships can be made eternal -- and took some pictures.

In the end, I didn't use any of the temple shots for the challenge; it seemed a bit didactic, somehow, and though the photos turned out well enough none of the images seemed inherently romantic to me. The thing they represent, absolutely -- but someone who didn't know about the doctrines of my faith probably wouldn't look at the photos sooc and say, "Wow, how romantic!" ("Nice building!" maybe.)

However! I do really like some of the shots I got, and now that I am free of the restrictions against post-processing, I can avoid my responsibilities (I am supposed to be deep cleaning the house right now, lol) and tart up the pictures. Here's the first one I've messed with:



This version is almost sooc -- I brought back in some sky detail from an alternate exposure (hooray for RAW format!) and I cleaned up all the dust from my camera's sensor. (I really ought to get that fixed, ugh.)



Version 2 of the same photo: I've been developing my own color shift actions; I used one I call Presto Retro! for this treatment. I also selectively tweaked the contrast until I got the look I wanted and, finally, I added an original texture (train car rust) with an Overlay blend.



Version 3: Beginning with what I'd done in version 2, I converted the photo to a sepia flavored Duotone and added a ragged border for that antique feel.

I took lots of fun pictures in the last week (motivated both by the challenge and my new 18-200mm zoom lens!) and I'm anxious to play around with them all. Theoretically I'm supposed to be busy getting ready to list the house for sale -- but if I need to decompress, recharge, get those energies flowing again, I might just sneak on to the computer some more to edit pics and post them here. Stay tuned. :-)


~RCH~

Three flowers (and me)

First, the darn baby who wouldn't hold still...



...and then the best photo I could get of the four of us (possibly a Father's Day gift, unless I can get a better one).



I used some original and top-secret Photoshop actions on these. To quote my cute sister: "Do you think it's stupid or fabulous?" LOL. I'm trying to find the middle ground between mimicking the processing of other photographers that I like and developing my own style and set of tools. It's a work in progress, and one with many distractions. Cute distractions, though. ;-)


~RCH~

Too much?

I've been staring at this photo so long in the editing process that I've lost the ability to see. So you tell me: Have I over processed it? Is it way too much, too garish? I want it to look as magical as I felt the moment (amazing golden sunlight streaming through dark clouds after an evening rain storm), but I'm worried I've gone way overboard and don't know it. What do you think?

Before (SOOC):


After:


Awesomely, that dirt road is called Chicken Flats Road. Just FYI.

Anyway, please leave me a comment. Did I go to far?


~RCH~

Return to Swan Lake

I went back to Swan Lake yesterday because the fields and hills and mountains are finally greening up and I wanted to see if I could get a better panoramic shot. I don't know yet whether or not I did; it's a big process stitching together all those individual photos -- even with the automation magic that is Photoshop -- and I haven't started on it yet.

I did, however, get a few other photos that I like! My favorite one is this, taken from the Geological Marker (noting that the whole area used to be submerged under Lake Bonneville) looking at US 91 (the straight road) and Old Oxford Highway (the road curving off to the right).



After snapping that, we continued to Swan Lake, drove up the very steep hill (I always worry that the van is going to tip over backwards!) to the tiny cemetery and took the pictures of the valley that I came for, as well as some of the cows whose field abuts the cemetery:



Uno and Dos stood at our side of the flimsy barbed wire fence mooing at them, at which the cows lined up shoulder to shoulder, single file, and began marching slowly toward the girls. I don't know if they were bored and curious or angry and preparing to charge, lol, but I told the girls they probably ought to leave them alone.

I couldn't resist the call of that turn off pictured above, so on the way home I pulled off onto the Old Oxford Highway. I didn't stay long, but I have a feeling I'll be going back. Look what I found, all easily accessible and not surrounded by barbed wire or fencing of any kind (as old places usually are):



Fun, fun! Though after encountering a snake -- a possibly dead one, but still -- in Swan Lake, I do feel a little wary of just barging in. When I go back I will wear jeans tucked into sturdy boots! Or something. And carry a shovel, which DH says is a good self defense tool against snakes. We'll see.


~RCH~

Tres gets the treatment

I took the original photo (shot in June of last year, so she would have been 8mo) and gave it a cross processed look via a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop. That looked cool, but I thought I'd like to rough it up a little more so I zoomed in on some rusty barrels Mary and I photographed on our recent explore and overlayed that for texture (masking out the skin a bit).

Mary, I hope that someday you'll be able to load Photoshop onto your computer. I have so many tricks I want to teach you! :-*


~RCH~

Recent photo explores

I've been busy preparing for (and now enjoying until next Friday) MIL's visit, so I haven't been able to mess with all the photos I've taken recently. But here are a few to whet your appetite:

A couple weeks ago Mary used one of her vacation days to play with me and drive around my little rural county taking pictures. This is one of my favorites.



(Mary, do you remember the ones of yours I said I wanted copies of? I still want them. You know, whenever. And also that very angry / sad one of Dos wearing her Happy shirt from when Eliza visited.)

Okay, then later Beckle the Freckle and her super adorable family came up to play. Her mom was raised not far from where I now live, so Beckle took us to all the cool ancestral spots. I made this panoramic shot by piecing together a bunch of different ones in Photoshop. The piecing is not perfect -- I'm new to that -- but oh well. Irish, I'd be happy to make you a print of this if you like it. (Or you could wait for me to post the rest and see if you like anything else. Or I could go back when things are more green and see if I can get even better photos. I really like your home towns!)



I have plenty more from both of those days, but it takes forever to upload things on my stupid slow dial-up connection so they are, for the moment, stuck on my hard drive. I promise to put them up someday, though. :-)


~RCH~

I could eat Tres up

Seriously, would you look at that smile?



The color is from natural window light in front of her face, a hot pink curtain behind her and orangey tungsten light above and to the right. I sharpened a bit around the eyes, and added a vignette. Not much else. She's super cute all on her own. :-)


~RCH~

One day I'll fly away

I meant to extract her a long time ago. Those kicky feet, that hair, the umbrella.... You couldn't ask for a better jumping picture! I had another spell of insomnia last night, so I carefully cut Mary out of the original photo and placed her in the sky above an empty winter field. Some color adjustments, filters, and textures later and I really like the result.

Here are the two photos I used in my composition:






~RCH~

And a homeless guy

Mary and I did our photo shoot a block from the local homeless shelter. This man and his friend, among its patrons, walked past us as we were setting up and asked if I'd take his picture. I smiled and said sure. Looking back on it, I probably should have asked them their names; that would have been more human of me. I'm not so good with the people, though, and the art of conversation definitely eludes me so ... oh well.

Sorry homeless man. Stay warm.




~RCH~

A few more

~RCH~

I began with that and ended up with this

I took this photo, more or less SOOC (that's "straight out of camera" for the uninitiated)...


Nikon D70; 85mm prime lens; 1/640s at f/1.8; ISO 200

... and added two textures (both of which I'd photographed previously, so they're mine all mine):





I futzed around with blending modes, masked the textures out a bit around the face and arms, and added my (again, completely original) favorite border, and voila!



Thanks for modeling, seester (and for the hot date)!


~RCH~

We will be redoing this shoot

Because my camera ran out of batteries just as it was getting good (and the spare set was already at home on the charger, dangit). Plus I need to work on getting the exposure right with all that snow. :-P








~RCH~

Practicing with textures

I recently paid $39 for a set of Photoshop actions and textures designed to give pictures a vintage look. I wouldn't say I got ripped off, exactly; its creator had no malice of intent and for someone less familiar with Photoshop, the set would be a big help. But I've been using the program for 10 years; I ran the set and thought, "That's it? I paid forty bucks for that?" I guess I expected something more advanced, something beyond my grasp. But it's not.

So I decided to practice creating my own. I made an action for a curves adjustment that gives a retro, cross-processed look (ish), then I warmed up the color and lowered the contrast on a photo of snow and gravel to use as my overlay texture. Obviously I need to keep practicing; I don't think anybody would pay money to learn my secret formula. But it's a start! :-)


Original photo (SOOC)
Nikon D70; 85mm prime lens; 1/800s at f/4.5; ISO 200


Photoshopped version
Curves and saturation adjustment layers; original texture added; texture masked out and lightened around the face


~RCH~

Photoshop Portrait trick

I've got a favorite trick for making portraits pop: I run this Lomo action (by Addicted to Design) in Photoshop, copy the result, and then paste it over the original with either an Overlay, Soft Light, or Hard Light blending mode of between 20 - 35%. Check out the photos below for an example of the effect:


Original photo
Nikon D70; 85mm prime lens; 1/1600s at f/4.5; ISO 200


Photoshopped version
sky detail burned in with alternate exposure from RAW format; Lomo action; basic retouching on the face, particularly around the eyes

Occasionally the skin tones come out a little too yellow, but that can be managed by taking the blending mode down a notch or masking out the skin (either a little or completely) on the Lomo layer.

I just love how it makes the colors sing. :-)


~RCH~