Candy photo contest

So I was trying to get a shot for this contest and these are the four I narrowed it down to. I finally submitted the bottom one. Anyone agree/disagree with my choice? The candy is runts by the way.

Photoshop actions

So I took this photo to try and show some of the different filters/effects you can apply in Photoshop (I have elements 6) to a photo to change how it looks. I like this one for the project because it's a bright color, close-up, and has good detail so you can see how the different filters affect details in the photos! Hope maybe it's helpful to anyone overwhelmed by the different options in Photoshop elements- And this isn't even half of them probably!




This is the straight out of camera (SOOC) shot with a tweak of saturation and light.





This is the crystallize effect....it's a pixellation effect so it takes away a lot of the edge definition in the photo.

This is cutout. I think it gives it a retro/record cover feel?

This is the frosted glass effect- makes it look like you're looking through glass at the item.

This one I edited with the gradient scale. It allows you change the colors for different gradient levels. It was fun to tweak and see how it changed the photo colors!

horizontal grain- There's a list of different grain types. Makes it look like a retro photocopy? I like how it gives an illusion of movement with this particular photo.

Mosaic tyles- you can adjust the size of the tiles and how thick/thin & dark/light the grout is

Paint daubs- blurs the edges- makes it look more like a painting

palette knife- (I'm not an art expert...) but makes me think someone used a sharp edged knife with the paint colors instead of soft brush edges

Patchwork- looks sort of tapestry-ish? Gives it a "gridded" look

Plastic wrap- duct tape version of your photo? Reminds me of a vacuum sealed plastic effect

Poster- changes the colors and lines slightly to make it look more posterish- somewhat self-explanatory

Solarize- changes the colors based on temp? Looks funky on this shot anyway!

Spatter- gives it a blurry/fuzzy slightly out of focus look- blurs the edges just enough

Spherize- can be used on some shots to make it look like you used a fish-eye lens

(I've tried it on some other photos but it only works just right on certain shots)

Sponge- you can adjust the distribution of the sponge marks- think the sponging you might do on wall paint with a slightly darker color over the lighter one?

Stained glass- pixellates it into a stained glass look- You can adjust the size of the glass pieces and the brightness of the light shining through the glass (I have the light down to zero on this shot)

Sumi-e adjusts the contrast and colors to give it an asian(i think) feel This works well with brightly variably colored photos

Watercolor- rather self-explanatory- Makes it look like a watercolor painting- I think this one works better with lighter colored shots without such drastic contrast between colors

Water paper- Similar to water color but makes me think more of colored pencils blurred on thick vellum paper

Shooting in the snow....

I've discovered it's rather hard to capture snow AS it's falling....it's tough to avoid the washed out white in the front of a picture that you know is snow. That's where manual focus comes into play instead of auto focus. The camera has a tough time focusing automatically on the falling snowflakes instead of whatever is behind them. I've had some fun playing around with this the past several weeks since all it does is snow around here! It was even more fun with my zoom lens.


When you switch to manual focus you can focus on the flakes instead of the background behind....it still takes some patience and tweaking though!



Red berries blissfully unaware that it's WINTER?!

The other thing I love to do in the snow with my zoom lens is shoot as close as it will let me focus so that only one thin strip of the snow is focused. Makes it look extra pretty sparkly to me!

I tried to adjust the lighting on this one in photoshop but I couldn't improve it while keeping the soft yellow light from the light on the side of the house.

I LOVE this one....the snow on top of our patio table....the dip in the middle is where the umbrella's supposed to go. This was with my zoom lens probably only 5 feet away from the table.

My favorite PRO

So my favorite professional photographer happens to be a French guy......Robert Doisneau. His specialty was everyday life in the Paris streets....and he shot in black and white. This first photo is probably one of his most famous...."Le Baiser de L'Hotel De Ville"....The Kiss @ City Hall. I love the candid simplicity of what he captured in his photos. When we were in Paris....one of our souvenirs was a book of his photos that you could take apart and frame. These following shots are hanging around the family room in the basement. I love them.....it's an everyday inspiration when I go downstairs. Would you believe me if I told you these are all actually photographs I took of the photos in their frames on the wall? Yeah....my camera is totally amazing.

Branching out

I figured I'd start a separate blog for all my artsy-fartsy photos and leave the other one just for updates about Chloe in her corner of the world. I'm having a lot of fun with my camera and editing shots in photoshop so maybe I'll start sharing more of them with anyone who wants to read/view.





I took this photo this summer with my longer lens. The sun was just off to the left and I actually shot this without looking through the viewfinder holding the camera down below hip level so the angle would be looking up. I tweaked it a little in Photoshop with the diffuse glow distortion filter and the accented edges brush strokes filter. I also increased the color saturation just a tad to make the sky look slightly bluer.