Tag Archives: Digital Imaging

Overlays and Blends

Part One: Text Overlay

Before-1

After-2

Specs & Process: S 2nd East and Main Street, Rexburg, Idaho; April 24, 2011 4:30 pm f/2.8 Shutter: 1/800 Cannon Powershot SX120 IS

It took me about 10 minutes to enhance this shot. I seperated my subject, Elizabeth, on a seperate layer and applied a black and white adjustment to the background. I used the sponge tool to desaturate some of the nooks & cranies in her hair to match the background. With a simple star brush I painted the stars in on their own layer and applied a title overlay on the top. The font is Moonlight Shadow and is available on Dafont.com.

Part Two: Blending

In this exercise, I will take two photographs I took and blend them together in Adobe Photoshop.

Before-2A

Before-2B

After-2

Specs & Process:

A: Ricks Building South Wall; May 1, 2011, 12:31 p.m. f/2.8 Shutter: 1/640 Canon Powershot SX120 IS

B:Manwaring Center Street Parking, May 1, 2011; 12:17 p.m. f/8.0 Shutter: 1/200 Canon Powershot SX120 IS

I chose a black and white adjustment that really accented the steel and chrome of the truck to give it maximum contrast. I then took the brick texture, laid in over top with an overlay blending mode. I used a mask and a textured brush to take out the brick. I finished it off with the burn tool to add a sort of custom drop-shadow behind the brick.

Seeing Red

One

Two.

Three

Four

One. Ricks Gardens, May 1, 2011 F/ 2.8 Shutter: 1/250 ISO 80 Canon Powershot SX120 IS

Using the burn tool I added a little contrast around the pot. I also added a little saturation to bring some of the red out in the pot.
Two.   First West, First South, Rexburg, ID, May 1, 2011 F/ 8.0 Shutter: 1/125 ISO 100 Canon Powershot SX120IS

Using the clone tool I removed a power line that stretched from a poll (hidden by the stop sign) off-camera in the upper right hand corner. The setting sun helped bring out a lot of the colors.

Three. Ricks Building, BYU-Idaho, May 1, 2011 F/2.8 Shutter: 1/400 ISO 80 Canon Powershot SX120 IS

I think fire hydrants are some of the most photogenic inanimate, ordinary objects there are. I used a curves adjustment to darken the shadows, increasing contrast.


Four. Manwaring Center Catering Parking Lot, May 1, 2011 F/8.0 Shutter: 1/160 ISO 80 Canon Powershot SX120IS

There was a weird line across the hood near the wiper blades that I smudged out (it looked like a bad layer cut). I also played with the contrast by adjusting the levels pallet. The goal was to enhance the red but not lose the darker feel of the shot.

Cut Out

Before

Partial Cut Out

Full Cutout

Rexburg, ID; April 15, 2010 8:24 p.m. f/2.8 Shutter: 1/8 Cannon Powershot X120 IS Flash fired with red-eye reduction.

Process:  Used quick selection tool to create selections; Used clone stamp to reduce shine of flash on apple.

Before . . .

A sampling of pre-COMM 262 work.

1. Ry-Smile

2. Hydrant

3. Welcome to Driggs

4. Ry so serious

5. Fire Sky

6. Revis Family Annoyance

7. Ryleigh Blue Eyes

1. Ry-Smile

St George Temple; April 16, 2010 6:29 p.m. f/2.8 1/160 Sony DSC-S750 natural lighting

Minor adjustments in Photoshop: curves preset to enhance contrast and cropping to strengthen rule of thirds.

2. Hydrant

Spori Building Fire Hydrant; February 4, 2010 1:22 p.m. f/5.6 Shutter: 1/200 Sony DSC-S750 natural light

Minor adjustments in Photoshop: custom curves adjustment to slightly increase saturation and contrast; composition is unchanged. The white snow behind the hydrant creates a cutout effect. This picture was taken as part of a COMM 130 photo assignment.

3. Welcome to Driggs, Idaho

Highway 33 near Driggs, Idaho; August 6, 2010 5:04 p.m. f/2.8 Shuttter: 1/200 Sony DSC-S750 natural light

Minor adjustments: curves preset to slightly enhance contrast; cropping to enhance composition- so the primary swirl in the clouds crosses at rule of thirds intersections.

This picture was taken while driving between Victor and Driggs, Idaho moments before the world’s largest rain drops began pelting our car.

4. Ry So Serious

St. George Temple Grounds, 4/16 6:31 p.m. f/2.8 Shutter: 1/100 Sony DSC-S750 natural light

Cropped to reformat for blog; original composition maintained.

5. Fire Sky

BYU-Idaho Campus; July 13, 2010 5:56 p.m. f/5.6 Shutter: 1/1250 Sony DSC-S750 natural light

Minor adjustments: curves preset to increase contrast; cropped to strengthen rule of thirds

6. Revis Family Annoyance

St. George Temple Grounds; April 16, 2010 6:32 p.m. f/2.8 Shutter: 1/100 Sony DSC-S750 with natural lighting

Minor adjustmnets: curves custom adjustment to enhance contrast while maintaining detail (particularly in mother’s hair; slight cropping.

7. Ryleigh Blue Eyes

St. George Temple Grounds; April 16, 2010 6:42 p.m. f/2.8 Shutter: 1/100 Sony DSC-S750 with natural lighting

Minor adjustments: curves preset to enhance contrast. Added blur to keep Ryleigh’s ridiculously gorgeous eyes as the primary focus.

Now, Introducing . . .

Greetings, I’m James.

My wife and I live in Rexburg, Idaho. I’m finishing my degree in Communication–Public Relations Emphasis at Brigham Young University–Idaho.

I love ultimate Frisbee, social media, web content writing and development as well as using InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop (about in that order, too).

This blog is an attempt to move Photoshop and Photography in general up the scale a little bit. I’ll be learning some new techniques and splash my experiments up here.

Here we go . . .