Aww Yes, The Cars...

Some of the cars from Peach Days I edited for some Grandson's for Christmas this year...

Greeting Cards

Adding some scrapbook features to a photograh makes wonderful

Holiday greetong cards...

Finding your pictures in a picture

I've heard many people describe the same type of thing that I feel, about photography.
Once you start to look at life through a camera's lens, you see pictures everywhere, and you always take a camera with you, for those 'that would be a great picture' things.

Here is one of those great picture places...then again I like to find the picture that is always in the picture, waiting to come out...
It might be in a pencil sketch... 

Adobe Elements 5

Some new thing you find while learning your photo programs...

Adobe Elements 5

Then you find the perfect picture that was in there, waiting for you to discover it...

Photomatix Pro HDR

Take your camera with you for those times you *see* something other's may not notice.

Finding The Old House

I absolutely L-O-V-E finding the pictures in the picture!!

Before leaving the shoot with Amber and Colby, I had to have a picture of just the house, it is one of those things that calls to the deep part of me, I don't know why, but I always try to answer when it does. I have never been disappointed yet.

Then when its time to relax and do pictures for myself, I play with them in the different programs until I find the one that I was *seeing* through the lens when I took the picture in the first place...

This one is nice, but I felt like it was to dark, not what I was looking for. I think it has sort a forlorn feel to it.

Grunge wasn't it either...

This one seemed closer, it has that over the river and through the woods' feel about it. Like you should be singing on the way to Gramma's house...

Mmmm...nope.

Nice, but still not what I wanted to feel from it.

Then I thought I found it in a painted version...

It wasn't until I did the "Depth Of Field" adjustment that I found the picture in the picture that I wanted.

Since the house had a magical sort of feel to me when I saw it, that was what I was looking for in the finished memory...

All it's missing is the Fairy Dust...

( I will add that from my photo scrapbooking stuff ).

I aways seem to have to try one in black and white too,

sometimes they are thee perfect look.

What I'm trying to put across is this;
Don't be afraid to play with your pictures to find the photograph that you envisioned capturing. You will like some, you will hate some, but hopefully you will become friends with your photo program and L-O-V-E your images and memories.

Amber & Colby

Amber & Colby Introduced me to a place where I'm sure dreams can come true, it was almost like a fairy tale.

It was a little cold out but hey managed to stay warm.

They are such a cute couple.

Thank you for allowing me to share in your joy.

Running & Running

The weather was to beautiful to stand still for long.

Catching a fast little one while she was running and running sure kept me on my toes!

We all had fun-Thank you!

There It Is

A lot of the time when you take a picture, you are not able to have as clean of a background as you would like. Some times this can be a big problem...

The idea is to get it as "clean" as possible using your camera, but sometimes you will need a photo program to help find the Photograph in the picture...

For all of these edits I used Corel PaintShopPro Photo X2

I will start with the SOOC (straight out of camera) picture first...

In this photo I wanted to clean up as much as I could to be able to show the car.
So I used the "copy" application to remove the people, coolers, sticker in the neighbor car's window and the shadow from the car in the lower right. And cropped it to the size I wanted to use for printing. 

Next I did a "vivid" photo effects action and added a border the same color as the car, signed it and Viola!

 I did the same things to this next car as well...

While I like this next picture, I wasn't thrilled to have all my kayakers going in different directions...and it seemed to dark for the time of day it was....

So I took it into the paintshop and adjusted the color, then used a clarify action, cropped it, added a border to match the kayak, signed it and was happy with the photograph that I found in the picture.

I took a few pictures this Summer in an early morning rain storm and I was not to thrilled with them. But knowing I could play with them some I went looking for the photograph hidden in the pictures...

First thing I did was get rid of the rain gutter hose! Next was to color adjust, clarify brought out the rain on the umbrella the way I had wanted, then I added a border to match the umbrella and added a quote, bumped it with a drop shadow...and now there is a scrap book worthy photograph...

This last one had a horrid background with a precious pose, and it played down the bright blue of her eyes... So back to the shop to find the portrait within...

First I found the portrait I was looking for and cropped. Next came removing the chocolate from her forehead and the corner of her mouth and then I removed the digital camera noise, adjusted the temperature of the color to cloudy, then sharpened it, and ran a "vivid" in effects. Her eyes were a little to bright so I used the "burn" tool to deepen them...

I thought about running a black and White edit, but I couldn't bring myself to loose her bright eye's...



So whether you have an art picture, a poster, or a portrait you want to find a little more in...don't be afraid to edit it to find the photograph you "saw" through the lens of your camera!

Now lets go capture some fun and if you have any questions leave a comment or email me at angelchaps1959@hotmail.com

Take It To Their Level

When photographing, especially children and babies, it is a very good idea to take it to their level.

It is less intimidating for them, and, they seem to relax often helping you get better pictures, which makes everyone happy.

Again you may need to lay on the floor, squat, sit, or kneel down.

It will be worth it an I think you will like the angle of being at their level...

Happy practicing!!!

Camera Angles-from below

I thought I'd take a couple posts and talk a little about your camera angle's. Because you will get very different results from this one very important idea.

Some times the angle of the picture is the most important thing a photographer can add to a portrait.

For instance if you have a tall building in the back ground that you want to show more than the things closer to the ground.

Or trees, or trellis, etc. 

Some of the choices for the lower angle could include,
kneeling, sitting on a chair,

sitting on the ground, laying down.

Or using things close by.

A bench to lay on, a fountain to prop on...

One very important caution to always remember is this:

Avoid taking pictures to close from below...

 A nose is sooo not flattering from that angle!

This angle may also add boldness to a pose.

Make a person look taller, stronger, a little imposing...
The angle you want may be slight, or it may be strong.

 

So depending on what "look" you are going for,

this may be the angle you may want to try.