The whole shootin’ match.
Here’s a close-up of something I see several times every day when I’m home and standing in front of the toilet–every day when I’m shaving or brushing my teeth. Sharply focused and free of graininess it looks completely mundane, because it is. So I gave the close-up an artsy, filmic feel. Why not?
“I learn by going where I have to go…” –Roethke
Canon G11 learning where to go.
In September 2009 our beloved cat, Alice, passed away. She was fortunate to have lived at least nine lives having made it to the ripe old age of 24 1/2. Alice was with us since she was a wee kitten so for nearly a quarter of a century she graced us with her ever sweet and sociable presence. These are the stones that mark the spot where we buried her in the back yard.
I blended in a black and white layer (Nik Silver Efex) and overlayed the merged layers with the original, unaltered layer using the “color” menu selection in the layer palette.
Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM at 300mm. 1/80 second at f/5.6. Tripod.
Canon T2i remembering Alice.
This is the front entrance to the local Catholic church. I’m not the religious type, but I can appreciate the architecture–and in this case, the available light. The outside light is from street lamps and the inside is from tungsten sources (I think). No Photoshop tricks here, just a straight black and white conversion and a bit of cropping on the sides.
Lens: Canon EFS 15-85mm at 28mm. ISO 800 (it was almost totally dark out and the 15-85 is a slow lens), f/5.0, 1/4 sec (handheld and not breathing 😉 ). Black and white conversion: Nik Silver Efex.
Canon T2i peering in at night.
Day off play with the G11 and Photoshop. The image is of the bottom of our unused patio fire pit. I’m also posting the original to show the difference from capture to post. I used a variety of Photoshop layering “tricks” for dramatic effect. First, I converted the image to black and white using the Nik Silver Efex plugin. In Niks I boosted both the contrast and structure to pump up the details. I then added some vignetting (a current addiction) to push the visual focus toward the center of the image. Once I had the Nik layer, I duplicated the original layer, move it above the Nik layer and set it to “overlayed” at 100%. This move radically pumps up the color and contrast. I merged the overlayed layer into the Nik layer and then used the Photoshop “Shadow/Highlight” image adjustment filter to pump up the shadow detail. I did a little extra stuff on each of the moves, but figure those are “to taste.”
Below is the straight from the camera shot. All I did to it was resize to fit the blog format.
BTW, It took a lot longer to make this blog post than it did to create the image.
Canon G11 playing in the yard.
Feeling lazy today, and rather uninspired. Towards the end of the day, I pulled out the G11, set it on “macro” and roamed around my soggy yard looking for a subject. Everything is either still dormant or in transition except for a couple of mustard plants. I took a couple of shots, picked one and went to work tweaking. This is the result.
Canon G11 on a lazy Sunday.