Bits&Pieces

Fun with photos

I'm fairly certain most of you lovely blog readers are also readers of the fabulous Pioneer Woman website (and if you're not, stop reading this right now, go click that link, and spend a few days immersed in the fun and frolic that is life on the prairie with Ree. I guarantee you it will be worth your while. The girl's got mad writing/cooking/photography skillz.)

And with a recent website overhaul, there's way more goodness to choose from, including a recent set of free actions featuring some of her coolest processes. Because I've decided to become a better post processor in '08, I decided to play with a few of the actions last night, and the photo you see above is one of the super processed results. But I'm kind of digging it, because it started like this:

I know what you're thinking... drab-o-rama (no offense, Aidan, darling, but your mother CLEARLY has issues understanding exposure.)

Now I do realized the better the photo is to start with, the better the result. You know, crap in, crap out? But actions are fun to play with. I combined several of Ree's actions to make the end result above.

I also took a photo that I think I posted here before, that was actually good to start, and made it a bit better. Here's Nana before, with the closest to perfect exposure that I ever get:

And here's after applying the PW Fresh and Lovely actions, and the Slight Sharpen:

WOW! Now that is a difference you can HARDLY SEE!

But still... who's a good dog? WHO's a good dog?

So go download actions and play. There's lots of help for those of you who might be new to actions, and also, even help if you use Photoshop Elements.

Happy Tuesday.

well since you asked so nicely

Okay, maybe you didn't ask, but Trude did…yesterday, in the comments. She asked about my lighting set up for the Lincoln/Amish shot of Dan. And here's the thing: i have no lighting set-ups anymore. None. I shoot in terrible light. I get terrible results, and then I rely on my few sets of Photoshop actions to save the day.

Case in point: The Original Shot (heretofore referred to as the SOOC, because it makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about.)

I know. Ewwww! So there he is, sitting in my kitchen, under incandescent light, and I think I shot this at 1600 ISO, 4.5 aperature, using my partially broken 28-105mm Nikkor lens that barely can focus. Grainy. Flat. Blah. This is what MOST of my photos taken indoors tend to look like these days. (Although, when it's the kids in the shot…less facial hair.)

I did a few things to this shot. First, hit it with Auto Levels in Photoshop. Now I KNOW this is a really sucky way to fix things, but… I knew I was going to run some Actions that would quite possibly save the day. The Actions I ran on the shot are from Kubota Image Tools (I'm fairly certain I have the Artistic Tools Volume 2 pacakage). I used the Modern Antique action to make it look older, and then a Starburst Vignette action, to darken the area around him, and make him stand out more. {and i just realized I ran a Sharpening action, too, and tweaked the levels just a bit.} The end result? Lincoln in the Amish Country.

My goal this year is to become better at both taking photos and post-processing photos. To hell with realism, that's my motto. One thing I'm looking into is possibly purchasing a new lens for my camera (I am still using a Nikon D200) or… possibly changing cameras altogether.

However, I've been recently very inspired by The Pioneer Woman's blog, seeing that she too, is a Nikon user, and makes beautiful photographic magic. If she and other Nikon users can do it, why not me?

Now I have to go! Dan needs help churning the butter.