Junta Portrait

This is a photo of Junta that I took a while back.  He is Japanese and the son of a friend.  He was born special, but he is one of the happiest children you will ever meet.

I took this photo while we were out in Yokohama at a stage festival.

Creek Edited

Creek Original

I finally got out and took some photos this past weekend. I had been making the excuse that I didn’t have any material to take pictures of. I woke up that morning and told myself that I would take a picture of whatever I saw.

I stumbled on this view while driving. Keeping up with my Photoshop learning, I wanted to use it to make this photograph ‘pop’.

I didn’t focus so much on cropping and other adjustments, I simply attempted to make the edited version pop more than the original. Here is what I got!

Here are the steps that I followed. They were pretty easy, and I think with further practice, I should be able to do this one without following the guide.

1. Convert to the LAB color space
2. Curves
3. Steepen A and B channels symetrically by bringing in the endpoints of each curve toward the center equally. After this, the curve (line actually) will still cross the center horizontal center at the vertical center. Start out by experimenting with bringing in each end point between 10% and 20%.
4. Establish light and dark points by moving the endpoints of the L curve inwhard. Optionally, steepen the L curve through the areas where the detail is of most interest.
5. Activate only the L channel
6. USM, trying the values 200, 1.0, 10

Enjoy this photo? Leave a comment and I will shoot you the full version of it.

Get out there and take photos!

First run at Photoshop.

Original

Credit goes to Rutt at Digital Grin!

Well, I finally took the plunge.  I believe that a photo that is great without any editing, is a great photo.  The more you edit a photo, the less real it is.  While seeking opinions and watching feedback on others, it has always been apparent that some type of editing skills were needed to be considered a decent photographer.  I have taken some photos that needed a little more work than some basic light tweaking or cropping.  I have finally realized that Photoshop could have helped in those situations.

I took a fresh photo of my son while playing in the backyard, and decided that it was a decent candidate.  I fished out a tutorial from the web and found one on my favorite photography forums, Digital Grin.  It was a step by step to “Fix flat looking faces”.  Me being me, I have no idea how to use Photoshop, and I have never read any books, so I followed the steps, which took a while, but I eventually got it.  I think.  The author of the thread noted that this worked primarily for light colored individuals, so my image came out a little darker than I would have wanted, but I THINK I got the picture.  If anything, I learned how to manipulate the software a little.

Check the link for the step by step.  I will post here for the quick fix people.  :)

1. Start in RGB
2. Make a duplicate layer
3. Apply image, green channel to RGB composite of duplicate layer, resulting in a black and white image.
4. Change blending option of duplicate layer to Luminosity.
5. Flatten image
6. Move to LAB
7. Curves, steepen A+B channels, move light endpoint of the L curve a touch toward darkness.
8. Sharpen the L channel.
9. Back to RGB, Done!

Let me know what you got!

Cherry Blossom in Yokohama, Japan

This photo is one of my Favorites.  I was due to leave Japan after living there for 8 years.  I woke up one day and realized that I had not really taken a picture of a scene or place in Japan.  I needed something to remember it by.  I knew I would regret it later if I never got a chance to return.

I chose a location that we frequented a lot for the photo.  That place was Negishi Park in Yokohama.  We took our dogs there for walks a lot, and my son played at the park there almost daily.  I took many shots that day, and this is the one that I really loved.

My wife looks at it every now and then when she gets homesick.

A little creepy isn't it?

This is a photo of one of Tyler’s friends.  They were going through a tunnel slide and I decided to take pictures as they were coming down.  This one reminds me of Michael Myers from Halloween for some reason.  I think it is the hair.