Sonel’s Corner Photo-Editing Challenge: Nature

Good morning from a cloudy Hastings Boxing Day.  Some will still be celebrating Christmas Day so I will still wish you a Merry Christmas.  My day yesterday was spent quietly with my parents and then skyping family.

Now it is back to some challenges.  I am so happy to see Sonel back with a new challenge –Sonel’s Corner Photo-Editing Challenge.  Her  split toning challenge was the first I took part in and it taught me a lot about photo editing.  So now the challenge has been broadened to include all areas of editing.  Right up my alley now.  It is sooooo much fun to play around with images.  They may just be so so but with editing you can add the wow factor.

These photos were taken yesterday in my mother’s garden.  I couldn’t help myself even on Christmas Day.  Actually it is a routine that when we visited her we had to go on a tour of her garden.  But she has been rather sick lately so that both the tours and her garden has been neglected.  So it was nice to see her out in her garden and showing me around.

I did quite a lot of editing last night and some of them went crazy when I uploaded them onto ViewBug.Com.

These have all been edited with FX Photostudio Pro.  I just upload the image and then go through the different filters to see what I like and what suits it.  As you can see I tend to use the vignettes a lot.  Mostly the black one.  I find that a lot of my photos are of flowers in the centre of the image.  So by using the vignette I really bring  the focus to the flower and the background really fades away.

I chose these ones for the different filters I used.

So enjoy the rest of your Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

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Judges Favourite

Good morning from a sunny but dodgy looking Hastings.

I am so excited.  This morning, Black Friday, is a good morning for me.  I have just checked my emails and found that I had won an award with this photo on the website http://www.viewbug.com.  I was totally surprised to get a Judges Favourite award.  WOW.  I am totally overwhelmed that this was my first ever competition and among thousands of photos this one was picked out.

I want to thank Sonel and Amanda ♥ Unique So Chic for their encouragement in the Split Toning Challenge.  This was one of the photos I edited for that challenge.

This has made my day before it has even started.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: one Item or the Number One

 

Good morning from a grey Hastings morning.  Yes it does rain here.

I love the photos from Cee’s Photography  – Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge and

  have decided to take up this challenge today.  These photos were taken yesterday at Cornwall Park.  My daughter is about to finish school and had the afternoon off to prepare for her graduation dinner last night so we went down to the park to  feed the ducks before going out for last minute shopping for shoes and makeup as you do with teenagers.

So here is my offering for the challenge.

Mandarin Orange Monday 66

Good morning from another sunny Hastings morning.

This is the first time I have entered this challenge – Mandarin Orange Monday.  Technically speaking it is Tuesday here, but it is still Monday in the United States so I will still be in time. I love the work of LorikArt and thought about what I could do this morning.

I started off with three images.

I then turned to FX Photostudio Pro to turn them orange with the Groovy Lo- Fi filters and a couple of others.  I just go with the flow with them anyway so really couldn’t say what I used.  The end result was these three photos.

Then it was over to Photoshop to turn the buttons and the rope into PNG images and then pasted them onto the background.  I just went for something totally abstract that has absolutely no rhyme or reason.  Just the idea of improving my editing skills.

Finally I adjusted the colour to make it more of a mandarin colour.

Sonel’s Split-toning challenge – animals

Good morning from a coolish Hastings today.

This week’s challenge from Sonel’s Corner Split-Toning Photo Challenge is animals.  We don’t have any pets but I am always looking around for any animals – feathered or furred to take photos of.

 

This is the original photo of a neighbour’s cat taken in our backyard.

Using both Photoshop and FX Photostudio Pro I used a vignette to get rid of the grass around the cat and then enhance the cat itself.

Using the colour filters is a lot of fun.

I loved this challenge and how it can completely change the photos into something new.

Having fun with FX Photostudio Pro

 

Good morning from a sunny Hastings.  WE have a long weekend this weekend.  Today is a public holiday for us as it is our anniversary day and then Monday is Labour Day.  Traditionally it is the time to plant your veggies for the year.  That I will avoid.

Anyway thanks to Sonel and Amanda ♥ Unique So Chic I am learning so much about photo editing.  I headed to the app store and downloaded FX Photostudio Pro.  Well, what a lot of fun.  I have always wondered how to get the frame affects and now I have them.  The affects are amazing.  I have also joined an online camera club – view bug.com.  This is an incredibly positive club where only positive comments are given – you get points for liking and faving other photos and generally encourage them.  There are contests to enter as well.  But these photos are getting well received.  In two weeks I have received over 800 likes and 150 peer recognitions.  It really does make you feel that you want to learn more as well.  Anyway there are quite a few photos today as I have just had so much fun it was hard to stop.  I go out and take photos which I love, but then what do you do with them afterwards?  Have fun editing of course.

 

I have found my roses to be really popular with a lot of likes and peer recognitions.

 

These two photos were of an unusual seed pod of some flowers I had taken before.  They were just amazing and of course made for some awesome affects.

 

Lines are amazing for photo editing.

 

The first photo is a reflection at Cornwall Park.  This is with the marine filter and it really gives a depth to the photo, while the other is the charcoal sketch filter.  I love the creativity of the filters and how it can completely transform an average photo and really lift it.

 

The sepia toning is good on this app as well.  I love the G & A frame on this which gives an old postcard or photo look to it.

Finally this is the photo that everyone seems to like.  There are two sepia filters with this app.  The other sepia photo above was the aged photo toning but this one was with the sepia filter itself.  I am not sure as I can’t really remember how I got to this, but I think I changed it to black and white first, before adding the sepia filter.  The colour photo was good, but the toning and editing have really brought out the rays of light and added depth to the photo.

So have fun with photo editing.

 

Split toning with Sonel’s Corner – Change of season

 

Good evening from a very windy and gusty Hastings.

I have just spent some time playing around with these leaves that I had shot back in the autumn.

This is the first change of colour via the colour gradient.

Brown, but it didn’t have the texture I wanted with the leaves.

The next adjustment with the gradient map turned it green with more texture.

I played around with the colour adjustment to see if I could increase the contrast.

Then back to the gradient map for the more contrast.

 

For something different I added the magenta colours.

 

Finally I used one of the filters to just give it a colourful centre, which gives the affect of an inner glow.

I should add that to start with I used the poster edge filter just to strengthen the lines.

The end result is so totally different to the beginning.  But that is all part of the fun.

 

 

 

 

Having fun with Photoshop filters and split toning

 

Good morning from a grey Hastings day.

Last night I had a lot of fun playing around on Photoshop with the filters and split toning. I have been overwhelmed by all the support from everyone –Sonel’s Corner , Amanda ♥ Unique So Chic, Lorik andladysighs.  I do appreciate all the feedback and it inspires me to take things further.

My post today has an Art Deco feel to it as that is what is around me.  What is so wonderful about Art Deco is the shapes and designs they used.  Items weren’t just to be functional such as these street lights, but they were to be enjoyed for their beauty and design elements.

 

These bike stands are a modern addition but I loved the way that they are actually bikes as well.

 

Even doors are decorative.

 

Lights figure significantly around Hastings.  Even adding an Art Deco feel to this modern building.

 

This ball is right in the centre of the CBD.  My daughter was telling me how she would use this image but I am afraid that my skills aren’t up to her level on Photoshop.  Plus she has PS6.  Totally different to what I have.

 

We also have a lot of houses predating the Art Deco period.  This just caught my eye as I walked past.

 

What I like about photo manipulation is that the backgrounds can be changed so as to change the focus onto the main subject in the front so that it is not so distracting.

 

I liked the texture of this rope but felt that there was too much contrast.  This is the end result.

 

I was fascinated by these crystals in a lighting shop.  I want to work on this a bit more just to see if I can make the shapes stronger.

 

Finally I couldn’t resist this green leaf.  It just screamed out for filters.

I couldn’t tell you what filters I used as I just went with what I liked.  That is what is so good about modern digital photography.  The possibilities are endless.  So have fun trying it out.  Just make sure you have some time to spare.

Cheers and have a nice day,

Raewyn

 

Split toning with Sonel’s Corner and Unique So Chic

 

Good morning from a windy Hastings day.

I love photo manipulation.  I have done photography for about 30 or so years.  While I lived in Austria I joined a camera club and got into it seriously.  Especially in the dark room.  I loved seeing images come alive and it was like going into a Tardis,  time didn’t matter.  Anyway I experimented with manipulating images with different papers and techniques.  This photo above is a self portrait.  I had loads of filters for my camera and the original of this was actually a photo of me at my sister’s wedding where I was her bridesmaid.  I just liked the way that I looked up just as the photo was taken.  So I used a macro filter on the lens to magnify it to make a larger portrait size.  It didn’t matter that it wasn’t sharp as I was going for a very soft look anyway.  The trouble with the dark room days is the time and paper used to get the right feel.  I used quite of bit of paper just to get the right feel.  Then it was sepia toned.  For the colour I used special photo paints to highlight the red.  As you can tell it was very longwinded and lots of wastage.  I entered this into a competition for the German magazine Fotomagazine and I came in 19th.  The brief was Nostalgia.  I based this on some old photos that my parents had taken of them just  after they got married where the photos were black and white but had been painted to give a coloured feel.  Actually the painting was really obvious, especially around the mouthes and eyes.

Fast forward to 2013 and digital photography and computer programmes.  What a difference.  What used to take days and lots of paper is now just a click and the images change before your eyes.  It is another click to get rid of the affects if you don’t like them.  Anyway I have just read  Amanda ♥ Unique So Chic‘s blog on split toning so I thought I would give it a go.  She has entered this photo challenge  at Sonel’s Corner.

I started by googling split toning and trying to follow instructions but I couldn’t manage to use the layers for some unknown reason so then I just used the colour enhancement tools from the top.  This way I was able to alter the highlights, shadows or mid tones without having to go through the individual layers.

 

This is the first photo I tried to manipulate.

Don’t ask me what I did.  I just went by the look.

By accident I discovered that I could create a shadow affect of movement.

This is a native fern of New Zealand and I was interested in the highlights.

Which you can see here, I tried to make the fern really stand out from the background.

 Again I just went by the look but wanted to keep the colours more neutral.

My third attempt.

I went for two totally different looks.  The first photo really emphasises the raindrops while the second one they fade away a bit.

 

My last attempt before I gave up for the night.

 

Obviously I focused more on a natural tone for the first one, while I pumped up the green for the second.

By this stage I was ready for bed.  It was fun though, I also discovered a lot more filters as well which gave some interesting affects such as this one.

 

This one I think took the longest to get the affect I wanted.  Which was to really show off the lilac petals but fade out the background a lot more.  I love the fact that with one photo you can create so many different affects and actually completely different images.  Without all the chemicals and papers.  Soooo much fun.

Cheers and have a nice day.