Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Ann 37/100 - Marilyn

Marilyn was grabbing a quick lunch at the next table to me. Told her to keep eating but had the usual problem of not being able to focus. The only ones in focus are when she's still. The ones I wanted to use are blurred. Wanted to try and erase the red pole on the right but can't find anything in the programs I've got (Picassa, Zoom browzer Ex which is the Canon one, and HP Image Zone Plus) - any suggestions or do I need to give in and get Photoshop?

Sharpened shot for comparison (no other adjustments)

Ann: trusting the tribe to play the ball not the man, conjures images out of the misty smoke of the fire blazing in the centre of the ring of teepees:


Julie: rises to her haunches beside the fire and feels the powerful magic in her palm; as the Big Chief of the Apache Nation smiles benignly - toothache does that to a man - she tosses the tribal crystals into the blazing fire ... and Geronimo:

13 comments:

Julie said...

Show us the one(s) that you wanted to use even though they are blurry. I am interested in finding out what you were after. What did you try to show? What was going through your head compositionally? I will ignore the quality of the image - trust me.

Julie said...

Personally, I would not get either PS Elements or PS itself. What about that freebie that Peter keeps banging on about: Aperture? Does it have an eraser tool, Peter?

Another thing Peter: these images that we take, are we able to break them down into component layers?

bitingmidge said...

No, not Aperture (that's an Apple product) - the freebie is GIMP.

I continue to recommend PS Elements and a good book (there are heaps of them) to people who are a lot less proficient than we, and have only had grateful thanks thus far.

It won't fix photos for you though, you will have to learn what to do when, and therefore it may not suit your own aspirations.

I found that I was able to rescue some marginal images, and improves some that were just not quite right, and that led me to the slippery slope of shooting in RAW and processing everything!

I like this pic!

bitingmidge said...

This pic is a great example of how a minimal amount of work can turn a marginal shot into a good one. Without playing with the background it just needs a little sharpening.

Sharpening won't fix any bits that are out of focus, but if it's only just out, it will give better definition.

Check the chain, glasses, knuckles etc and see what you think.

bitingmidge said...

Julie, what do you mean "component layers"?

With something like Elements, you can create identical layers, then modify each one if you wish. ie take the back ground out or whatever.

Julie said...

I only half know what I am talking about here - often the case as my kids will attest!

Will Elements break my own image into the layers that make it up was what I meant. It must be able to if I can duplicate a layer erase something then put it back in again. I only work with one layer not with the entire set of layers ... mm ... cannot explain it through lack of knowledge ...

Ann said...

It definitely makes a difference, didn't occur to me to sharpen. Will have a look at the others tonight. Not really sure what I was after, something like chopsticks with food half way to her mouth, I think.

Julie said...

Yes, yes, good ... that is what I was hoping you might have been after ... I have been trying to have the guts to get one of them ... yesterdays was the closest I have come ... then I want them to look at me above their glasses and either look quizzical or give me a wink ... hah ... that would be kool ...

Ann said...

No 3 is probably closest to what I was trying to do but the background is messy. No 4 is nice but not what I was trying to get.

Julie said...

Okay ... had a go at that one ... in my own unique way ...

Ann said...

That works, maybe with a bit of sharpening as well. Still finding it hard to get my head around post production being so anti for such a long time.

Julie said...

Me so too ... cropping is just not something I routinely think to do. I guess my head says that is "cheating". I should just take the photo properly to begin with.

However, this project is teaching me the stupidity of that approach. Now I am even thinking about the light and not just cropping out background noise, but also thinking about how to get the photo to have more visual impact by cropping in a left-field type of way.

bitingmidge said...

It's been a while since I've made this speech, and I hope you don't think it's the old broken record going off again:

All digital photographs are post-processed by the camera before you get to see them.

RAW format is a recording of data as captured, so that it can be processed in much the same way as a negative comes out of a camera and needs to be printed. All other formats coming out of the camera (JPEG) have been processed to an extent, like a Polaroid if you will.

The camera has made the decision on how much sharpening to apply, what colour balance to use and so on. In "portrait" mode, it will apply less sharpening and a softer colour for better skin tones for example.

Now the good bit is that unlike Polaroids even with JPEG's there's enough data to re process to an extent.

So it's quite OK not to post process, lots of people had albums full of perfectly acceptable polaroids, but don't think it's cheating if you do.

As for cropping, well the more you crop, the better you get at framing pictures I reckon, until the two meet. I'm getting into the habit of allowing a "border" or cropping zone rather than trying to get it exactly right, and while I don't crop every shot, it wouldn't bother me if I did!