http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/rss.php?w=new New Blogs in Chrysalis. en-us Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:11:45 +0100 Chrysalis RSS administrator@chaoticbeauty.co.uk http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=267 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=267 With these pics, two quotes, both from the book and movie "The Lovely Bones". "I had rescued the moment by using my camera and in that way had found how to stop time and hold it. No one could take that image away from me because I owned it.”"And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it." Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=266 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=266 This first section of PWDP is all about learning and applying colour control at various stages throughout a digital photographic workflow. At first glance it is a highly technical course, and if that is purely how the course is approached, then that is all it will be. But there are so many different elements involved. I spent most of my time during the past few months getting more familiar with Photoshop, and then applying the techniques I learnt during the first 8 projects, to my images. To guide me through this, I used various Photoshop manuals as well as online tutorials.Even though I spent most of my time during this section of the work on technical skills, I did not want to loose focus of the broader picture. To me, the broader picture is that this PWDP course will guide me not only through how to produce better images, but will help me shape my ideas and personal philosophy on image alteration and enhancement. Before I started this course, I had some ideas of how I felt about this. Social documentary is my passion - it is important for me to show the true. But having said that, I am easily enchanted by exceptional quality surreal (fantasy) art. And I realise that the two are on exact opposites of the scale from each other. And that is ok. I don’t feel that I should only focus on one area of photography at this stage. I also don’t feel that my mindset and philosophy over what is acceptable and what isn’t, using image alteration programs, has to be exceptionally rigid at this stage. Fluid is good, as I am still learning what is and what is not possible. Up to yesterday, my mindset has pretty much been to “keep natural natural” and to be as creative as possible with what is obviously surreal. And then I discovered Kelli Connell. And I realised again how easily that line is blurred for me at this stage, as her images are definitely natural and “real”, yet her entire approach is based on image alteration by using Photoshop to scan and manipulate two or more negatives to create a “believable situation” . Her work is reconstruction. It’s about creating a story. I relate well to that approach. I like story-telling through images, not purely from a narrative style, but through emotion, symbolism, and the underlying elements of an image. So, having discovered her work, I have not only gained an admiration and more inspiration, but I have realised once again how good it feels to have my boundaries pushed.With regards to this specific assignment, I chose the four different images in this set for specific reasons. There is a harmony in them all being nature shots. When we think of seasons and of change, we think of nature. The interior of a room changes colour when it is painted, but outside in nature, everything changes as the earth makes its orbit around the sun. It’s a natural process – so naturally that I often instinctively turn to nature to find evidence of these changes, which we call seasons. And during this project it was no different. While making decisions about what to shoot for this project, it was easy for me to imagine what something that actually exists would look like, and then to change the picture accordingly. I thought of how, what I was doing with Photoshop is similar to what actually happens in nature – changing colours from one to another. It wasn’t about creating something obscure that does not exist. And it wasn’t about changing the picture to colours that don’t exist naturally. It was a subtle and realistic process and end-result. If you look at the four different images I use in this project in the following order:PathReflectionLeafAbstract Dropsas a set, they go from a landscape, to a more intimate still-life scene, to a close –up, to an extreme abstract macro. It’s almost like an anatomical progression from Full Body, to Torso, to Close-Up, to extreme eyeball macro. Personally, I like this change in scope. I like the narrowing in and becoming more selective. I also like that the use of colour evolves, and becomes far more selective and intricately chosen/refined as the images progress through the selection.In Path, the colour change is meaningful and has quite an effect on the feel of the scene, but isn’t necessarily a realistic application if viewed up close. It’s a purely aesthetic change, and feels that way, too. But the colour change is effective in representing seasonal change.In Reflection, the change is similar, though the end result is far more “believable” as far as the entire scene goes, and begins to really feel like the 4 seasons - not just to the eye, but you can really start to feel it.In Leaf, the colours were meticulously chosen to be as realistic as possible and on inspection; each depiction of the leaf seems to have been chosen from the season which it represents.In Abstract Drops, the colours themselves become as important as the image, and are therefore exaggerated a bit beyond what might normally be found - particularly with winter. In such an abstract, limited scope of view, it falls almost entirely on the colours chosen to pass along the changing of seasons. Subtlety won’t do in that case - its presence needs to be unmistakably felt - the colours tapping into a more emotional level than the rest. And so by comparison, where we’re back to using colours that may not be considered “realistic” (just like in the first image) the final choices are considerably more profound, and feel like it.So as a whole, the set progresses, just like the seasons do. And the closer we get to the subject, the more intimately we examine, the deeper the connotation of colour and colour change becomes. All 16 images can be seen in the gallery. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=265 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=265 At different times during our lives we discover elements or phenomena,that has symbolic and deeper meaning to us. This happens. Ask anyone to name elements or artifacts, abstract or concrete that has meaning to them and you'll get a string of answers. So, as with anyone, I have those, too. I've shown some of them here before. I think part of the magick of photography is taking what is important to you, and presenting it in such a manner, that it might be interpreted by someone else, as important, too, on whatever level that might be.The ocean, beach, sea, as I have mentioned before has always had significant value to me. Partly because of where I grew up, partly because I feel it's so much part of who I am. And even though I adore any kind of traveling, and exploring new places, when I have a choice, I somehow always end up at the beach, or harbour, or somewhere near the sea. It's always been that way. It's as if it calls me. It's so huge and so vast, so powerful.And then there's snow. I didn't know snow until we moved to the UK 5years ago. And then it took a good two years before we experienced it in all it's glory. I still go slightly insane when it first starts. All the magick of watching it fall, wondering if it will settle, wondering how it will look in the morning, waking up to a snow covered life. . . playing in it, watching the kids and their carefree abandonment. It's like everyone is allowed to be playful again and the normal rules of what goes and what doesn't, is not as important as before. Until it's time to come inside and the entire house is filled with slushy wet clothes distributed over different areas of the house, to dry. . .So those are two of my "elements" that hold meaning to me on more than basic level. And one of my biggest dreams has always been to see those two together. I found it strange that no one had written poetry about it, or lyrics to some amazing song. . . there is no art that I can think of that portrays it. But since I was a little girl, I have imagined what it would be like to stand besides the ocean and see it being filled with snow. I know that is not what literally happens . . . but I've always wondered how it would feel, what the sounds would be like, what I would see . . . the smell. What it would look like when the snow flakes merge with the ocean, what the waves would do to it, how the surf would be different, how it would look when the waves wash out onto the freshly fallen snow. . . All of it. It's two such powerful elements merged.When I spent a few days in Sussex last month, it snowed just before we arrived. So I didn't get to see my dream, but I did see what the pebble beach looked like with snow remnants. Took a few pictures. But I know, one day I'll get to experience it. And I'll have the pictures to show for it. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=264 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=264 We had family over a few days ago and these were just some spur of the moment shots I did of their little girl. She's so adorable. I couldn't resist working with these. So here they are. Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=263 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=263 Just a little update, because I haven't done a journal entry in more than a week. I spent a couple of days away. Tried to get a few pics for various projects - worked on the sequence project for example, and no seagull in Sussex has gone unphotographed. I think I might have a few that I will use for the sequence, but I still have a few other ideas I'd like to try. I wanted to also get a bit of practice in with landscapes - some raw material to start playing with for assignment 4, and I think I got those. Also worked a little on other projects but I didn't get any real images that made me wild with excitement. Weather was crappy as could be expected, but I still enjoyed being out for a bit. Monday morning was really gorgeous. Even though the temp said 0 degrees Celsius, it felt much warmer - tshirt and hoodie weather. We spent the morning at the Harbour (if you can call it that) in Hastings, letting the puppy run wild, chasing seagulls, sometimes with them chasing him. There was no rain, no wind, no snow, and gorgeous sun - the birds making their little squawking noises, the smell of the ocean, the feel of sun . . . and the distant sounds of fisherman working on the few boats that were around. It reminded me how much I miss being out and how much I despise being cramped up at home for 6 months a year. I am so incredibly ready for winter to be over.Anyway . .. besides that, I worked very hard the past month on Projects for PWDP, and I posted many of them. I'm very pleased with my progress, and the idea is that now, for the following three months I will mostly be focusing on working on the skills I have already learnt and bettering them, as well as working on Assignment 2 and 3. Two I already have images for, although I'm not sure if I'm entirely satisfied with the idea I have so far. But more about that later. Assignment three is a written assignment, and I'm in the process of doing a large amount of research, searching through images, and reading books for the prep for this. I'm enjoying both of these processes a lot.I also received my feedback from my tutor for assignment one (which I still need to post) and I'm satisfied with it. I think I did well with the assignment, and that makes me smile because it was a real struggle for me at times. But I am much more interested and engaged in the sections after the First assignment, and that's really exciting.So that's it for now, from me. I'm currently reading "reGeneration: 50 photographers of tomorrow". It's about young photographers and what they're up to at the outset of the twenty-first century. I like the book, because we so often go back in history to see what the masters have done. But I think particularly with digital photography and image enhancement is concerned, it's important to look at the future as well, and what is possible, and which way photography can/ does go.  I am particularly taken with Katerina Drzkova's landscapes and how it questions the reality between  landscapes and representation. But once again, more about that later.I leave you with a seagull pic from Hastings. Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=262 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=262 In total, there are 7 different layers in this image (listed from bottom to top): the original image; a gently blurred copy of the original image; the wizard directly behind the gnome; the wizard on the far right and the faery in the teacup on the far left; the faery on the right side of the frame; the gnome; and the twin faeries on the left side of the frame.The gnome was the first layer created, as I had decided that I wanted this to be my focal point. I then made individual layers of the other sections of the image as I described above. After all of the different sections were made into their own layers, I began to "blur".I decided to work from the "focal plane" outwards, starting with the blue faery. I took the most care with this one, since parts of it are very close to being about the same distance from the lens as the gnome, while other parts (the wings and feet) are farther away. Instead of blurring that layer directly, I chose to copy the original layer, and blur it a small amount, placing it on top of the faery, but below the gnome. Then I went in with a very soft, low-opacity brush, and carefully masked away all of the parts in the image that were closer to my chosen focal plane, in varying degrees of opacity, so that some parts would be more crisp than others. After that was done, I continued outward, blurring each of the remaining sections, gradually increasing the amount of blur as the section increased in distance from the gnome.  Here are the final results: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=261 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=261 The aim of this project is to take an image of a familiar foodstuff, and then alter the principal colour in order to create something that just isn't normal.When I read this brief, I knew immediately where I wanted to go with it. There seemed to be no more logical choice of subject than the very same "strange food" that we all learned about in our childhood: Green Eggs and Ham. . . Or in this case, "Green Egg and Hamm" (the character from Toy Story).I used two different methods to change the colours in this image. For the egg, I used a Levels Adjustment Layer to change the colour of the egg to green. At first, I included the shell in this adjustment, but decided that it would be far more disturbing to crack open a normal looking egg and discover that they yolk inside was as green as a lime flavoured jelly baby. Also, the change didn't look very good on Hamm, so in the end I masked off the adjustment layer so that it only affected the yolk. I then used a Black & White Adjustments Layer with a strong green tint to make the changes to Hamm.  You can see them in a box (the white framed ones below). . . you can them with a fox (Firefox works best). . . you can with them with a mouse (scroll down). . . you can see them in your house. . . you can see them here or there. . . you can see them - Ok, ok. . . Here they are: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=260 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=260 I can't stand wide-angle portraits. But in the event that I am ever out with my wide-angle lens, and happen upon a moment where I don't have time to change lenses, and HAVE to take a portrait. . . I suppose this might come in handy. Having said that, if I ever have to use this method, it will likely be for non-portrait wide-angle shots that I am trying to tame down a bit.There really isn't much to this. Distort the image using the Pinch filter. It would have been easier if I could have convinced my 8 year old to stand near the wall, with a solid background, but I made do with what my model was willing to give me, and tried to get the blinds positioned behind her, with the intent to crop out most of the rest. I then opened it up in photoshop and made the changes.I think the Pinched version looks considerably better. It certainly wasn't difficult to do, but I did notice that I had to keep an eye on the overall proportions of her body as well, since she very quickly took on the look of a Tim Burton creation with her tiny little head. After applying the pinch, I noticed that the blinds on the side were a little weird. So to finish off this image, I cloned a small portion of blinds down to straighten it out. These are the results: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=258 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=258 The task in this project is to take a beautiful sunny day and give it a brooding, moody, stormy sky to play against the light and dramatic long shadows of a lowering sun. We were provided with an image to work with on this one, along with step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the look in the sample processed image. . . I took a few artistic liberties with it.Again, I chose to work with layers and masks to accomplish the task at hand. And I wound up with quite a lot before I was finished! I started out with the typical background copy. Then I made another copy of it, which I used to make adjustments to the sky.  Instead of just using Desaturate or Hue/Saturation to desaturate the sky, I chose to use a Black and White adjustment layer, because I like the little adjustments I'm able to make in the conversion of the tones to BW. This gave it a slightly more dramatic feel than a simple desaturation. I then followed the example and made the Hue/Saturation adjustments to the greens and yellows. But it didn't feel "broody" enough for me. And I didn't quite care for the 100% desaturated sky.  So I made a copy of the sky layer as it was to set aside as a backup, and decided to play with some blending modes. What I finally settled on was a Hue/Saturation adjustment to a copy of the original sky, then dropped the opacity on the BW layer, which made it even more dark and moody. Then I added a Levels Adjustment layer to adjust the overal feel of the image. I'm really happy with the final product, even though it is quite a bit different from the sample image given.But I didn't stop there. This project got me thinking. . . don't we have enough dark, cloudy days here? I wanted to reverse the process, and take a stormy sky and make it beautiful and blue. I didn't want to replace it with another sky or a gradient - I wanted to take UK's existing brand of specially patented, depression-inducing cloud, and turn it into something. . . anything else. So I chose this pic:Using the technique of creating a sky gradient from Project 18, I placed a new "sky" in it's own layer. I then made a selection of the clock tower and masked it out. I set this layer's blending mode to Screen in order to apply the colour to the existing sky. I then created another copy of the background image, and used the same mask from the sky layer to block out Big Ben. Finally I inverted that layer, to reverse the light/dark areas, and in turn, make the dark stormy clouds into the white fluffy ones shown here: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=259 http://www.chaoticbeauty.co.uk/Pages/Journal/blog.php?bid=259 Project 18: Gradient FilterThe point of this project is to swap out the existing sky for a fake, gradient sky. As far as methods go, it's about the same process as was used in Project 15: Adding a New Sky. But the point is to make a functional and realistic feeling sky using the gradient tool.The sky was created in a file by itself using the steps described in the brief, and then pasted into the other file as a layer. Again, the sky was placed behind the other layer. One of the main differences in the approach with this image is that a mask was used to knock out the existing sky, instead of a blending mode. This was a premeditated decision, and the shot was chosen for that reason. It has nice clean edges around the buildings. So the process was fairly easy to do using the magic wand tool, and then creating a quick mask from the selection. The edges of the mask were then refined using the mask dialogue box, and a small soft brush in just a couple of places. But I wasn't finished yet - I wanted to include the windows in the building on the left side of the frame. It wouldn't do to mask them out completely, because I still wanted it to feel like a reflection. So again, I used the magic wand tool to select all of the windows. When I had the selection, I switched over to the mask and filled the selection with 50% gray in order to reveal part of the layer underneath. It was a bit too much, so with the selection still active, I used the Levels dialogue to make it a lighter shade of gray, to take down the intensity. The following are the original, the edited image, and (just for fun) the layer mask used: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100