Fun with Photoshop!

I've been using Photoshop for quite a few years for cropping and fixing little things here and there, but I've never used it to completely alter anything before. I've been looking through my NYC photos and thinking they were a little boring, so I decided to give my filters a try. I never knew how much fun filters could be!

This is the original shot. A kind of boring picture of the Chrysler Building. I love the building, but there really is no good way to get a shot of it from the ground.

And here are some things I made. I don't really remember all the filters I used, but some of them came out pretty neat!

I think this one's my favorite.

This one is really different. I could totally see something like this on a graphic t-shirt!

Week 4 Portraits

This week's assignment was portraits and I keep only the best models on staff, of course. I've been wanting some nice pictures of Cameron in his gi and black belt. I've been wanting to take him to the beach all week to get some pictures, but these tropical storms have been putting a damper on things. I finally got him out there lastnight after the storm and the clouds made a great backdrop!

This is the picture I submitted for class. I love his serious expression. Makes me proud to see him so grown up. :)

I turned it B&W so I can add it to my B&W photo collage. I might do some tight cropping of his face too. If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you can see the detail and catch lights in his eyes. Love it!

Here's another pic I took of him playing out in the rain. He was using the umbrella as a parachute for his skates rather than keeping the rain off himself. Boys...

And of course I couldn't leave Joey out. Notice the bright orange Crocs. HA! I WIN! There's a backstory to the shoes. Joey has refused to wear anything but blue Crocs for almost an entire year. I finally had enough and we took him out of the house kicking and screaming with orange shoes on. I thought it was a compromise. At least he still gets to wear Crocs.

Photography 101 - Week 3 (photos getting even worse!)

This week's assignment was to take a marketing picture, which is pretty vague in my book. Well, to be honest, I think all the assignments are pretty vague, but I suppose he wants us to use our imaginations, which I lack.

So of course I waited until the very last minute to take my picture and then I couldn't decide what a "marketing picture" would be, so today I'm selling my lovely NYC coffee cup and the coffee in it. Unfortunately, I'm selling it at work in an office lit by fluorescent lights and about half of them are burned out. I've tried just about every setting I can think of and I just can't seem to get this white balance thing worked out. After about 50 tries, I gave up and this is the picture I submitted. :( I'm not thrilled with it and did I mention that our pictures are shown to the entire class on a big screen TV? Yeah, even less thrilled now! What the heck did people do before editing?

Just for my sanity, I edited the color a little bit. This would be a much better shot if we were allowed to use Photoshop! I guess that would defeat the purpose of this class though, huh?