I felt honored

The Pacific Photographic Society (PPS) to which I belong is a Meetup group.

That’s how I found out about it.

After each event—and we have billions and billions of events!—each event attendee is allowed to upload no more than ten photos to our Meetup photo album for that event.

Everyone browses the pictures and sometimes comments.

Along with the picture of Cleo (see this post), this picture got the most comments:

The owner of the garden, herself an extremely good photographer with equipment far superior to mine, and a member of PPS, had this to say:

“This is an interesting interpretation of this subject. I like what you have done with the texture.”

I felt honored.

The original picture was all drab, some of it having to do with it being a dull, drab, overcast, gray, rainy day. However, I have discovered that within those dull, drab, gray colors are many other colors wanting to get out. Photoshop to the rescue!

As my wise old grandmother (picture ►) would say:

“What comes out of the camera is just the basics to start with.”

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Is he a keeper?

A couple of days ago, Julian asked me if I was going to teach him the ins and outs of creating Photographic Art. I can’t express how happy it made me that he wanted to learn, and considering how awesome he is in everything he has accomplished for Photographic Art, I had no hesitation about teaching him and expecting him to pick it up very quickly.

So today, before he arrived for work, I picked a particularly troublesome photo to train him on. Here it is:

This had 12 problems associated with it and each problem allowed us to explore different facets of Photoshop.

0 – Perspective. It’s obvious that I was standing on the ground looking up at the mural because everything seems to be tilted back. We corrected the perspective and then cropped the window at the right so that we had half a window on both sides.

1. A little piece of something in the corner, probably an advertisement or a parking sign. We removed that.
2. Glare from a light is noticeable. We had to clone that out to make that area blend in with the rest of the mural surroundings.
3. A little imperfection in the stucco. We cloned that out.
4. Glare in the window from lights elsewhere. We removed them.
5. Two little dots which don’t look like much here, but sometimes those little dots really stand out in the Photographic Art. We removed them.
6. Four little dots. Removed.
7. Part of a square something or other. Removed.
8. Another imperfection in the stucco. Cloned.
9. Another little part of a square something. Removed.
10. It might be hard to see in this picture, but there is a wire that starts here, goes behind the mural, and shows up again up near 3. Removed.
11. A flag pole holder. Removed.
12. Stucco faded noticeably so we cloned it to make it more even with the rest of the stucco.

Here is our final product:

Some of the many Photoshop features/variations we used included:

1. Crop Tool
2. Perspective Crop Tool
3. Clone Stamp Tool
4. Spot Healing Brush Tool
5. Rectangular Marquee Tool
6. Fill, Content Aware
7. Copy, Paste, Move
8. Brush Tool
9. Zoom Tool
10. Image Size
11. Canvas Size

So, whaddaya think of Julian’s work? He certainly doesn’t sleep on the job like my other partner:

Is Julian a keeper?

Do you have BWS?
I have the answer:

Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.

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Blah to beautiful with Photoshop!

I always like it when my home inspection Clients are satisfied with the home inspections I do for them.

Occasionally, though, a Client will call with a different matter.

I include pictures in my reports, usually of problems and problem areas. However, on the front page of the report is a picture of the front of the property that I inspected. Here is the picture from an inspection earlier this week:

Yep. It’s a picture of a house, specifically a manufactured home. A pretty blasé picture.

Now that my Photographic Art venture is viable, I decided that I should start including a Photographic Art picture of the home. I decided to replace the cloudy sky with a more beautiful sky, and bring some contrast and depth to the home and the plants. When I finished, I had this:

My Client called to ask me where I got the picture. I told him that I took a picture at the inspection, and since the picture was pretty blah, I used Photoshop to make it more beautiful. He was amazed. I pointed him to my Photographic Art Catalog, so who knows where this might lead somewhere down the road. Maybe he’ll buy billions and billions and billions of my work!

Tomorrow, just for my wonderful readers, I’ll be posting a tutorial on how to not only replace skies, but how to easily select detail like you find in those pine trees, a technique that works with anything that has a rough outline, like hair on a person’s head, cat and dog hair, etc. So be sure to tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel (smile if you grew up watching Batman!).

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►►►►◄◄◄◄

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

►►►►◄◄◄◄

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Caturday (11-2-13)—Zoey the Cool Cat playing soccer!

Long-time followers know that Zoey the Cool Cat likes to sit on the back of my desk chair and watch tennis or golf.

Zoey the Cool Cat watching tennis

She is not interested in football, basketball, or baseball.

I suspect that the balls in those sports are too big.

She prefers small things.

However, today, I found her playing with a soccer ball:

If you saw my recent post on the Zoey the Cool Cat cube, you might remember that I said the cube was really easy to do.

Taking the basics behind the cube, I decided to see if other shapes were just as easy to do.

Yes.

All I did was get a soccer ball from one of my graphics programs and then pasted Zoey the Cool Cat pictures into appropriate places.

It took about five minutes total!

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Find Photoshop expensive? Consider leasing.

Currently on my computer I have these digital photo editing programs:

• Adobe Photoshop CS6
• Adobe Lightroom 4.1
• Corel PaintShop Pro X4
• Corel Photo-Paint X6
• CorelDRAW! X6
• Word 2010 (don’t underestimate it!)

I have had Photoshop, Photo-Paint, CorelDRAW!, and Word since their initial releases decades ago.

When I went to upgrade Photoshop, I discovered the steep price. I also discovered Lightroom, so rather than the steep price for a Photoshop upgrade, I opted to continue using my very old version of Photoshop and learn Lightroom.

When I went to upgrade my very old versions of Photo-Paint and DRAW!, I discovered PaintShop Pro. The price was very reasonable, so I bought it.

I use all of those programs for various purposes, but my current goal is to see if I can get Photoshop to do everything. If I can, then ultimately I’ll be migrating my skills in all the other programs over to Photoshop.

I think that Photoshop is the most powerful individual programs, but if I combine DRAW! X6 and either Photo-Paint X6 or Paintshop Pro X4, I can do in them anything that Photoshop can do. The question is, “How easily?” or “How much time is involved?”

For example, I use CorelDRAW! X6 to do the Zoey the Cool Cat approval stamp at the end of each post. It takes me about 15 seconds. To do it is Photoshop would take several layers and lots of time, and I haven’t found that Photoshop Actions can really automate everything for me yet.

I use Word 2010 to create quick frames, like the one I use for my wise old grandmother:

That took about 15 seconds in Word 2010.

I use Lightroom 4.1 to give me quick JPGs from RAW files and to do quick adjustments for exposure, highlights, shadows, contrast, and clarity (sharpness). Five sliders takes about 30 seconds. The same tasks in Photoshop takes several minutes due to having to go through Adobe Camera Raw first and then into Photoshop. Minimum of five layers in Photoshop.

I use Photo-Paint to create GIFs. It’s the easiest program I’ve found for that:

PaintShop Pro X4 is very similar to Photoshop, and I’ve found it much easier to use. However, simply because Photoshop is the defacto standard throughout the world, Photoshop is where I’m dedicating my time. When you have a defacto standard, you have a lot of people doing tutorials and creating plugins and such. So Photoshop it is.

One you have created certain effects that you like in any of the programs, you can either save the file as a template and then just replace the picture as needed (that’s what I do in CorelDRAW! and Word) or you can create actions, scripts, or macros in the other programs to automate tasks. As with anything, it takes time to set it up initially but then the ROI on your time is returned each succeeding time you do the same thing.

If you’re considering Photoshop and find the price too steep, consider leasing it, which is what I do. I have a one-year lease with Adobe that costs me $19.99 a month. Considering that the full program is $699, it would take me 35 months of leasing to pay for the program. That’s three years. During those three years, Adobe will come out with two upgrades, costing you $199 each, another $400. You’ll never be able to stay up to date with the latest and the greatest. With a lease, you can.

Twenty dollars a month is less than any of my other individual bills — gas, phone, cable, mortgage, electricity, etc., and something I can easily afford. Coming up with $699 all at one time, and then $199 every 18 months, can often be difficult for the 99%.

If you’re considering a Photoshop lease, when you go to buy the product, in the dropdown box, select “Subscription” instead of “Upgrade” or “Full.”

Once you have any of these programs, if you have a question about how to do something, ask me. If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll find out. It helps me learn, and real-world examples are always much more fun than reading through a book or watching a tutorial.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

It’s not all sun all the time

 

People think that living in San Diego must be great for photography, or at least for photographers and their equipment since it’s rare that we get wet.

Having lots of sunshine, though, presents other problems. Excessive glare comes to mind.

However, even though we have lots of “days” of sunshine, “days” is defined differently than you might think. “Days” for the San Diego PR people simply means that the sun comes out sometime during the day.

During May and June we have May Gray and June Gloom. That’s when the marine cloud layer often doesn’t dissipate until well into the afternoon. While there are lots of great places and things to photograph, the ugly, dreary, oogy, blah! May Gray will give you pictures like this one of the University of San Diego:

 

I always get a kick out of the photography snobs who say they get the best picture they can in the camera and would never think of using something like Photoshop to do anything other than minor contrast work.

Ha! A dull gray sky is still a dull gray sky. Phooey on dull gray skies.

I took that picture to Photoshop CS6, found me a nice blue sky with some clouds and came up with this:

 

I’m getting much better replacing skies, but if I didn’t tell you what I did, would you know? If I gave you the 109 MB TIFF file, you could still see some areas that are a little shoddy, and I’m working on my skills in those areas. For a 57KB Internet picture, though, no one would ever know. Well, maybe San Diego natives would know if I told them I took the picture on a May morning…. 🙂

 

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County? I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor with Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re just looking for a home inspector,
I can highly recommend Russel Ray; that’s me!

Zoey the Cool Cat goes back to the Summer of Love

Many years ago when I was living in College Station, Texas, I had a desktop publishing company. I created newsletters, flyers and such for companies, as well as work for students and teachers at Texas A&M University. That required that I have the latest and greatest software, and I had Photoshop, Photo-Paint, CorelDRAW, and many others. The three named were my favorites, though.

When I disappeared from Texas in 1993 and reappeared in San Diego, I no longer had a need for them. I still don’t have a need for them, but my wants are pretty strong. So once I found Eric Cooper to catalog my 73,000 photos for me, I went off and bought Photoshop CS6, Lightroom 4, Photo-Paint X6, PaintShop Pro X4, and CorelDRAW X5. I was comfortable with Adobe and Corel, so I went with their programs rather than the free ones like Picnik (now gone; see!), Picassa, Gimp, etc.

Each day I study those five programs to learn something new. I’ve already studied CorelDRAW this morning and am having just way too much fun. I discovered the Lens Effects, among which are Fish Eye, Heat Map, Magnify, and Custom Color Map, my four favorites out of the many pre-set lens effects. I can see them being very useful in my photography and blogging.

Whenever I’m playing around and learning, I always use Zoey the Cool Cat, and she came in very handy this morning. Here’s what I did, very easily, using the Custom Color Map lens effect in CorelDRAW X5:

 

Zoey the Cool Cat might have missed the Summer of Love, but now she knows what it was like. 🙂

 

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County? I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor with Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re just looking for a home inspector,
I can highly recommend Russel Ray; that’s me!

My little pink nose

 

As I cruise around WordPress blogs, I notice that most of the photography blogs are titled something like “John Doe Photography.” You’ll notice that I’m not. I’m Russel Ray Photos. There’s a reason for that.

Although I try to take the best photos I can, I have never been about photography perfection even though I’ve always had a nice 35mm SLR camera (Canon A-1) or digital SLR (Canon Rebel XSi and Canon 550D). You might occasionally find me using an old picture that can basically be called a snapshot because that’s what it was then, and is now.

Many full moons ago (about 240 of them) I had a need for things like scanners, Photoshop (I bought the first version and upgraded religiously through version 8), Paint Shop, Corel Photo-Paint, etc. I sold that business in 1993 when I moved from College Station, Texas, to San Diego.

Now that my energy is slowing down — i.e., I can’t play tennis, basketball, or volleyball anymore — I’m trying to get back to digital photo editing because it is a lot of fun. Until I get to layers and masks. The result of layers and masks is fun, but the technical part can be quite tedious. Don’t tell me to check out the YouTube tutorials because they pretty well…. I’ll just leave it at that since this is a family blog.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a local seminar — cost me $16 for 90 minutes — that was all about Photoshop layers and masks. It was the most useful seminar I’ve been to. I’m still having trouble with layers and masks, but that will be resolved with practice.

Of course, my first (successful) attempt at using Photoshop layers and masks obviously starred Zoey the Cool Cat. Here’s the result:

 

That seminar did show me the secrets to working with Photoshop layers and masks, and the secrets are the lasso tool, the brush tool, the magic wand tool, and knowing when to use Alt + left mouse click. I’m using Photoshop CS6 Beta, but they also work in Photoshop CS5 (which I also have) and, according to the seminar leader, Photoshop CS4. Beyond that I don’t know. As I get more experienced with this really complicated stuff, I’ll do some static tutorials for those who, like me, despise video tutorials.

 

What comes out of the camera is just the basics to start with

What comes out of the camera
is just the basics to start with

My wise old grandmother, my dad’s mom, adopted me when I was a young juvenile delinquent of 10. She instilled in me a love of plants…. wildlife…. Mother and Father Nature…. life…. by giving me the love and discipline that all young children need. Note that I said “love and discipline.” Too many parents think that toys, iPads, iPods, iTunes…. are substitutes for love. They are not.

I was told the law of the land and the house, and the consequences if I broke those laws. Guess what happened when I broke those laws? Yep. The consequences. It only took two times to realize that she was serious. I labored to uphold the law…. Sometimes I’d still break the law…. peer pressure.

After breaking the laws and suffering the consequences, my wise old grandmother would let me cry for five or ten minutes and then come in to tell me that she loved me and to wash and dry my tear-streaked face. All was well.

She also had a love of photography. Each time a newer and better camera came out, it was hers. She used to spend hours lovingly placing her photos in her photo albums, and she had no problem “cropping” pictures with her scissors…. big scissors…. She used to tell me, “What comes out of the camera is just the basics to start with.” She would love the digital world….

On February 12, 2012, I went birdwatching with a group of about 30 people. I took over a hundred pictures in just two hours. I’m not picky out in the field…. when I get home it’s a different story because I’ve learned never to throw a picture away. If I thought it was good enough out in the field, some day I might be able to use it for something.

Such is the case with this picture:

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Two ravens/crows/grackles…. being all lovey dovey. I watched them for about five minutes, taking 18 pictures. That one used a 28-300mm lens at 300mm…. looks like a bunch of trees with two black, oblong dots in it. Since it was taken with a Canon 550D set at its highest resolution (5184 x 3456 pixels), I knew that I could crop it at the computer (Lightroom 4 is my favorite cropping program) and possibly get a nice picture:

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Not a bad picture…. but a lot of noise. It would require some more computer work to make a good picture out of it. Unfortunately, after cropping the 5184 x 3456 image, the cropped image was only 874 x 582 pixels. Enough for the Internet but not for printing.

Last night as I was studying (I spend a little time each day studying Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 4, PaintShop Pro X4, Photo-Paint X5, and DRAW! X5), I discovered upsizing in Photoshop CS5. Pretty cool.

I resized my big picture from 5184 x 3456 pixels at 72 dpi to 5184 x 3456 at 300 dpi. By resizing instead of cropping, I was able to keep the original resolution but now had a picture that was one third its printing size. Nowhere on the Internet will you need a 300 dpi picture…. 72 dpi is just fine. For printing you want about 200 dpi. I was playing around so I chose 300 dpi.

Once I had the smaller picture at the high resolution, I cropped to get just the two love birds. That crop, however, left me with a small picture at high resolution, a picture much too small to use anywhere. So I upsized it in Photoshop…. twice. First I upsized it by 300% and then I upsized the resulting picture by another 200%. Here’s what I got:

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The second picture has much less noise in it, better contrast, and better sharpness. Still needs a little more work, but the basics are much better to start with. What’s even more amazing is that the double-upsized picture is  larger than the original, 5592 x 4104 pixels at 300 dpi resolution (7.17 MB). After recovering some branch detail, some shadow detail in the birds, and adding some contrast, with that size and resolution, I could print a nice poster.

If you have Photoshop CS5, explore and learn. It’s a powerful program.