Sarah's Photography

Scanography edge effects

2010-07-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

July 13, 2010, Rexburg, Idaho, 1:20 AM, HP Scanner

I used this edge effect on both my 8x10 and 4x6 prints. I deleted the contents and used white as the color, then used the history brush to paint it back. I scanned a necklace of mine in a dark room to get good color, and then I used a Pseudo HDR action in Photoshop.

Scanography - Collage

2010-07-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the final blend of all of my images:

And here are the images it took to get the final blend.

July 13, 2010, Rexburg, Idaho, 12:52 AM, HP Scanner

July 13, 2010, Rexburg, Idaho, 1:01 AM, HP Scanner

July 13, 2010, Rexburg, Idaho, 12:55 AM, HP Scanner

I took the pens and used them as my background, then I used the quick select tool and selected each of the objects and moved them into the picture with the pens. I flipped the pens to be horizontal, and then I used the typing mask tool to write school because all of these things remind me of school.

Scanography - One shot

2010-07-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Pennies - July 12, 2010, Rexburg, Idaho, 10:58 PM, HP Scanner

I thought it would look cool to arrange pennies on top of my scanner. However, I ran out of pennies so I cropped the photo. This one was more of a fun one for me, I liked the way it turned out!

Perfume - July 13, 2010, Rexburg, Idaho, 10:41 PM, HP Scanner

I placed all of my perfume bottles on top of the scanner to see how it would look scanned. I wish I had thought of it at night when I had done all of my other scans because the light kind of washed out the color on some of the bottles. But I still think it looks cool.

Fine Art Template

2010-06-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

I went for simplicity on my fine art template. I chose a white background with a simple font. It's called Champagne & Limousines and I downloaded it on dafont.com.
Here is the template on it's own:

Then I added a picture of a rose that I took this weekend:

June 19th 2010, 4:47 PM, F/3.2, 1/100, Logan, Utah, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS

This picture is also artsy so I put it in the template also.

April 27th 2009, 7:28 PM, F/4.1, 1/40, Rexburg, Idaho Casio Ex- Z600

Photolusion

2010-06-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Wind is Blowing - June 21st 2010, 8:07 PM, F/4.0, 1/160, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS

For this picture I posed my friends far apart from each other. One I had hold out her hand and the other one I had act crazy. My camera didn't focus as well as I would have liked but I think the picture turned out pretty good. I made minimal edits, just doing auto tone, color, and contrast and brightening the picture to 29.

Flower Ring -
June 19th 2010, 1:59 PM, F/9, 1/160, Logan, Utah, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS
I took this lovely photo of a rose outside of my friend's brother's house.

Ring-
June 21st 2010, 9:47 PM, F/3.2, 1/160. Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS
I really liked the way my ring looked and thought it looked like the inside of a flower. So I took a picture of it.

To start off I tried to match the color of the flower to my ring. Then I used the quick select tool and dragged the ring over to the flower, and then sized it and placed it in the middle of the flower. I then played with the settings to make it so it wasn't so bright and it looked like it had a shadow on it. I toned down the brightness and contrast on just that layer. Then I flattened the image and used auto tone, contrast, and color.

Edge Effects

2010-06-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Brush Effect -
May 7th 2010, 5:56 PM, F/9, 1/250, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS -
For this photo I converted it to a smart filter and used the Fresco Filter to give it a painted look. I made the brush size 2, brush detail 8 and texture 1. I then deleted the photo and brought out the white background color. I used the history brush tool to bring the picture back. The thick brush I used was the last brush at 453 pixels. I went from side to side to get a good brushed on effect on the photo.

Double Fade Border - June 6th 2010, 7:31PM, F/3.2, 1/30, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS - I really loved the way this photo turned out so I pretty much just left it the way it us, just using auto tone and contrast to edit the photo. To get this border I reduced the picture so I didn't have to crop it too much. I matched the color of one of the bulbs for the canvas extension to add some variety to the background border. I also chose to go as small as possible in my borders because I did it on another picture and went a little too big and it ended up looking not too great. This border looks awesome!

Night and Light Effects

2010-06-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Rings - I took the series of these photos on Tuesday June 8th at 10:37. I set the shutter speed to 10 seconds and the F Stop was 2.8. These were all taken in my apartment in Rexburg Idaho and I used my roommate's Canon Powershot A720 IS. I liked the colors and the way these pictures turned out. To get these shots I took the glow stick bracelets and arranged them into a pattern like this:

Then I moved the camera in a circle making the circles blur.

Then I moved the camera across the line to get a cool blur. I love how these turned out!

Sarah - June 8th 2010, 10:26 PM, F/2.8, 15 sec, Rexburg, ID, Canon Powershot A720 IS For this shot I had 3 of my friends move glow sticks while I took I pushed the button on the camera. My friend wrote out Sarah and then I flipped it in photoshop. Then I painted some of the background black because the blinds were letting some light in that was a little distracting.

Photobook Template

2010-06-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

I started off with the template that was provided to us. I didn't like the brown color that was there originally, so I used the replace color tool to change it to a shade of turquoise that I liked. I saved the settings and used it to change the other page. I also didn't like the font that was included in the template, so I downloaded a new font on dafont.com. I then had some troubles getting the photos to fit in the frame. I was so frustrated because I couldn't resize the pictures. One of my friends who is a photoshop genius happened to stop by my office while I was doing this. It was a miracle! He showed me a different way to do it. He said I should first resize them using the free transform tool. Then with the transform tool to rotate it to the same angle as the frame. Then he used the polygonal lasso tool to trace the frame. He then placed the traced shape over the photo and selected the inverse. Then he went to edit clear to cut the photo out. Then you move it on top of the frame and voila! A perfect cut out photo. I love it!

My Week in Photos

2010-06-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

Wednesday - June 2, 2010, 7:52 PM, F/3.2, 1/320, Denver, CO, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I was driving downtown with my friend and decided to take a picture of these lights in Larimer square. I used auto tone, color, and contrast, and then I changed the exposure to +1.71 because the photo was underexposed.

Thursday - June 3, 2010, 9:48 PM, F/3.2, 1/10, Englewood, CO, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I was finished with a fireside and decided it would cool to take a shot of the trees with the light shining through. To edit it I just used the auto color, tone, and contrast to change the colors a bit.

Friday - June 4, 2010, 9:48 PM, F/3.2, 1/20, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

My roommate was eating ice cream with twix and I thought it would be cool to take a picture of it. I used the macro mode to get the detail in the front and blur the back a bit. To edit it I changed the levels to the increase contrast 3 in the drop down menu.

Saturday - June 5, 2010, 6:38 PM, F/3.2, 1/10, Rexburg Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took this picture of my necklaces because I thought it looked cool. To edit it I used the HDR tool in photoshop and changed the edge glow to 126 px, the strength to 2.75, the exposure to +1.43, and the highlight to -41%.

Sunday - June 6, 2010, 7:25 PM, F/5.8, 1/100, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took a walk on Sunday night and I saw these cones lined up by my apartment complex. I thought it would be cool to take a picture of such a bright color against a gray sky. To edit it I opened the curves and drew an S and then smoothed it out until it looked good.

Monday - June 7, 2010, 10:55 PM, F/3.2, 1/10, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took a picture of some of the decorations in my apartment. I played with different angles and this was the best one that I got. It was underexposed, so I changed the exposure to +2.69. Then I increased the vibrance to 74.

Tuesday - June 8, 2010, 10:59 AM, F/9, 1/80, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

On my walk to school I saw a tree with gorgeous flowers on it. I used the macro mode to get some good bokeh. To edit it I changed the levels to Increase Contrast 3 in the dropdown menu.

Editing Portraits

2010-05-31T23:34:00.000-07:00

Match Color -

5/31/2010, 12:29 PM, F/5.0, 1/15, Layton, Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took a picture that I really liked of my cousin, but I didn't turn on my flash so it was underexposed. I really liked the color of a picture I took outside of my other cousin, so I opened them both in Photoshop, and used the Match Color tool to replicate the color in the outside picture. I then increased the Luminance to 114 and the color intensity to 155.

Retouch -

5/31/2010, 3:47 PM, F/3.2, 1/30, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I decided to take a picture of my cousin who had a dirty face after eating a hot dog. I shot it using the auto feature on my camera. I used the spot healing brush to do the retouches on the right side of the face. It did really well covering up the little spots that were there. On the left side I used the healing brush tool, sampling pixels around the part that I wanted to fix. It took awhile to finally get it right. I didn't make any other edits than retouching so the retouches would be easier to see.

Replace Color -

5/31/2010, 4:17 PM, F/5.8, 1/160, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took this picture of my cousin on the swing using the auto feature on my camera. I like the shovel she was holding, but I wished it matched. Well good thing I know how to change the color! I selected it using the quick select tool, then I went into the color replace tool and put the fuzziness at the highest level, and then changed it to a pink that matched her shirt. Perfect!

Portraits

2010-05-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

Little C -
5/31/2010, 2:43 PM, F/4.0, 1/500, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
For this shot I went outside while my cousins were playing. My cousin bet that I couldn't take a picture of him while he was running. He stopped and looked at the camera and I snapped this portrait of him. When I edited it, I cropped the photo, then used auto color, auto tone, and auto contrast. I then changed the vibrancy to 78 to get the rosy color on his cheeks to show up more in the photo.

Hats -

5/31/2010, 3:46 PM, F/4.0, 1/30, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

My cousins were playing fireman and I asked them to pose for a photo and this is what I got. I used auto tone, color, and contrast at first. Then I messed around with the HDR settings in Photoshop. I used the Edge Glow with a radius of 138 px, and a strength of 3.25. Then I messed with the tone and detail settings. I changed the exposure to -1.09, the detail to +44, the shadow to +74. Then I changed the color to +50 and the saturation to +20.

Group Portrait -

5/31/2010, 2:49 PM, F/4.0, 1/125, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

This was a hard shot to get. Trying to get two three year olds and a six year old to smile and look at the camera at the same time is not an easy task. I didn't center the picture well when I took it, so I cropped it and used auto tone, auto contrast, and auto color. Then I changed the vibrancy to 80.

Environmental Portrait -

5/31/2010, 4:17 PM, F/5.8, 1/160, Layton, Utah, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

My cousin was swinging out on the swing so I thought this would be a perfect time to get my enviornmental shot. I opened it and used the auto contrast, color, and tone. Then I changed the vibrancy to 60. Then I converted it to a smart layer to use different filters on it. I chose Diffuse Glow - Graininess 6, Glow amount 6, Clear Amount 15.

High Dynamic Range

2010-05-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

I took this photo right outside of the abandoned Mill. The photo is made of three photos with -2 exposure, 0 exposure and +2 exposure. I put it into Dynamic Photo and merged the images. Then I upped the vivid colors to .49, and increased the dramatic light strength to .34. I added the vignette soft filter on top to create this image

Image 1 - 5/21/2010, 4:45 PM, F/5.6, 1/500, Bannack Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS

Image 2 - 5/21/2010, 4:45 PM, F/2.8, 1/500, Bannack Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS

Image 3 - 5/21/2010, 4:45 PM, F/2.8, 1/125, Bannack Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS

5/21/2010, 2:41 PM, F/4.0 1/1000, Bannack Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS
For the second photo I took a picture of the trees next to the Hotel Meade. I put it into Dynamic Photo and increased the color saturation to 1. I used the Mysterious Light filter on the picture to give it an eerie greenish hue and make it look vintage.

Reverse Shallow Depth

2010-05-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

5/21/2010, 5:20 PM, F/3.2, 1/100, Bannack Montana, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
Sage - I really love the window on the church at Bannack so I decided to do my reverse shallow depth with this scene. For this picture I used the macro setting on my camera to get it to focus really well on the sage and to blur out the rest. To edit it I first adjusted the color, tone, and contrast with the auto feature. Then I adjusted the vibrance to 73 to bring out the color.

5/21/2010, 5:20 PM, F/3.2, 1/80, Bannack, Montana, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
Church - For this picture I focused on the church instead of the sage brush, causing the brush to be blurry. I edited it the same as the previous photo, adjusting the color, tone, and contrast with the auto feature. Then I adjusted the vibrance to 73 also to get the color the same as the previous picture.

Action Freeze/Blur

2010-05-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

5/21/2010, 2:02 PM F 3.2, 1/1000, Bannack Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS
Josh/Freeze - To take this picture I set my shutter speed to the fastest speed possible in order to get a shot of him jumping off the steps in the hotel. To edit the picture I started by cropping it to focus more on Josh. I then did auto tone, contrast, and color. Then I increased the vibrance to 78 to boost the picture more.

5/21/2010, 12:47 PM, F/8, 2 sec, Bannack, Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS
Ghost/Blur - I set the shutter speed really high to capture the blur. We shot this in the hotel hallway, where Levi walked across the hallway in a creepy way like a ghost. To edit this picture I first did auto tone, contrast, and color. Then I changed the brightness to 48 and the contrast to -48 to brighten the picture a bit.

Macro Abstract

2010-05-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Jars -
5/21/2010, 9:28 AM, F/4.5, 1/80, Dubois, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
I found these jars in the abandoned warehouse we went to. I used the macro mode to get a good shallow depth.

Branches -
5/21/2010, 10:13 AM, F/4.5, 1/125, Dubois, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 (S
Outside of the haunted house there were many creepy looking trees. I thought they would make a good texture shot so I took a picture of them in macro mode.

Blend -
In order to put these two together, I took the branches picture and selected the midtones in color range selector. I then laid it on top of the picture of the jars. After adjusting the settings I decided on the overlay setting with the opacity set at 76% to give it a good dusty looking feel. Then I used black paint to paint around the jars, so the background would not have the texture on it and just the jars would.

Portraits

2010-05-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

5/21/2010, 1:23 PM F/4.0, 1/250, Bannack, Montana, Canon Powershot A720 IS
Bre - I took this picture on the steps of the abandoned tool shop. To edit the picture I first cropped it, then I adjusted the curves to an S curve to make it more vibrant. Then I changed the exposure to -0.4 to make it a little darker because it looked overexposed.

Andrea -
5/21/2010, 1:17 PM F/4.0, 1/60, Bannack, Montana, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
I took this picture in the tool shop. For the edits for this picture I first cropped it to make her stand out. Then I adjusted the curves to an S curve. I adjusted the brightness/contrast to make the picture a little darker. I increased the vibrance to 100 percent to give it a little boost. Then I put a warming photo filter over it to increase the colors a bit. Then I adjusted the vibrance after those edits to 100 percent to give it the color I wanted.

Camera Raw

2010-05-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

5/16/2010, 6;14 P.M., F/4.5, 1/800, Franklin, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
My roommate and I were driving home from Logan when I decided to snap some pictures. The first thing I did when I opened the picture in Camera Raw was straighten it because I took it at a wonky angle. I increased the vibrance to 63 and reduced the brightness by 3. I used the white balance tool to see what it would do and it made it vintage looking.

Here it is in Camera Raw:

Here it is, unedited.

Panoramic Picture!

2010-05-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

5/17/2010, 2:28 p.m., F/4.5, 1/500, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS
I have always thought the trees outside of the Ricks were gorgeous so I decided to take a panoramic shot of them. I started with one shot and then stood in one place while rotating the camera as slightly as I could. I merged all of the pictures in photoshop CS5, and cropped it so it would be even all around. I then used auto tone, contrast, and color, adjusted the vibrance to 100% and saturation to 30%. I am really pleased with how it turned out!

Here are the original photos:

Flex Edits

2010-05-11T11:29:00.001-07:00

5/9/2010, Layton, Utah, f5.0, 1/160, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS

I took a picture of a black swan. The swan didn't appear as black in the picture as I would have liked so in order to make it look more black I applied an adjustment with the screen setting to make everything lighter, and then I painted over the swan with black paint to revert it to the original and make the swan more black and stand out. I also cropped the picture a bit.

5/9/2010, Layton, Utah, f9.0,1/250, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS

I took a picture of a preschool that I found interesting with two red doors. I converted it to a smart layer and then messed around. In the end I chose the cutout filter from the artistic group and the grain - speckled filter.

Flora & Fauna

2010-05-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Tulips: 5/8/2010, Layton, Utah, f4.5, 1/100, Canon Powershot SD780 IS, adjusted shadows to -10%

Purple Tulips: 5/7/2010, Layton, Utah, f3.2, 1/250, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS, adjusted auto levels, auto contrast, and cropped

Miniature Ponies - 5/9/2010, Layton, Utah, f9.0, 1/200, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS, adjusted levels, contrast, color

Duck: 5/9/2010, Layton, Utah, f4.5, 1/100, Canon Powershot SD780 IS, adjusted levels, contrast, color

Cow: 5/9/2010, Layton, Utah, f4.5, 1/250, Canon Powershot SD780 IS, adjusted auto levels, auto contrast, auto color

Color Study: White

2010-05-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

For my color study I decided to use white. I know that color really isn't a color, just the absence of color. It was interesting, however, to do my color study on something that isn't a super vibrant color. Through doing this I did realize that there are varying degrees of white. I really enjoyed doing this!

Wicker Ball: 5/3/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F2.8, 1/13, Canon Powershot A720 IS, Enhanced Brightness and Contrast, Color Balance with focus on Cyan to make the white more white.

Pearls: 5/3/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F2.8, 1/30, Canon Powershot A720 IS, Enhanced Brightness and Contrast, Color Balance with focus on Cyan to make the white pop.

Clouds: 5/3/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F8.0, 1/500, Canon Powershot A720 IS, I manipulated the color balance to make the sky more blue and the clouds that were a little grayish look more white.

Taylor: 5/4/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F8.0, 1/160, Canon Powershot A720 IS, Contrast and Color balance adjusted

Blending Images & Type

2010-05-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Bicycle: 5/3/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F4.0, 1/160, Canon Powershot A720 IS, No Edits

Textured ball: 5/3/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F2.8, 1/15, Canon Powershot A720 IS, No Edits

In order to blend the two together I stacked the ball image on top of the bicycle wheel in Photoshop. In the layers palette, I used the Hard Mix layer setting and changed the opacity to 66%. I like it because the colors are vivid and it looks Andy Warhol-esque!

For this assignment, we were supposed to learn about text in Photoshop. I took the picture of the bush below, and used a masking layer to cut text from the picture, and then I placed it in another document.

Spring: 5/3/2010, Rexburg, Idaho, F4.0, 1/80, Canon Powershot A720 IS, No Edits

Photos from the Past

2010-04-26T21:39:00.001-07:00

Birthday
F Stop 3.6
Shutter Speed 1/60
Date and Time: 2:00 on July 6th, 2009
Location: Idaho Falls, ID
Camera: Casio EX-Z600
This is my cousin and she posed in front of this tapestry for pictures on her birthday. I didn't make any edits to the picture, and the colors are very vibrant.

Rio Grande Hotel
F Stop 4.3
Shutter Speed 1/640
Date and Time: 2:31 on July 9, 2009
Location: Downtown Salt Lake City, UT
Camera: Casio EX-Z600
I needed pictures for my Visual Media class and I happened to go to Salt Lake for the weekend. I found some really vintage looking signs downtown, and this happened to be one of them. I cropped it, and that is the only edit I've made.

Porter Park Trees
F Stop 2.7
Shutter Speed 1/60
Date and Time: 7:27 on April 27th, 2009
Location: Rexburg, ID
Camera: Casio EX-Z600
For FHE we played games in Porter Park at dusk. I remember thinking that the sunset was pretty and I tried to capture it, and I thought it would be cool to take a picture of the contrasting tree branches against the sky. I didn't make any edits to this photo.

Swan
F Stop 3.7
Shutter Speed 1/125
Date and Time: 9:43 on July 12th, 2004
Location: Lucerne, Switzerland
Camera: Konica Minolta (not sure of the model)
I saw this swan while looking over the chapel bridge in Switzerland. I love how there are the flowers that are also visible in the picture and not just water. I boosted the color and enhanced it in iPhoto.

Chapel Bridge
F Stop 6.7
Shutter Speed 1/400
Date and Time: 1:51 on July 12th, 2004
Location: Lucerne, Switzerland
Camera: Konica Minolta ( not sure of the model)
I love this picture of the bridge. I like the composition, with the bridge being in the middle of the shot with a good amount of water showing and the sky too. The color was boosted and enhanced in iPhoto.

Denver

F Stop 5.8
Shutter Speed 1/160
Date and Time: 2:54 on April 14th, 2009
Location: Downtown Denver, CO
Camera: Casio EX-Z600
I went to Denver for the break between semesters in 2009. This was the last time I would be able to go "home" because my parents moved away a month later. I took a picture of the Wells Fargo Center, or the Cash Register building as I like to call it to remind me of where I grew up. I love the way the light comes into the picture. The color is boosted and enhanced in iPhoto.

Introduction

2010-04-21T12:29:00.001-07:00

Introduction: My name is Sarah Smith. I am from Broomfield, Colorado. I am a Communications major with emphases in Public Relations and Advertising. I love photography and hope that through taking this class I will become better at it!

Experience: I took visual media a few semesters ago and have used the creative suite a few different times, but I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in Photoshop. I love to play around with it, mainly just to Photoshop pictures of me and my friends with celebrities. I have been taking pictures for awhile but I feel they could be better.

Hope to learn: I hope to become more proficient in Photoshop. I want to be able to make my pictures look great! I also want to learn how to manipulate the settings on a camera to take the best shot because I usually just use the automatic setting and I know that I could be using settings on the camera to take a better photo but I don’t know which ones to change.