Thursday, December 30

2011 - Merry


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My little buddy Rocco suffers through New Year's Eve. Lancaster has a midnight fireworks show atop a parking garage a block or so away from our home. We usually sit out front and watch it explode above us - adult beverages in hand. Unfortunately my fuzzy guy is NOT a hunter. He's been bread to be a watch dog, suspicious of the odd noise. He suffers from fireworks overload. Which leaves him an exhausted fur ball. And maybe that' the best metaphor for 2010, it's left us... thank Zeus... exhausted with a "Good Riddance!" taste. Like Rocco... I'm tired of it and looking forward to awaking in 2011.

Wish you a mellow one.

Sunday, December 12

Pacem In Terra

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And away they all flew
Like the down of a thistle...

But I heard him exclaim
Ere he drove out of sight,

"Merry Christmas to all,.
And to all A GOOD NIGHT."

We're at a moment of worry with respect to things economic, with a real possibility that a gale of creative destruction will whip through our places in 2011. We face a moment of challenge which this time I hope will see, as that gale recedes.... Pacem In Terra.

Which is truly the hope we have been waiting for.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Ted

Saturday, December 11

History's End

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There’s only one track now
Coming to or
Going from?
Castel Gandolpho.

Where once the Popes
Ruled the West
In summer heat
That hasn’t cooled.

Though history
Has…

I wonder if this track is there to fill the now tiny town or to empty it out? I wonder if the devil lies, as they say, in the details? That is to say that the devil dares to lie anywhere near a papal palace.

Geek Stuff
Cannon 20D, Post Processing in PS:CS4: Topaz, Alien Skin: SnapArt – Colored Pencils, custom textures and brushes.

Monday, December 6

What To Call 1 & 1/4?

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I'm hearing a lot about diptychs. This is their big fashion moment. But I didn't have a diptych... just a dip and a quarter. Or is that a one and a quarter tych?

Well anyway... there's a thing about winter. It's always pushed into the city by a big storm. On one side of the thing it's fall, and winter on the other. A couple of days ago was on the other side of the storm. Then it got things wet, cold, and brrrrrr....

GEEK STUFF

7D through the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. Sweet bokeh, huh? And then? Well I cranked it up with AlienSkin's Bokeh and SnapArt colored pencil. Simple....

Sunday, December 5

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A Hindu friend once explained dars´san to me. "I go to temple not to worship Ted, but rather for dar´san. – to see divinity. Dar´san can be taken or given Ted. It is a blessing that comes from the sacred."

Okay, now I do not have my head around that concept. But I'm wondering if it has something to do with why our lenses are tugged toward objects like this? Is there an instinctual compulsion for dar´san? What do you think... does this give dar´san? Or is a rose by any other name just a rose?

GEEK STUFF
In the backyard with my Canon 40D: Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6) in macro mode. Post: PS4, Topaz, Alien Skin: Bokeh & SnapArt - Water color, custom brushes & textures

Wednesday, December 1

Sunday In The Park

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The lad comes with his mom and dad... his receiver. And he tosses with all his might. Aiming high and far, the thing spins like a bullet. And he tosses and tosses. And dreams...

Geek Stuff

My Canon 7D through the long, long Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens, Then afterward I searched for my feelings in PS-CS4 with custom brushes and textures.

Monday, November 29

Melancholy

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Autumn sometimes gets me down. Rita and I were homebound this weekend. Missed a nice evening at friends' home. It is true, Autumn is a time when one starts to miss things, huh?

Of course this is a rework of an image I did some Autumns back at East Dennis on Cape Cod.

The first freeze came this morning and killed the flowers. Some seemed startled in their crystal casings especially the youngest blooms which had only begun to blossom. They were caught in that clear syrup of glassy death which only after minutes of sun caused them to wrinkle, brown, and droop from their leafy homes. I'm guessing they felt pretty safe last night... but somewhere in their sleep... Their season ended.

And they are among the things that Fall causes you to miss, huh?

Sunday, November 21

SIZZZZZLE!

<- Borrowed my friend Chris's Bugatti last Sunday and took it to Musser Park nearby to my home here in Lancaster. Wanted to pop this beast out of the rich lighting. I'm not a MotorHead. But the art of design makes me twitch. And the Veyron ... well now this is one manly beast! And probably a chick magnet, huh?


GEEK STUFF Here's Chris's Bugatti Veyron shot with my Canon 70D through the Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6) in macro mode. Post processing happened with CS/PS4 • Topaz • AlienSkin Bokeh, AlienSkin SnapArt/Water Color • Custom Brushes • Custom Textures all upon a background captured one night in Intercourse, PA.

Saturday, November 20

Playin' W/Texture

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Nothing profound, deep, or even thoughtful powered this thing. Nope. Probably pretty shallow actually. My last post was an effort to pull mood from an idea through the use of textures. And the response has been amazing. Thanks to everyone who sent me email both ere and from the other forums where it's appeared. The reaction actually made me want to investigate texture technique farther. So.... I turned to my most accommodating model... Me! See, I wanted to see how textures could work in portraiture. But as you can see the results need not be flattering. And since almost everyone else who's trusted me to take their portrait was not interested in a purposely unattractive result... well that, you see, explains why I've again asked me to be the subject.

Moreover, I wanted to see how I could use both texture and AlienSkin's SnapArt together to create a dramatic result which would pop from the monitor. At a 4th of July picnic I loaned my camera and long zoom lens to a young friend who'd never used that kind of equipment before. Nice thing about a 70-300mm lens on camera w/ a crop frame sensor... the photographer can take candids virtually unknown to the subjects. Okay.... but then what?

Here's what happens when I recrop, diddle with the dynamic range, use Alien Skin's Bokeh to create a shallow depth of field... then carefully mask in a texture over key parts of the image.... and finally apply various parts of masked layers which were differently filtered through SnapArt's Oil option.

Of course I used PS4 to further enhance the dynamic range to deepen the drama of shadows while cranking up the highlights.

Lots of stuff. Now... seriously... Critiques anyone?

Thursday, November 4

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Chill breeze puffs
The day before a
First frost
Crackles summer
Away with
The boat for
Winter.

GEEK STUFF: Chesapeake Bay, MD. • Canon 20D: Canon EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5), PS/CS4, Topaz, AlienSkin/SnapArt/Watercolor, Custom strokes, textures, brushes, filters.

Wednesday, October 27

Wish You Were... Hear?

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I'm wondering what comes between imagination and mumbling, "FINISHED!"

And I'm thinking that the crack between the two is where talent lives. "FINISHED!" is what you are capable of doing with what you imagine. Hmmm... do I mean 'talent' or do I mean skill? And where does creativity make its appearance? Suppose you can imagine a reslut but can't execute it.... reveal it. Or... or... is process where you actually discover the totality of your imagination? Hmmmm or its limits. Or...

Okay, my head's starting to burst....

+++

Took this on my bike ride last weekend not far from Willow Street. Now, Willow Street is not a street. It's a place outside of the City of Lancaster to the south east. Maybe six miles? And it's smack in the center of Amish country. And here's a piece of Amisher farm equipment that they tether to mules to work that field. Off to my right was a little red wagon filled with three Amish boys - who I could not picture because it simply not a nice thing to do. And the watched me, then waved as I biked off of their post card home place.


+++

GEEK STUFF: Canon G10. middle of the bright afternoon. PP with PS CS4, custom textures, Topaz and AlienSkin filters and personalized brushes.

Tuesday, October 26

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Visited Adamstown again. You probably know that it's the antique capital of this part of the country. There are scores of dealers, probably hundreds and many display their stuff in glass cases where central attendants hold the keys. Toys are particularly popular this time of year as retailers from NYC, Boston, Philly, Baltimore, Washington, and Atlanta shop for their holiday inventories. A lot of these smaller things are used for holiday decorations in Elizabethan buildings.

This one's the best part of a century old, they told me. So I thought I'd see what it told me so I can tell you. It's the fun of art to discover the subject's song as it emerges during the process.

Some Geek Stuff

Hand Held/florescent light
Canon 7D: ESF 17-85mm, ISO800, f4.6@1/8 - 30mm
PP/CS4: Topaz, Custom Filters and brushes.

Sunday, October 24

Fall Before The Fall

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This soon may be gone!

Rode my bike through the Pekway region of Lancaster County yesterday. Fall’s come onto the Amish farms.

Next month the EPA will begin enforcing rigorous standards here to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Runoff from these farmland’s had an impact upon the Bay which people downstream claim is negative. Even though this is a record year for the heavily fished bay area, the pleasure boaters and fisher people have colluded with the Obama administration to impose draconian regulations upon the nation’s richest non-irrigated farmland here in Lancaster County.

The results may have the same impact that the EPA’s had upon the Central California Valley where in order to protect some odd species, they’ve shut off that area’s water supply almost entirely. The result? Ruined farmers, a greater dependency upon imports (from countries with no similar endangered species regulations}, and an increase in food prices which fall, of course, most dramatically upon the most fragile American families who are struggling to survive in this recession. I suppose those are the unintended consequences of well meaning people trying to do utopian stuff, huh?

So I’m making images before Lancaster County’s farmers, and urban areas are laid waste with EPA regs that will topple them into bankruptcy. Why the urban areas? Because they built water reclamation plants before the EPA was founded. Those operations do not meet the new standards. However, while the Federal government provided funds for communities which never built any treatment plants, it refuses to provide funds to upgrade the existing facilities (remember the Stimulus Bill and all of those never materialized shovel ready projects?).

Since every city in Pennsylvania is teetering upon insolvency as a result of other sorts of mandates imposed but not funded by the Pennsylvania state government, these waste treatment costs will probably be the last straw, creating ghost towns throughout what is the commonwealth’s most economically diverse and lowest unemployment region.

Go figger, huh?

Oh well, enjoy it before winter sets in….

Canon G10
Lancaster County, PA

Processing: Canon G10: 3 handheld wide angle images stitched together in PS/CS4: AlienSkin/SnapArt, Topaz, custom brushes.

PART TWO

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And thirty miles or so south of that image up top there was this one taken last week at a friend's house overlooking the river meeting the tidal waters of The Chesapeake Bay. Here's on the shore of Northeast, Maryland we're watching the runoff of centuries of Yankee farming flowing into the headwater's of the American South's most treasured Atlantic Coast bay. And here they're arguing that the tons of fertilizer and animal droppings carried by the river system have changed the very nature of their life.

Once again this is PS/CS4 stitching together six handheld Canon G10 images taken with its widest angle at ISO 600 as the sun set. I used Topaz to additionally enhance the dynamic range.

Friday, October 15

Show Poster

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I've been invited to do two shows: one at a gallery, another in a grand public mansion.

Frankly, I dunno if I have another show in me. It is so much work. And they are expensive. I figure I'll need at least twenty prints carefully mounted and probably framed. And perhaps one or two will have to be of a large size. And for what? It was a terrific ego trip to do my last show a couple of years ago. And there were hundreds of people who passed through. Lots of them were friends who were previously unaware of my closet interest in photographic imagery. But, I'm not a professional. I make very little money from my work. I've not submitted to Canon's annual in the past two years. And as you can see from this blog, I've cut back my posting to about six a month or so. Oh, I've got a lot of images I haven't posted in a private stash. But overall, my art is an escape from the rewarding work I do in my day job.

Sooo.... to show or not to show? Or is this blogsite that's viewed by hundreds of people a month enough of a show? Heck, I still haven't repaired all the damage to this site caused by Apple's cancelation of my website service (see Rotten Apple in the column up there on the right for an explanation).

The larger show could be as early as December, but I don't think I want to rush all of that work in the next four or so weeks. Suggestions anyone?

ON THE OTHER HAND....

I am almost out of business cards for this blogsite. Maybe instead of poster for a show, this might make a useful image, full-bleed, for that card? Again, thoughts?

Friday, October 8

The Legate Abruptly Returned

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No one expected him so swiftly. No… the Pope imagined his envoy would require years to subtly study the curious beings on their exotic world.

Yet here he came to the Door of Time’s Tunnel. And curiously this legate who moved always midst a whirl of attendants returned… alone.

•••

Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Canon 40D. PS/CS4. Alien Skin:Bokeh. Custom brushes/textures.

Wednesday, October 6

Ben Again

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I started with a clear idea of how I wanted to present Benjamin. Every now and then you hear an author claim that the characters took over the story. And that's what happened here. Benjamin decided that this is the he way wanted me to present him. No, I don't mean the boy who stood in front of that flag. Nope, I mean the character Ben in this image. As the process developed, this is the story arc we mounted. So much of art emerges in the process, huh?

Enjoy....

Saturday, October 2

Restoration • YEA!

As you know (or can find out by clicking upon "Rotten Apple Explained" on the right-hand sidebar. See it?) a massive number of my blog's images were deleted as a result of the caprice of Apple, Inc. Sigh. Well anyway... I'm slowly but surely restoring hundreds and hundreds of postings and doing it by portfolios. So... I hope that you'll visit them as the come back on line by clicking on the appropriate portfolio there on the right-hand sidebar as they appear.

It's a lot of work gang! And I will really be in your debt if you'll visit some of them and let me know if all is coming into place? And of course, new comments on particular postings will especially warm my heart.

Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks...

Ted

********************
FALL COMES TO EAST DENNIS


THERE'S A PROBLEM
WITH FALL
IT LACKS
A HAPPY ENDING....

Tuesday, September 28

Katelyn Again

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Do our eyes grow smaller, or our heads larger? Hmmm?

Monday, September 27

Nude And Descending Staircase

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Among the lost art (See Rotten Apple Explainedup there in the right hand column) was an image I created during a visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. But today I wondered how that image would look as my own artistic take on the art that we (American taxpayers) own. So I wondered reeeeeeely hard and ----- POOF! Lookit this! Now I'm not wondering.

Sunday, September 26

Thanks Flo

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Yesterday I uploaded a couple of images that I put together for a friend's jazz group. Take a look at Flo's comments. They were as precisely good as advice gets. The things needed more grit and smoky-jazzy feel. She pointed out that the guys were dressed oddly for jazz. That the drum's backlight was distracting. That It probably needed some wording. She wondered why I straightened the original image when the original cockeyed shot gave it more presence. Yep... all terrific comments. Which sent me back to the beginning... as it should have... Even the typeface I'd chosen wasn't JAZZY enough. And the text colors, while cool as that drum, weren't hot. And even cool jazz is HOT!

Right? Of course right.... Here's take 2. Comments? Lemme know.

Saturday, September 25

The Jazz Tones

Last week my business magazines celebrated their tenth anniversary. Yippeee! And we had a reception at the Penn Square Marriott in Lancaster. My friend Art Lumsden is a super successful CEO, he has another buddy who's a prominent attorney, and another who's heavy into IT selling. But... but just incidentally on weekends they are The Jazz Tones. They were the entertainment and Art asked if I'd snap a publicity picture for them. From the choices he selected this one.....
Which after straightening and color balancing looked like this.....
But of course I could not leave alone. Thought it might be useable as a poster. So? Wuddaya think of the final image on the bottom here? <- Click here
Incidentally, I did not use a flash... all natural light with my D70 at f4 and 1/13th/sec at ISO 3200 through my Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6. Is their grain? Uh-Huh. But I wanted a sense of nightclub grit so I really dialed up the ISO. Thing is, I had to add some grain to the final image since even at ISO 3200 these images are very acceptable even at large size!

Wednesday, September 22

Barn Wall

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Wandering around north county. In a barn there were some old pictures hanging on the wall. Discolored, faded... you know. Found some water damage but this one was under glass in its frame. Fun to watch it pop back out.

The D70's got a great processor in the dim florescent light. Great capturing color balance in the auto white mode. Oh yeah... I did cheat and add a texture screen and diddled in both Topaz and Alien Skin's Snap art. And, um, maybe I usedCS4's warp tool to create more of a 3D feeling. Okay...okay... I repainted the colors and altered the palette to make the feeling explode. And yeah, I warmed up the exposure a bunch.

But other than that... nada!

Fun, huh?

Monday, September 20

Nostalgic Or Historic Or Fabled?

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Does nostalgia belong only to the living? Are fables only as real as an imagination? And where does history fit between the two? I'm just sayin'....

***

Geek stuff: Canon 7D, texture, Topaz, AlienSkin SnapArt Oil, Table Top Art.

Tuesday, September 14

KatelynRose Is 1

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Visited Pittsburg last weekend. My wife's grandniece is one year old. It was all about her. So, that's what I took pictures of. Free model, y'know?

Friday, September 10

Anniversary Today

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On September 10, 2006 I launched ImageFiction. And I am not home today... nowhere near my images. So... so... since Apple managed to lose my original, first-ever, post... (See Rotten Apple Explained over there on the right)... I thought you might like, as much as I liked, "Heavy On Metal". Y'know, I'm still reeeeeely proud of this. Happy anniversary to me.. Tah-Dah!

Sunday, September 5

Rebecca knew better but...

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naughty Samuel had skittered through the door into the darkness toward the crumbling Herr place. She ran behind him in a night momentarily lit by a Fall moon breaking the cloud spattered sky.

Grabbing up Sam, Becca twirled toward home when from the abandoned place she heard, or perhaps felt, a whisper.



Camera: my Verizon cellphone’s 1.5 mpx. Had it with me just as I heard… or perhaps felt… the whisper :-)

PP: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: Bokeh2, SnapArt:2 -> Pointillism. Custom brushes. Construct from images found at a country tag sale and lonely farm-in-the-night pix.

Wednesday, September 1

A Jewelry Bridge

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They have made precious bauble art here for centuries.
All along the bridge, on each side are some of Italy's finest jewelers.
Now here's the question...
If you stand here at sunrise...
And squint your eyes way way down...
Wouldn't you swear that the bridge itself looks
Like the stuff that's made
Inside?

I'm just sayin'....

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The Geek Stuff

Ponte Veccio: Florence, Italy
Canon 20D EOS 10-22 mm @ 11mm, f7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 200 – 9:12am
PS3, Topaz and AlienSkin SnapArt Oil, custom brushes.

Sunday, August 29

Late Summer Saturday Morning

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Does it matter which war? Is he any less lonely here?

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Early bike ride, Saturday morning, August 28, 2010
Canon 7D: EOS 10-22 f/3.5-45.: f16, 1/800sec, ISO200, -3f
PS4, Topaz filter

Saturday, August 28

Power Points

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Two in the AM
Sax snarl from speakers
Neon blares power
Careening it back
From designer points
Onto hot summer
Blur.
+

Adamstown, Lancaster County, PA
Canon 7D: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: Bokeh2, Snap Art – Custom designed brushes.

Geek Stuff: Visited Adamstown last weekend. It's about ten minutes north of Lancaster. AND... it's the antique capital of the Northeast. There are scores of dealers. Two of the largest are in-door walk throughs with vendors renting stalls. One is a monstrous glade with vendors in tents planted beneath huge shade trees. Some are box stores filled with crystal cases, each leased to a different merchant. And others are traditional antique shops.

Which means tens of thousands of things are all out there for my lens. So... I collect the items which let me tell the stories bouncing about inside my head. Or the stories that those things set a-abouncing. Or both.

Adamstown is about inspiration.

Monday, August 16

Benjamin - Act Two

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On July 9th, I posted the first picture of Benjaimn from the Fourth of July picnic. Here's two.

Geek stuff....

My Canon 7D through the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens, Post? PS4, Topaz, Bokeh2, and Alien Skin's SnapArt oil.

Friday, August 13

What?

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Truth is universally
Objective…
Emotion is universally
Subjective…
Ambiguity is what
Happens when
They collide.

Which is, I guess, what artists do?

Canon 7D: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.
PS4 (custom brushes): Topaz3, Alien Skin: Bokeh2 (beta)

Sunday, August 8

Uncertainty

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My friend wants to grow his business... step again on the accelerator... But... but... So much not the change he had been waiting for.... Hire? How much will it cost? Who knows? Borrow? How will investment be taxed? Grow? How much will it be redistributed? Incentive? Yeah... he remembers incentives. But now there's a new normal... Which is still... uncertain....

Saturday, August 7

Remember Chris?

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Once, you might recall, before Apple flummoxed away years of my carefully stored images (see the link on the right "Rotten Apple Explained"}, I posted a portrait of the many personalities of my friend Chris. Chris the writer, Chris the photographer, Chris the media mogul.... And I still think it's the image which should illustrate his story when New Yorker, Esquire, or Fortune Magazines finally get around to writing it. But, time has passed, and now there's Zach

Zach is Chris's grandson. And if you look reeeeeeeel closely... I wonder... Can you see three personalities coming into focus? Can you see the mark this guy's going to make? Can you see the strength of his genes? Hello Zach.

Wednesday, August 4

Roger

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Roger and Jo found themselves in their surprise party last saturday. He's a craggy guy, eh? Does he look like a gunslinger? He should.

Tech stuff.... this was NOT a Bokeh enhanced image. Nope, the bokeh here was resident in my tack sharp Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. It is a wonderful piece of glass, particularly for the candid portrait artist. The dynamic range, sharpness, and contrast rarely fail to make an image pop. Plus my new 7D has focusing power that's astonishing. I took a few hundred images that afternoon and maybe six were out of focus! This will become a classic lens... you can bank on it. Well, given the price, maybe you have to, eh?

Tuesday, July 27

In Pompei There Lies A Gate

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I wanted mystery... A sinister foreshadowing. "Ahah!" I says to myself. "Self, you can get that with Bokeh2 and then use AlienSkin's SnapArt Oil Paint to hold all of the elements together.

And what you may wonder are all of those elements? Well here's another tiring picture of me seemingly lost in deep explanation.... You know, revealing the essence of an astonishing truth? And meantime there's this glow coming from within a room barred off to the public in the very heart of the ancient Roman city. Now how to meld them convincingly onto a story arc?

Meld, weld... whatever. The trick was to pull the two ancient images together seamlessly. And... and.... Well, what you think?

Monday, July 26

Cheep Phone & Bokeh2

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Okay, I am psyched over the cheeeeeepo camera and lens inside of my bottom of the line Verizon - LG - Clamshell phone camera. It's always in my pocket, right? And now I've got this Bokeh2 thing to test. So when I saw a classic red 57 Corvette convertible sitting on a grassy field as the late afternoon sun was setting.... well "Hmmmmmm...." I says to myself.... "Hmmmmmm...."

And this is what happened. Izzit hot or not?

GEEK STUFF:

Well, the cool thing about the camera phone is that there isn't any geek stuff. No ISO, no f/stop, no speed, no focal length. NADA! I'm guessing that the aperture smallish so that the thing's always set to infinity. I'm guessing that there's some sort of electronic enhancement to the processor that tries to find a preset dynamic range throughout the frame. The idea is ... I don't care. Point and shoot. So here's the virgin image from my FlashCard. The rest is PS4 and Bokeh2. Wheeeee!

Sunday, July 25

Testing Narrow DOF

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Fortunately I have this virgin image (direct from my FlashCard) of a cooperative model who I got to stand outside of the gym against a corrugated red tin wall on the anniversary of his first full year of dieting and training (July 9, 2010). This secluded side of the building was in shade with the main indirect sunlight coming right to left. There was an unpainted cement wall off to the left which acted as a natural reflector. All of the light sources were natural and sufficiently bright at 6:14AM on a July morning to allow a low ISO (200). In other words, perfect conditions to capture a tack sharp image with max Depth OF Field (DOF), particularly from some 15 feet away from the model.

The goal here on my fifth test of the beta version of Bokeh2 is much more modest than the former playful attempts to use it as a stand-alone graphic device. Now I'm looking at its ability to compliment an image without imposing itself upon the viewer. I wanted to make it as invisible as possible to simulate the natural DOF of a long lens opened to it widest aperture. To that end I cropped the original layer and used PS4's content aware scale to turn the image into a horizontal. Of course I eliminated distracting imperfections in the tin wall behind the model.

Why a horizontal? Well the original is a snapshot with the model standing dead-center almost up against the red corrugated surface. So this altered composition applies the rule of thirds to powerfully draw attention to the key subject.

Okay, now I duplicated the cropped layer and then opened that duplicate in the Bokeh2 filter. There I simply chose from the preset lenses simulated in the application and picked the Canon 300mm f/2.8L@f2.8. I rendered the new layer, masked it, then painted away the blur over the model.

From there I duplicated the visible onto a new layer and using an adjustment curves layer, reconfigured the dynamic range of the image to emphasize the highlights in the wall while darkening its shadows. Again, I masked out the model. Which was pretty much the entire operation (except for a couple of sharpening steps of course).


Finished Image & Geek Data:
Camera: Canon 7D, Lens Canon EF-S 17-85mm, Focal Length 47mm, Aperture f/5.4, 1/80sec, ISO 200.
Processed: PS4, Bokeh2

Saturday, July 24

Awwwwww.....

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Cute enough for ya? Sometimes it's enough to go for the "Ahhhhhhhh!"

Here's my wife's grand niece KatlynRose meeting my dog Rocco. Or is that the other way about? Anyway, it's yet a fourth chance to kick Bokeh2 to its extreme, this time playing with the apps ability to mimic LensBaby's selective point of focus. Again this series was captured with my Canon G10 at 5300 ISO and is a nightmare of noise. Which of course cries out for the softening powers of Bokeh2.

Friday, July 23

Catallegorical

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Bokeh2 #3

Are they
Coming back
For us
Tonight?

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There's a surreal quality to Bokeh. So... that brought me to this here cat... Heh heh heh...

Wednesday, July 21

Bokeh2-Part 2

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Let's try Bokeh2 with a tad of help from SnapArt2 shall we? Note, I took a passel of pix of KatelyinRose last Saturday with my G10, point-and-shoot. That meant shooting at a high and noisy ISO. So, what to do? Well, I'd intended to use the images as a test of the new Bokeh2 in combo with PS4 and knew as a consequence that noise would be no problem. See what I mean?

Comments?

Monday, July 19

Bokeh2 - Tester

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Alien Skin has asked me to test the beta version of its newly developed Bokeh2. Here's a first try, done very quickly. The only filter tool is Bakeh2 in PS4. It is very smooth.

Sunday, July 18

OMG The Baby's Playing With it!

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Not a good idea to let kids play with the dollar. It'll break.