"Three Narrow Dress Ties" Photo-manipulation - Picasa 3.9 - Corel PSP X3

Narrow Ties 1

Narrow Ties 2

I wanted to play with photography today. I decided to take some photographs of some older narrow dress ties that I have in my closet. No, I can't remember the last time I wore these ties. The narrow tie is back in style, I think, so I thought I would work with them as subject matter.

I tied each one in a single Windsor knot style and hung them on a hanger using safety pins for the two on the outside, draping the center one from the hanger loop. I got my Canon Rebel XTi out, mounted the ties and hanger on the wall in my studio office and shot a few photographs with differing settings. I did use the flash, though the room is pretty bright.

After I took them I loaded them onto my computer and opened Picasa 3.9. I used that to browse the new folder of tie photographs.

The first photograph I selected is the one with the black signature. I opened it with Corel PhotoPaint and adjusted the saturation by 15 for more color punch. I used the Tone Curve just lightly for a bit of depth. I saved both the large file and a medium size file.

The second photograph I picked has the white signature. I used Picasa 3.9's Lomo on it and also saved the large file, resampling a medium file in PhotoPaint.

I brought the medium files into Corel PSP Pro X3 and added black borders of 25 pixels each. I played around with some of the Picture Frames but did not like the end result. I resized to 300 dpi and made to fit my blog.

Now I feel like wearing these narrow ties again. Go figure.

Listening to Acoustic Blues Guitar on Google+

Grunge Golden Shadows - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Simple image of a High Contrast nature for today's post. I opened this photograph in PhotoPaint and cropped it, losing some wainscoting on the bottom. I used a similar technique for my high contrast images as in recent posts. Local Equalization for the contrasts and the Tone Curve for depth.

Filter Forge's Photo Effects for a color boost. Which gave a lovely golden cast to the right hand side of the photograph. I really like the shadows on this piece. I used my flash diffuser of which you can see some reflection, but it is not overwhelming, and the shadows are more subtle.

A film frame from Filter Forge's Frames finished the image. As you can see they are Van Gogh fans in this household, with two prints of his paintings on this wall arrangement.

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Now playing: Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall - Part 1
via FoxyTunes

Grunge Still Life - Lamps - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

A couple of High Contrast still life's are today's subject. I was visiting and snapped these photographs using the regular flash with a flash diffuser on to minimize the shadows you usually get with them. My fellow photographer David Benjamin introduced me to diffusers they do soften the harsh shadows well.

I opened these photographs of lamps in PhotoPaint and cropped them both. I really focused on the fern lamp in the one photograph, and the table arrangement in the other.

I applied the Local Equalization tool for the high contrasts and then added back in depth with the Tone Curve. I again went to Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrance for boosting the color and this time I did not up the saturation.

I added film frames in Filter Forge's Frame Freepack. I don't do a lot of still life work but I enjoyed doing these images.

I really like the bronze colors of the second photograph of the fern lamp. The combination of the lighting and the applied tools allowed the color to blend and speak up. I liked the wood grain of the base of this lamp as well.

The first image was taken later than the second and I thought the balance of the picture and plant and other items on the table made a nice composition. The unshaded window in the background added some interest, if you look closely there is a bird at the top center on the lawn.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Bo Diddley Fun
via FoxyTunes

Coffee Cups - Grunge - High Contrast - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

A diversion from Guitars and Portraits today. This photograph was taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka with the Canon Rebel XTi. In it you can see coffee cups in a row along a deep red ledge in our kitchen.

I opened with PhotoPaint and created another High Contrast Grunge image, using my favorite workflow techniques that I do for these types of images.

I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrant and KPT's Collection Lens Flare for a boost and some flare. It's a departure from my favorite motifs but is still in the vein of high contrast and grunge images. It has depth and color and was enjoyable to create.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Talk It Over
via FoxyTunes

Another Straw Hat and Dress Shoes - Paint.NET - Painter 11 - Watercolors

I had taken so many photographs of the Hat and Dress Shoes that I decided to do another image based on this photograph. I prepped the photograph in Paint.NET as you can see by the first image. I used the Pencil Sketch filter and upped the pencil size and range this gave me a grayscale image in RGB. I took it one step further and applied the Ink sketch filter for additional detail and line.

I took that image into Painter 11 and selected the Splashing Watercolor brush Smooth Wash, which acted almost like a tinting brush. I applied the differing colors from the basic color palette, leaving a subtle watercolor look and feel.


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Now playing: Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
via FoxyTunes

Still Life - Dinner Setting - Texture

I was browsing in Picasa 3 for photo-
graphs to do some digital work on and dis-
covered this one which I had taken some time ago. I decided to use it for today's image. It is simply a dinner setting of dishes on a placemat.

I resampled the image to increase the size a bit to 96dpi in PhotoPaint. Taking it into Paint.NET I applied the Effects> Artistic> Ink Sketch> to it at full color and I upped the inking quite a bit. I then applied a painterly filter to it for that painted touch.

Back in PhotoPaint I applied Filter Forge's watercolor frame, with some adjustments to give it a nice feel. I saved my file and opened it in Painter 8 and used Apply Surface Texture> Image Luminance to the piece. This gives it a great texture.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Polly Come Home Cover
via FoxyTunes