29 Aug 13. A couple months back I began working on a beta piece of software that was described as a "color program" to me by one of the company beta directors. When I first began testing it in its earliest stages my initial reaction was well, this is one filter I won't be purchasing. But as the beta program progressed my attitude about it changed and by the time the beta program concluded I decided that I rather liked it. Since that time I've used it with a few images with differing results, by which I mean that I found different ways of employing it in such a manner that I find it useful. The filter ships with over a 1,000 presets, each of which is infinity adjustable. The filter is still in need of refinements and the company is one that constantly updates its products never asking for an additional dime, so there is no doubt it will mature with time. If you are the curious type, the filter is called ReStyle and you can learn about it here. I've employed it for this Theatrical Thursday image of a group of poppy pods. Jan's immediate response to seeing it was that the poppies look like the glass watering pods that control the watering of her potted plants although what I had in mind was something more along the lines of a piece of stained glass art. You of course may see something entirely different, which is just fine, as this image is meant to be totally artsy. I made several other versions of this same shot with the filter, most of which are more along the lines of a real plant, but with slightly modified colors all of which could come off as being accurate. The beauty of the filter is the ease with which you can make such adjustments with virtually no effort. If you like playing with your images in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, or photoFXlab, download a trial copy and do some playing. I think you'll have some fun even if you don't save your efforts. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f/ 7.1.
30 Aug 13. Having moved from Ballard where I had extremely easy access to the boats and scenes at Fisherman's Terminal, I find that I really miss the photo opportunities that I took basically for granted for the 6 years we lived in that house before moving over here. One of the fun things I liked to do, as many of you may recall, is shoot reflections of the boats. When the water was smooth one could get some very nice inverted images of the vessels, and depending on the angle of the camera to the water and the distance from the water, the images could be varied greatly. When it was breezy, the shots took on a more creative look, such as the one for today, and I came to like both types equally well, which meant that every visit was a winner. I've taken the shot for today, cropped it by perhaps 2%, cloned out a small piece that was distracting, and added a very small amount of texture enhancement to portions of the reflection and none of the plain water. This is an image that I believe looks better from a distance as opposed to sitting right in front of your computer screen. Move back a few feet and compare the views. If you look at this critically you'll basically see nothing but ovals of color; relax your gaze and the boat should materialize. Nikon D300; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.
