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Archive for the ‘Classes I’ve taken’ Category

Foto Friday, Week 38: Text Overlay

Friday, September 25th, 2015

This week’s lesson was to create a text overlay, but rather than simply have text on top of the photo, to make it “transparent” and “embossed” so that you can read it, but it is really just the photo with a bit of distortion to create the lettering.  Of course, I pushed the envelope a bit.  I was short on time, too!   We get lessons on Sundays…OH!

NEWS FLASH:  Ricky Tims will offer a 52-Week Photography Challenge course again next year!  Not quite sure what form it will take, ditto for the “Year Two” for those of use in this year’s challenge.  Anyway, if any of you have been interested in really learning to USE your DSLR or Photoshop, boy is this a great class and challenge!   You learn something every week.  Sometimes it is design and composition, sometimes photoshop, sometimes both, and the time required for the assignments isn’t crazy busy.  You can squeeze it out in a little time or, if you really want to plumb the depths, take lots of time.  So it works for busy schedules.  Anyway, FYI!  Keep an eye on Ricky’s FB feed/announcements, and I’ll post here and on FB when he/we know more. 

What FUN! I (sorry Ricky) veered a tiny bit from the lesson by using the lighten and multiply plus color overlay (tho the color doesn’t realy show). I used Inner Bevel, Chisel Soft, 300%, Lighten (white) 59%, Multiply (dark rust not black) 30%. Color Overlay was a bright rust foreground color ostensibly at 75% opacity. Still I like how the lettering repeats the colors of the grass fronds. Only two days home between trips plus laundry plus son’s high school stuff means one chance only to play on this during the week. Will try more when I get home, but after I sleep! Ricky, I don’t know how you do your schedule! OH, to get the wave I used Arc high and Arc lower, separating the quote from Winnie the Pooh into three segments.

What FUN! I (sorry Ricky) veered a tiny bit from the lesson by using the lighten and multiply plus color overlay (tho the color doesn’t realy show). I used Inner Bevel, Chisel Soft, 300%, Lighten (white) 59%, Multiply (dark rust not black) 30%. Color Overlay was a bright rust foreground color ostensibly at 75% opacity. Still I like how the lettering repeats the colors of the grass fronds. OH, to get the wave I used Arc high and Arc lower, separating the quote from Winnie the Pooh into three segments.

OK, back to Sundays:  the lesson shows up in the wee hours of Sunday, and this week we were driving Eli home from a college visit in Pennsylvania.  I took photos from a mostly moving car.  Right.   At least I know enough now to know I need a wicked fast shutter speed.  But we were slowed down at an exit going from one interstate to another (THANK YOU Deirdre and Timi for the info about taking I-84 to avoid the Tappan Zee and near-NYC traffic!), and I was able to get several good shots of these waving grasses.   Since it was downright brisk (night temps into the mid 40s) when we got home to Maine, I felt the Winnie the Pooh quote was apt.

I didn’t make my lettering as transparent as Ricky’s example, which is kinda what he wanted.  But I got the concept.  I wanted mine to stand out a bit more.  I also added the “wave” by breaking the text into three sections so I could arch them in a wave, like grasses blowing in the wind.   Anyway, this photo won’t win any photography competitions, but it was a good lesson, and one that I can see using again, and in a way adapting to my art quilts, too.   FUN!

Foto Friday: Found Alphabet

Friday, August 28th, 2015

This week’s assignment was to find a letter in the alphabet–specifically one of your initials–for your assignment.  Since I teach this exercise in my quilting design class, I didn’t want to go with the expected like a creek or shoreline or the neck of the pink plastic flamingo.   So I opted to take a photo of the top of the dining room chair, duplicate, flip, and tweak in Photoshop.  Fun!

Egads what a production!  Such a simple idea:  merge the tops of my dining room chair into an “S.”  Took eons with deleting, blending, re-doing, etc.  Finally used liquify when I couldn’t manage to blend the variations in the blue wall!  But I didn’t want to go find a stream or hose, so here we are!

Egads what a production! Such a simple idea: merge the tops of my dining room chair into an “S.” Took eons with deleting, blending, re-doing, etc. Finally used liquify when I couldn’t manage to blend the variations in the blue wall! But I didn’t want to go find a stream or hose, so here we are!

Been busy dyeing fabric and puttering about the house this week.  Hope to have a few more posts soon!

 

Foto Friday: Old Paint and a Tenth Blog-o-versary

Friday, August 21st, 2015

Hi everyone!  Happy Friday!  It is, according to my calendar, my TENTH anniversary of blogging?  How the heck did that happen, ten YEARS?   So I’m celebrating with TWO posts today.  The first is my Foto Friday from my 52-Week Photography Challenge class with Ricky Tims, and later today I’ll post about my Dinner@8 interview.

So this week’s challenge was Old Paint.  Here are my top three choices:

This is the photo I submitted as my class assignment. A picturesque (means falling apart) buidling on our property. LOVED this shot but it needed some work. Deepend the leaf shadows, then dodged the shadows on the left part of the hinge so it was more visible. Reduced highlights a tiny bit. Selected the cracked windowpane and lightened as it was too dark—overpowered the rest of the door. Summer in Maine!

This is the photo I submitted as my class assignment. A picturesque (means falling apart) buidling on our property. LOVED this shot but it needed some work. Deepend the leaf shadows, then dodged the shadows on the left part of the hinge so it was more visible. Reduced highlights a tiny bit. Selected the cracked windowpane and lightened as it was too dark—overpowered the rest of the door. Summer in Maine!

Here are a couple more:

This might have been my choice but once I was home (and didn't want to drive 22 miles back into town round trip). Had high hopes for this one, but disappointed in the depth of field…f/13 not enough. Would have been better with flowers and siding crisp. May try to head into town and try again.

This might have been my choice but once I was home (and didn’t want to drive 22 miles back into town round trip) I saw on my laptop that it wasn’t crisp. Had high hopes for this one, but disappointed in the depth of field…f/13 not enough. Would have been better with flowers and siding crisp. May try again the next time I’m in town with my camera.

Another shot of the picturesque (aka decrepit) building on our property. Why no door on the right? Because it LITERALLY came apart into a crumpled heap. And the plywood that has covered up the opening blew down late last winter. Need to fix. Soon. Autumn is trying really hard to begin! Decreased shadows a tiny bit, knocked back highlights a bit more. Punched up contrast.

Another shot of the picturesque (aka decrepit) building on our property. Why no door on the right? Because it LITERALLY came apart into a crumpled heap. And the plywood that has covered up the opening blew down late last winter. Need to fix. Soon. Autumn is trying really hard to begin!
Decreased shadows a tiny bit, knocked back highlights a bit more. Punched up contrast.

Other photos from this week are on my Flickr site, here. Happy Blogoversary everyone!

 

Foto Friday: Radial Symmetry

Thursday, August 13th, 2015
A tiny scrunch on the light end in Levels, smart sharpen.  Otherwise straight from the camera.

A tiny scrunch on the light end in Levels, smart sharpen. Otherwise straight from the camera.

Each week I learn a bit more.  This week’s photo challenge was Radial Symmetry.  I love Hawaiian quilts for that very reason, and wanted to try to make my own kaleidescope.  Jeannie Sumjall-Ajero has great software that, alas, works only on PCs, and I don’t want to bother with partitioning my hard drive, buying and installing Windows just to run her software.  So I tried to do it on my own in Photoshop.  It was a bear!  And in the end, I liked this photo of the bee best.  If I were to do it over I’d increase the ISO so I could increase the f-stop one or two to get both the front florets AND the bee sharp while keeping the background blurred out.  The background was our (ugh) dark brown house, but the combination of fast shutter and shallow f-stop just turned it to dark, which I like.

Here are my  better attempts, but after about 5 hours I threw in the towel!

A good idea, but I lack the knowledge of Photoshop.  Really wanted to create a 22.5 degree wedge/triangle, have 16-point symmetry, and a mask to create a star like a Mariner’s Compass.   Totally beyond me.  I’ve done so many edits I have no idea what all I’ve done.  This isn’t perfect—seams show, but enough for now!

A good idea, but I lack the knowledge of Photoshop. Really wanted to create a 22.5 degree wedge/triangle, have 16-point symmetry, and a mask to create a star like a Mariner’s Compass. Totally beyond me. I’ve done so many edits I have no idea what all I’ve done. This isn’t perfect—seams show, but enough for now!

RadialSymmetry45Grn

45 degree symmetry of bittersweet leaves and berries.

Another variation on the yellow-pink.  Like the other one better.

Another variation on the yellow-pink. Like the other one better.

Busy week:  Eli home from wrestling camp (pick up in Boston at 11:49 pm…home at 3:45 am…ugh ugh ugh).  Lots of work whacking back the goldenrod–bought a new brush cutter attachment for my Ryobi–LOVE IT!  Hair cut, visiting with Kathy, ice cream.  In other words, summer in Maine!   Also working on a project for family (lap quilts) and finishing an article for Machine Quilting Unlimited.  Got it sent off (it will publish in January), so more time for gardening.  And Saturday I head down to Lowell, Mass. to the Whistler House Museum of Art where I have two works in the current art quilt exhibit.  The Reception is Saturday–since my quilt is on the publicity I wanted to go Even MORE!   Stay tuned!

Foto Friday, Silhouette

Friday, August 7th, 2015

This past weekend we went on a 4 1/2 day trip to Nova Scotia and home via New Brunswick.   Gardening work and unpacking and starting on an article has distracted me (gee, who me?) from blogging, but promise I will.  This past week’s lesson and challenge in the Ricky Tims 52 Week Photography Challenge class was silhouette.   I tried a lot of things, but due to travel wasn’t at a time/place where I could do sunrise or sunset silhouettes.  So I ended up submitting a photo of the rigging of the Bluenose II (the Bluenose original is on the Canadian dime) in Lunenburg harbor.   Right click on photos to see larger.

adjusted levels to darken the masts, smart sharpen.  Lightened the sky by adjusting the blues slightly.  Slightly cropped on the right. The Bluenose II, a replica of the Bluenose which is on the back of the Canadian dime.  Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  I liked the play of lines across the image.

adjusted levels to darken the masts, smart sharpen. Lightened the sky by adjusting the blues slightly. Slightly cropped on the right.
The Bluenose II, a replica of the Bluenose which is on the back of the Canadian dime. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I liked the play of lines across the image.

Major thanks to Valerie Hearder, an art quilter in Nova Scotia, for replying to my email and suggesting stops and things to see between Yarmouth and Mahone Bay and Peggy’s Cove.  More anon!

Lightened vignetting in the top corners, crunched levels to darken masts.  Punched up sky with vibrance. The Bluenose II, a reproduction of the Bluenose on the back of the Canadian dime.

Lightened vignetting in the top corners, crunched levels to darken masts. Punched up sky with vibrance.
The Bluenose II, a reproduction of the Bluenose on the back of the Canadian dime.

The masts to the tippy top of the Bluenose II.  Essentially no edits.

The masts to the tippy top of the Bluenose II. Essentially no edits.