An old shot from the London, England trip Chris and I took a year and a half ago. I have been holding onto this one because of the work I felt was needed on it (Photoshop work that is). Unfortunately I can't get the bus out of the background as there really isn't anything to clone into that spot, but it is far better than it was originally.Last night was my final Photoshop for Photographers (PHO5593) course. Trust me when I say, I am very happy about it! The course was long and I didn't really learn anything, though I was able to refine my Photoshop skills and I did manage to pick up a few shortcuts along the way. The instructor sounded exactly like Jay Ingrim from The Daily Planet which I thought was going to be super cool, but turned out to be awful since he didn't say things I wanted Jay to say (like how awesome I am).
I truly believe Algonquin should have a weekend course that one can go to and prove that they know Photoshop so that they don't have to take this beginners course, but they don't and you need the credit to get the certificate.
Anyway, during the class we were going to have a final assignment/test. I thought it was going to be small examples of the things we have done during the course. Perhaps three images; one old, damaged photo to restore, one image to correct colour and other photographic errors, and then another one that would be something creative. I was wrong. We only had one image to create, a composite one from about 12 space images and one image of a car. We were to make an advertisement of sorts that would show how "out of this world" the BMW in the picture was. We were able to use the image however we liked and alter them in anyway we saw fit. Below is my final image:
It is made from 6 images put on a nearly black background; Mars, the moon, the space station, the 'whirly' galaxy, the stars and the nebula dot over the i in ordinary and of course the car. That sounds like seven images, but the stars are from the larger Nebula image so I am counting it as six. I changed the colouring of the car as it used to be blue and merged the images together quite well I think. I am really happy with how well it fits together, especially since the stars were a last minute addition and really pulled the writing into the image itself. There were some really great ideas in the class and in the examples he showed us from previous years, but I really like how clean my image is and the instructor called it that himself. He seemed to like how I treated the images and put them together and since I was able to use editing techniques (including curves, hue/saturation, and cloning/healing brush), as well as layers and channels, he was impressed with my work. He gave me an A, which is a mark I was not expecting at all. I am happy with it though.
Now I just have to wait and see what I get in the course. I have been able to tell with the other courses I have taken, but my marks in the course have been so varied I have no idea what I will get in the end. Hopefully it will good.
Inspiration for my photography comes from many places but I have always been incredibly inspired by Yousuf Karsh when it comes to portrait photography, as I am sure most portrait photographers are. His work captures the true character of the subject and it seems so effortless. He was truly a photographic genius.
Dave and I went to the Karsh Festival at the Science and Tech Museum this weekend and it was even better than I thought it was going to be. Not only were there some amazing photos displayed but also some of his tools for developing and retouching photos. There was also a portrait studio set up where you could take Karsh-like portraits. The camera present was a 'view camera' like Karsh might have used at some point (obviously it was incredibly basic and was really a digital camera in the framing of a view camera). And Dave and I tried it out.
If I had been thinking I would have used my camera with their lighting setup so that I could have gotten some higher quality photos, but it was fun nonetheless.
I don't know what type of flower these are, but they are really bright and colourful and with the sun hitting them head-on, they just screamed to be photographed.
Once we got into the Butterfly Pavilion I decided that a tripod was going to be quite essential to this trip. Funny how you forget just how dark the interior exhibits are.
This little feline had the biggest eyes - he was obviously nocturnal and wasn't too pleased to be awake so early in the day. He moved around a fair bit, which made him pretty difficult to shoot.
Do you remember the Rhinos from Babar? This guy reminds me of one of the nice ones, though there weren't many on that show huh?!
...if you scratch mine.
The butterfly pavilion at the Toronto Zoo is quite small, but really how much space to creatures as small as these need?
I want to plant irises in my garden this year because not only are they beautiful and definitely up there on my list of favourite flowers, but they bloom right after tulips so my garden would be full of life right up to the point where I could plant smaller summer flowers like marigolds, etc. They also need little to no work, similar to tulips, which is good as I do not have a green thumb.The second assignment was due this evening for my Photoshop course at Algonquin College. I was so happy with my image, my restoration work and my colourizing but not so pleased with my grades. I got an A- in restoration and only a B+ in my colourizing.
The original image I used, my Aunt Carol on a pinto pony, can be seen above and the restoration work I did prior to colourizing can be seen below.
And the final image is below. I think it is worth more than an A- and B+ but apparently the instructor did not.
Once again I must console myself with the fact that no one in the course really did any better and most of them got lower marks. But I strive for perfection, especially when it comes to my photography.
There are only three more classes left once tonight is complete and then I get two months off from night courses which will be a really nice treat. I am still looking forward to taking something more photography based again though in the fall.
There was a tank of Jellyfish at the Toronto Zoo and I spent about 15 minutes there with my tripod and camera attempting to capture the perfect image. I took several photographs and though none of them are quite perfect, I am happy with how they turned out.
The instructor for my Photoshop course was my main inspiration for obtaining this shot but not in the way one might think. During one of our courses he mentioned that he had been asked to take a shot with the Tulip Festival tulips in front of the Parliament Buildings (most likely meaning the Peace Tower). He told us that since no shot existed naturally this year, he was going to have to Photoshop them together. Without a great amount of effort, Dave and I were able to find two locations where you could get a shot like this. There were others directly out front and if you crossed the barriers around the grass out there, you could have easily get even more shots and some with the bright red tulips that everyone loves.
These yellow frilled tulips were in a bed right near Chris' old house on Colonel By Drive.
This little Orangutan reminds me so much of an old man. With his crazy hair and wrinkly pout, he was very cute.
A Golden Tamarin at the Toronto Zoo. These little guys were pretty hard to photograph as the lighting around their exhibit is really low and they move around constantly. But aren't they adorable?!
I thought of doing this as a framing technique a while ago and actually did something along the same lines with several images - just got around to doing this one now as I needed something for an opening image on my website designs.
Avebury Rocks in London. This is part of an absolutely enormous henge that encompasses the tiny village. The majority of the rocks still stand today, though portions of them were 'stolen' in days gone by to be used as building materials. It was a miserable, rainy day when we visited, but it was so awesome and I am so happy we took the trip out there.
A Tulip Festival banner near Lansdowne Park during the 2009 festivities.
Winston is owned by Dave's Aunt and Uncle. He is an absolutely giant animal, being a male German Shepherd, but is so sweet and lovable.
Another shots taken at Chris' cottage and the farmers' field around the area. The wind turbines are so neat and the sound they make is almost eery.© Blogger templates Romantico by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
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