Blurry Pictures

I spend a good amount of time in downtown Des Moines. I work downtown and often am in the skywalks over lunch. If you pay attention while you are walking through the skywalks you can see some really cool architecture on the buildings. I took this picture from the skywalks. I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out because the glass looked kind of cruddy. I am not at all surprised that the picture was fuzzy and it proved to be an excellent opportunity to see what the high pass sharpen feature in Paint Shop Pro X does. One of the complications of the features in PSP is that once you select a feature to use you are often given the opportunity to alter the parameters. I generally have no idea what to do with the options I am given. In the high pass sharpen feature you can adjust the strength, radius, and blend mode. For this picture I am comparing the differences in the 3 blend mode options of overlay, hard light, and soft light.

Overlay


Hard light



Soft light



At first glance I thought I liked the hard light picture the best. It is the most clear. However, I think if you look at the square below the lion you can really tell that it is edited. Therefore I guess it would depend on what I am going for. I also think the difference between the soft light and the overlay is minimal. I have to say that the differences between all of the high pass sharpen pictures and the original are amazing.

One Step Photo Fix

My kid is cute. Really cute. I like taking pictures of the boy. This picture isn’t the greatest picture of him but it really shows how easy the One Step Photo Fix is to use and what it does. The picture is of Robby in the living room sitting in the recliner. I don’t know why the picture is dark, probably incorrect flash settings. For the first edit I used the One Step Photo Fix, which is simply the click of the button. As you can see, it really lightens the picture. Unfortunately I think it makes the picture look grainy.



Also I am not all that keen on the walls, recliner, and curtain detracting from the focus (cute boy). I could crop it so Robby takes up more of the focus but I used a geometric effect called circle. It jumbles up the outside of the picture without skewing Robby (the center of the picture) too much.



Both of these effects were very quick to do.

Removing a Shadow

I took a picture of a wall in my house. On it is a picture one of my friends took of the Statue of Liberty and above the picture is an Uppercase Living saying. First I just took the picture but there was a reflection of the flash on the glass of the photograph. I retook the picture without flash and it was much better. When I looked at the picture on the computer I noticed there was a shadow on one side of the picture because we have windows near the picture. I made an attempt to remove the shadow from the picture.

I used the clone feature in Paint Shop Pro X. This feature allows copying sections of the picture while essentially using a paintbrush. There are several "brush" shapes to select. I selected a square with soft edges since the edge of the picture is straight. To select the section to copy I right clicked and then used the left mouse button to begin the cloning process. I went around the right side and top of the picture. I tried to blend the cloned parts with the rest of the wall.



I really zoomed in the picture during this process and it took about 30 minutes to get it done. The cloning feature is really cool and you can do some neat stuff with it but it doesn't happen quickly.

Flash Study

On my Sony digital camera there are 3 basic flash settings. On, Off and SL. I didn’t know what the SL mode meant so I did what any self respecting person in 2010 would do and consulted Google. From the website http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/367004.html, I learned that this setting keeps the shutter speed slow but the flash goes off. It is called the “slow synchro flash mode”. It it intended to be used in darker settings.

I decided to go into the basement and take a picture of an item with each of the flash settings so I could compare the results. My subject is the 15 ball on our pool table. There are no overhead lights on but there is a small window 8-10 feet behind me that faces north. Therefore a bit of light from outside came in since this was during the daytime but not direct sunlight.

The first picture is with the regular flash setting.



The next picture is with the flash SL mode setting.



The last picture is without flash.



I like the picture with the flash SL mode the best. I can see the benefits and now will know when to use it properly. I’m on my way to better pictures already.

What is this All About?

Five years ago, when my son Robby was born, my husband and I started taking a lot of pictures. We have taken thousands of pictures, mostly of Robby. I went to a workshop at the Bondurant Library one night to learn more about taking pictures. I have read about ways to edit pictures and I have listened to others talk about it as well but, bottom line, if I don’t actually practice using the techniques I hear about I won’t develop the skills and the knowledge will quickly escape my brain.

Point, shoot, upload, print. Sometimes I add a zoom or a crop but basically that is how I take and print pictures. It is quick and convenient and virtually anyone can do it. I have some excellent pictures. One of my favorite pictures is of Robby sitting by a tree in the park. I also really enjoy pictures taken at the pumpkin patch. I think because the surroundings are so interesting and natural. My pictures aren’t good due to talent or knowledge, but due to volume. If an amateur photographer takes 500 pictures in a month several are likely to be good. In fact, I get compliments on my photographs quite often. However, I would really like to be a better photographer, someone who knows how to take a good picture and can elevate a good picture to a great picture using technology. I would like to be able to frame some of my pictures and hang them on the wall. I want them to be art. Practicing taking pictures and editing them will make taking great pictures easier.



I read blogs of other moms that had babies the same age as Robby and some of them have such neat pictures. Over the years I have seen some truly fabulous pictures taken by people who know what they are doing. Some of the pictures look professional but they were just taken by moms with their digital cameras.

My digital camera isn’t fancy but it has a lot of features I don’t know how to use properly. The same is true of Paint Shop Pro. I bought this software five or six years ago with high hopes of using it often and learning the ins and outs of photo editing but unfortunately that didn’t happen. There are many different menus of effects that not only do I not use, but I don’t even know what they do. To learn more about my camera and photo editing my quest is going to involve taking pictures.

Each day for 30 days I will take a picture with my digital camera, a Sony Cybershot that is several years old. This will force me to always look for opportunities to take pictures. I will keep my camera in my purse so I will have it with me most of the time. Then if I find a something I want to take a picture of I will be able to do it. I will take pictures of my family, the landscape, or whatever else I choose to. I imagine sometimes I will go somewhere special to take a specific picture and sometimes the picture will be of life as it is happening.

Each day, I will use a different feature either on my camera or on Paint Shop Pro. I will edit the picture and compare the original photo to the edited photo. I may not have an “original” photo to compare to if I use a feature on my camera but if possible I will take a picture with and without using the “special” settings. I will describe the features and editing process that were used and what their purpose is. Some of the changes I make will only take a minute or two and some could take hours. I will also talk about the time the editing takes.

At the conclusion of this 30-day quest I hope that I know a lot more about editing the pictures I take. I anticipate being able to imagine the end product when I take the photo and to have a better understanding what goes into a good picture. I want the pictures I take not to just document my life but I want them to become art that I can hang on my wall for years to come.