Lawrence's 365 for 2014

[Lawrence]

Day 71

Fired off a few today including repeat of day 70 which I want to do in photoshop tonight so no time to daily.
Therefore I present to you Charley (female in 35mm Prime mode) who would not play ball and move away from that distraction in the background.
Because of her whiskers removing the background is beyond my skills - I did try!

 

[Lawrence]

I've done my photo for the day - Charley above.
But …
I have been working in learning how to use Elements 11 and thanks to Jake @BackdoorHippie I have learnt a lot.
The following is a photo I took on Sunday and worked on tonight to make it look like a watercolour on canvas.
I am pretty happy with the result considering a week ago Elements 11 was no-man's land for me.

 

[Vixen]

It's lovely Lawrence.

 

[BackdoorArts]

I've done my photo for the day - Charley above.
But …
I have been working in learning how to use Elements 11 and thanks to Jake @BackdoorHippie I have learnt a lot.
The following is a photo I took on Sunday and worked on tonight to make it look like a watercolour on canvas.
I am pretty happy with the result considering a week ago Elements 11 was no-man's land for me.

View attachment 76953

A lot of times the painterly look of things like this bug the snot out of me. This, on the other hand, is really, really well done. Not over done, but it looks convincing. Well done!!

 

[RON_RIP]

Yes you did well with the shed Lawrence and I love the cat. Reminds me of my last cat. I personally like the painterly approach but Jake is right, you do not want to overdo it. So you did good, now go do better.

 

[Lawrence]

Yes you did well with the shed Lawrence and I love the cat. Reminds me of my last cat. I personally like the painterly approach but Jake is right, you do not want to overdo it. So you did good, now go do better.

Thanks Ron and Jake.

My flatmate wasn't as complimentary! Can't please everyone but I could hang this on my wall.

The original jpeg looks even better because the canvas finish is more obvious.
I wil definitely be expanding on this technique and doing a few more.

 

[Lawrence]

Day 72

Really enjoying my 35mm 1.8mm and have had it on for 3 days!
The best part is the depth of field and the sharpness.
Going to post one photo only as I want to do some photoshop work - maybe even try an entry for the monthly comp.

 

[Vixen]

That is really cool Lawrence. Is it pano?

 

[Lawrence]

That is really cool Lawrence. Is it pano?

Just a log from the retaining wall in the garden. I was hoping do something with it in Elements 11 in combination with another photo but that was a fail of epic proportions

 

[Vixen]

When you think of it, nothing is an epic fail. It just shows you what won't work and so you try ways to get around that or try to find ways that will work

 

[Mike D90]

Day 71

Fired off a few today including repeat of day 70 which I want to do in photoshop tonight so no time to daily.
Therefore I present to you Charley (female in 35mm Prime mode) who would not play ball and move away from that distraction in the background.
Because of her whiskers removing the background is beyond my skills - I did try!

View attachment 76952

I don't see anything wrong with the background in this shot. Looks like home setting, warm and inviting. Nothing is "growing" out of the cats head, nothing distracting. Looks good to me!

 

[Lawrence]

Thanks Mike - I'll let Charley know and let her out now.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I don't see anything wrong with the background in this shot. Looks like home setting, warm and inviting. Nothing is "growing" out of the cats head, nothing distracting. Looks good to me!

I see nothing wrong with the background either. It is kind of nice. Out of focus just enough to be soft and NOT DISTRACTING but still be able to tell what and where it is. (A Patio?)

 

[Lawrence]

Day 73

I keep forgetting what day I am on.
Spent the afternoon behind tripod/camera set-up focused on bird feeder. Long story short - no birds.
Aww .. nuts!
And that is what you get today.
It was either that or an empty perch.
I think there is a dark side to my character as I prefer my photos darker than what all the "auto" corrections throw up.
For some reason it is failing to upload. Will try later or tomorrow.
Tried twice more with no luck. Will probably leave it until tomorrow.

 

[BackdoorArts]

I don't see anything wrong with the background in this shot. Looks like home setting, warm and inviting. Nothing is "growing" out of the cats head, nothing distracting. Looks good to me!

Agreed. You don't always want to remove distracting background, particularly when it sets a scene.

The key is to make it less distracting. I usually use the brush tool in ACR/LR to selectively lower the contrast and then darken or lighten to the point where it can be seen, but it's almost lost in a vignette (dodge and burn are useful as well). In your example the DoF is sufficient that focus is not a distraction, but in cases where it is I will duplicate the layer and apply a field blur to the photo, add a layer mask, invert it to hide everything and then paint in bokeh where it once wasn't. An example of that from my 365 is a photo I took of a blind artisan caning a chair found in this post. The original background was just too sharp and bright, so I toned it down and softened the focus so that you'd be better drawn to the foreground.

 

[wud]

It's not that I don't trust you ….
to me mixing those ingredients wouldn't make any bread at all. I would have thought that any bread would have needed some sort of grain.
This might be a faux Rye bread?
I'd be interested to see a photo of the finished product so would you mind posting one next time you bake it?
If you remember of course.

Don't you have to grind up the nuts into a flour? And where is the rye? I too, am confused. Maybe it is one of those secret Viking things. Yes, let us see a picture.

Lol, well aren't you guys sceptic

No baking here these days, busy outside but this is pretty much what my bread looks like:

(http://www.thespacebetween.dk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Stenalderbrød2.jpg)

Day 72

Really enjoying my 35mm 1.8mm and have had it on for 3 days!
The best part is the depth of field and the sharpness.
Going to post one photo only as I want to do some photoshop work - maybe even try an entry for the monthly comp.

View attachment 77115

I knoooow! Its so amazing, that lens. And great images you've been posting!!

 

[Lawrence]

There … finally got it posted.
I should have just used Mai's "Bread" shot.

 

[Lawrence]

Lol, well aren't you guys sceptic

No baking here these days, busy outside but this is pretty much what my bread looks like:

(http://www.thespacebetween.dk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Stenalderbrød2.jpg)




I knoooow! Its so amazing, that lens. And great images you've been posting!!

My scepticism stems from the name Rye Bread. There isn't any grain (Rye or otherwise) in that "bread" and "Seed and nut" loaf would be a better description in my non-baker's and humble opinion.

That aside it looks delicious and well worth trying so thanks for posting.

 

[wud]

My scepticism stems from the name Rye Bread. There isn't any grain (Rye or otherwise) in that "bread" and "Seed and nut" loaf would be a better description in my non-baker's and humble opinion.

That aside it looks delicious and well worth trying so thanks for posting.

But its gluten free Its acting and tasting like rye bread, but maybe I should have written it in "".. In DK its known as stone age bread.

 

[Lawrence]

Day 74

They all laughed at me a couple of weeks ago when I made a concrete block, inserted a pipe and then a BIG branch in the pipe. My new feeder was ready to go and no amount of wind would blow it away.

After setting it all up outside on the lawn to be "found" it has taken a few weeks for the birds to get hungry enough and risk the cats! But they found the feeder and I moved it to just outside the dining room window.

My luxury hide is a dining chair with the curtains hiding me and camera.
My reward:

WTF? Why is the system saying "This is not a valid image file" when I tried to upload my very valid image?

Where's that cat? I could have sworn he was here a minute ago ...

A bit of a pity they aren't brightly coloured like some of the birds in Oz but it is what it is.