Pretzel's Snack-A-Day (365 for 2014)

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Pretzel

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Day 194 - Cute lil' distraction...

Ever since Piglet has been gone, this little Jack-lass has done her best to distract me. She's constantly on the old chair next to my desk, quietly demanding my attention. Today, I snapped a couple of shots. USUALLY, she's holding a toy up here for me to throw, but once the camera came out, she had treats on her mind.

Day194-1.jpg


Day194-2.jpg


Day194-3.jpg


Not sure if I like the color or the B&W better on the second shot, but I'm actually leaning toward the color this time? ::what:: I dunno... I actually waiver...

edit: Actually, after seeing both together, instead of flashing back and forth, I changed my mind. The B&W grabs me just a bit more...
 
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Marilynne

Marilynne

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Both are nice, but I like the puppy in B/W better. I find the background a tad distracting in the color, but I don't notice it in the B/W.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 196 - After work R&R

RARE day in mid-July for us, High's in the high 70's, with a nice calm COOOOOOL evening. Had to take advantage of it with a little brew and some pinion wood.

Day196.jpg


Day196-2.jpg
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 197 - Toying around with an idea...

...when I got this creepy feeling, so I threw my towel and ran!

Day197.jpg


Well, ok. Ran to my camera. It's not perfect, but I wanted to mess around and see what I could come up with. :)
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 197, Part 2

The one above, I edited in some blur under the towel to lend a feel to the "presence" of something there. Here's one without that, so much. Which gives the better feel, do ya think?

Day197-2.jpg
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Before seeing the second I was going to ask, "Why the blur?" Then I saw the second and thought, oh, that's why. For me, the best shot is between the two - or actually a combination of them. Blur filters will obscure the details, and I like the definition of stitching. Take the clean shot and add it as a layer above the blur shot and then use the opacity slider to add in somewhere between 20-33% of the clean image. You still get the blur effect but it's far more subtle, and different than what you'd get if you just blurred less.

You could also play with burning in the shadows in the area where the person "was" to give a feel that something is there.Sort of like this?
Day197.jpg



Very creative idea. I like it a lot. And very nice job on the masking out around the towel - I know what a PITA that can be.
 
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Vixen

Vixen

Senior Member
Some great shots there :D

I think I like the colour shot of your little doggie best, although it also looks great in B&W. She's a lovely little thing....nice eyes :D
I like that fire you have but can't believe you drink Fosters ;). You can't even buy it in Australia anymore coz no-one will drink it :D
and well done on the invisible man :D
 
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Eyelight

Senior Member
I don't know what the big deal is. All my pictures have invisible people in them. They just don't have towels on their heads.:D

But something tells me we're gonna see more pictures with evidence of IPs.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
sonicbuffalo said:
how did you create the invisable person?
Click to expand...

Tom Grove said:
Great job with the invisible person... Now you're obligated to tell everyone how you did that... or at least tell me. haha
Click to expand...

It's really quite easy. TEDIOUS, but easy. It's a two shot photo from a tripod. 1 with just the scene, one with my son sitting on the couch and a towel over his head/shoulder. Sent both to PS, layered the pic of my son on top of the one without and carefully erased the boy, along with all other incidental evidence. There's no auto-mask in PS, so I attacked it in numerous small section, using a feathered adjustment brush, then made sure to catch everything else as well, like the squished pillow that he was sitting on, his reflection in the water bottle, etc. Then I sent it over to Perfect Effects 8, where I can add effects by way of layers there as well, and did some small things. The original blended pic, after erasing my son, was kind of flat... First, I applied a very minimal blur to the whole pic, then used the adjustment brush to remove the effect from just the towel (adding a bit more DOF feel). Then in another layer, I went over just the towel with the "detail" brush to make it stand out even further. For the original blurred pic, I added in another adjustment brush with a stronger blur, trying to add to the feel that there was actually someone unseen there. Again, no auto-masks in those tools, so just a tiny bit at a time so mistake corrections didn't mess up ALL the work.

edit: HINDSIGHT - could have blurred the original "scene" pic a bit before putting the "towel" pic on the top, and saved a lot of time creating the extra DOF feel mentioned above. SEE, I'm still learning!

By then, as you can see from the time stamp on my posts, it was after midnight, and I was spent.

BackdoorHippie said:
Very creative idea. I like it a lot. And very nice job on the masking out around the towel - I know what a PITA that can be.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jake, for the kind words and the edit. That was much closer to what I was hoping for, but the burn tool and I just don't get along. I used the spot adjustment brush in LR, trying to just lower the exposure in certain areas under the towel (to get that same shadowy feel), but my eyes were so tired by then, I was just adding to the frustration. Hindsight shows that my initial blur was a bit strong, and I could have corrected that in PE8 by just lowering the effect a bit, but like the thought of being able to save, layer, and fix that way too. NICE EDIT!

And yes, freehand adjustments around that towel... DEFINITE PITA!


I want to mess with this idea a little more, maybe with a thinner sheet, or a damp something or other, that will allow me to show a little bit more of the facial features. I think it would be cool to get the feel of a brow line and nose, maybe an open "screaming" mouth under the fabric, but ya never know where to go until you take that first step! It was fun AND educational, and I'll be back on it soon!!

edit: Brain's working now... it would also be cool to try a 3 shot mix, perhaps. 1 with the scene, 1 with the stationary person and the towel/blanket, 1 long exposure with the person standing there rocking back and forth a bit to get that motion blur/almost invisible feel and layer it in so there's a stronger "ghostly presence" under the towel? So many things to think about!
 
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