It started off as one of the many usually insignificant candid photos a grandfather with a simple digital camera would snap of his granddaughter at some function.
But a little gleam in her eyes and her angelic look, with eyes uplifted, caught my attention, so I isolated her from the rest of the picture.I had to create a context to communicate my idea of this angelic moment, so my spouse searched out a picture of a church window and I blurred it to produce what a good photographer would use differential focussing to do, namely, de-emphasize it
Then I superimposed my granddaughter's picture, and , Voilá! there was a new little angel:
Using my computer with Photoshop and other similar software to create pictures, modify or technically enhance photos has become one of my retirement activities.
As I discover more and more of its capabilities I am awed by its potential for artistic expression as well as for deception. On the one hand it can be used to create fictional graphics, which might be nefarious, or innocent enough, to amuse by being totally outrageous for example, as in this picture of me (my head at least) surfing in Hawaii.
On another level it can allow someone to exercise some artistic creativity by changing the mood and nature of a photograph as in this attempt to to make a photograph look like a drawing:
or to "age" a recent photo:
One of the projects that has given me the greatest satisfaction was to include my father in this old family portrait from which he was missing. I also happened to have a picture of him taken on the same date and in the same room as that family portrait so I put the two together. It was one of my earliest Photoshop efforts so it's a little rough.
Using the computer I will at times technically improve a photo that was affected by lack of photographic skill on my part or poor lighting conditions, as in the photo below.
Sometimes I get lucky and Photoshop becomes unnecessary:
10 comments:
Louis, great job. So what is reality!
Thanks, Idrus.
Yes, it has become quite easy to fake reality.
It is also debatable as to where technical enhancement of photos and the imaginative use of the vast array of Photoshop tools cross the line between creativity and dishonesty.
You have a beautiful family, Louis! The photos hardly need any enhancement. Your granddaughter is a darling, for sure! You did a great job with the family portrait. I am sure your Dad would have been pleased!
hello louis,
Wowwww ....you have give me the motivation to learn more about PC applications and adding your dad into the family photo was really cool
CO'78
Thank you very much for your compliments.
I get a great deal of satisfaction ( and a good excuse for not taking my outdoor exercise walks in the cold, wet weather of winter) in trying to restore the old, damaged family photos that have sat for so long unseen in boxes.
Hi Rizal,
Glad some of my enthusiasm for the computer may have motivated you. Have you been influenced yet by the recent use of "Apps" on the iPod and iPhone? That's another world of possibilities worth exploring.
Man, you look like one coooool dude on that surf board. R you sure it's photoshopped, and NOT the real thing? :)
My conspiracy theory is that you were caught surfing instead of working. So you had to say it was a photoshopped image.
Happy surfing.
Adirya,
Shhhh! You just blew my alibi :)!
Never thought I'd ever have to argue that a photo WAS indeed Photoshopped. You've now turned conventional wisdom on its head. Clever.
You take beautiful pictures, Louis.
You are right - you have an angel there!
And the last pix is simply perfect.
I think photographs tell us as much about the photographer as they do about his subject. Just like windows, you can see 'out' as well as 'in', no? ;)
'Allo Pat,
Thanks a whole lot for your undeservedly positive comments. I am just a "point and shoot" "photographer".
I do enjoy working with Photoshop. Its array of electronic "tools" gives me the satisfaction of a much earlier time in my life when I would spend hours messing around my house with woodworking, plumbing and other tools. I always marvelled at how the right tools could turn an admittedly clumsy would be academic into a reasonably effective handyman.
Interesting observation about how photographs can communicate the photographer. I am blurry, right :)?
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