Today’s yesterday…

Today’s yesterday…

I was purposed this week to take my own photos and manipulate them. I went at it like a image-seamstress cutting and hemming and mixing colors and this is what emerged:

I made the changes in this image to challenge myself.  I like to take photos for many reasons, one being an expression of self and the other being how far I can stretch my imagination and invade others perspective, as on-lookers.

To take a photo in my room, with random bits, pieces and props adding interest and dimension, I was able through the technology of photo software, able to twist, cut, pull up what I wanted to shout, and quiet down, or altogether eliminate what I wanted  fade away . 

By adding contrast it allowed for details to pop.  Adjusting the lighting upwards, so as not make the image too dark, allowed for the colors to be darkened without the face and details being lost.  I lessened the shadows in the overall photo with a tab, which allowed for the bed in the background to fade off into the white wall, becoming eliminated from view. 

  Now the subject of the photo looked as though she could be anywhere.  This manipulation of the image in the room made it much easier to continue the façade that this was a portrait of someone from the turn of the century.  I used a few programs to work this photo beginning with Windows Live Photo Gallery, for basic editing. I used Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition for the contrast and hue manipulations, and finished the image in an editing program offered free through Photobucket, which allowed for me to blur the edges and have more freedom with how much I wanted to ‘age’ the photo. I think the end results are mostly convincing, even if historically incorrect.

The photo below is a photo I took last autumn, while walking through Allen Gardens in Toronto, 2010.

 

Every time I visited my Dad I would pass through there looking for photo opportunities, and this one was one of them.  I looked at this seemingly flustered photography student who has just sat down after trying wandering around for a bit, so I decided that this photographer would be the subject of my photo. 
I decided to manipulate this photo to bring out more of the color and also to bring out the blues in it to pass on a feeling of serious or pensive thought.  I also cropped the photo and straightened it to make the subject of the photo right at the bottom corner to bring the viewer’s eye to focus on him. Here is the finished product, using Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition.

Thanks for taking time to check out my blog.  Feel free to tell me what you like to take pictures of and how you tweek them.

Ciao for now!