Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Eliminating Unwanted Backgrounds

Here's that article I was talking about before. :)

How to Eliminate Unwanted Backgrounds in Digital Pictures
"A step-by-step guide discussing the five best tools for eliminating cluttered and unwanted backgrounds in digital photographs."

"Be Funky" Part 2

BeFunky got an upgrade! :) Upload your photos and edit away with their cool new effects and updated software.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Castles and Such

So Chris-Chris took the original photograph and gave it to me to play with.

I did the initial editing in GIMP and then switched over to PowerPoint to reproduce and arrange the image.



Details: I was going for a castle in the first one, which I may or may not have achieved. :) And who knows with the second. It kind of reminds me of something M.C. Escher would do if he had less talent. He he.

GIMP Explained

I know I'm always raving about the remarkable and free editing program GIMP. Here's an article explaining the program and how to download it for free.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1581188/what_is_gimp.html

"Do you want the results of Adobe Photoshop without the high cost of such elite software? The answer to your problem has never been easier: it's called GIMP."


Details: This is a screenshot of GIMP 2.4.5 with a photograph I edited using the program.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Brightness-Contrast

Brightness-Contrast is one of those really useful tools in making a picture look crazy. :)


Details: Using the brightness-contrast wizard in GIMP, I adjusted both levels of brightness and contrast to the far right. I may have done something with the light curves as well, but it's been a few days and I don't remember. Whoops. In any event, you get the idea. :) You have to play around with the levels, balancing all options, to get a favorable outcome.

I Don't Know . . .

which one is better. But maybe out of A and B, you'd take C. :)


Details: Same old, same old. Mainly edited in GIMP with a little bit of touch-up afterward performed in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. (By now, does it go without saying that I airbrushed the picture and cleaned it up in ways like that? I think it should.) :)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Red Photo Shoot

I did a red lipstick photo shoot. For no reason, of course. :)

I've mentioned this before, about the whole upside down Monalisa thing, but it's just as true now as it was before. My pictures look better upside down. :)

Details: Edited in GIMP and Microsoft Office Picture Manager. And if you were wondering, yes, the IWarp tool really is a girl's best friend. Well, at least out of non-living things. :)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Sleepy Time :)


Details: This may shock you, but I actually didn't edit this photograph. I know, so weird. I guess I'm not as obsessed with GIMP as you think. He he.

A Title Eludes Me :)

I don't think I've posted these before. And I'm not that interested in reviewing all of my previous posts to double check. :)


Details: Edited in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I just did some recoloring and brightness-contrast adjustments. And the fact that I used a really nice camera (checked out from the library) helped. :)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Basic Editing

Here's an easy, how-to guide on basic digital photo editing.
"4 Quick Fixes to Make Your Photos Look Clean and Professional"

P.S. I tried doing the snowfall trick from the tutorial. Let's just say, no luck. And, I won't be posting my attempts. :)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Snowfall!

This is a Photoshop Tutorial done by Howard from Tutcast.com. He's a genius! If you don't care to watch for the whole 8 minutes plus, just watch for the last 35 seconds to see his before and after pics. Amazing, just amazing! I'm going to try this out sometime. I'll keep you posted. :)

Stock Photography

You may or may not remember my previous post about the free stock photography site http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml. I recently rekindled my love affair with the site and found some photographic gems to edit. Not that they needed editing, that's just what I do. :)

The original photographs are on the left and my versions are on the right. Their respective photographers are binababy12, leroys, and hara18.




Details: I edited the photographs in GIMP and PowerPoint. With the first picture, I loved the boy's face and just wanted to do some light touching up. The second picture is so powerful, that's what first caught my attention. And although it's not intended to be a glamour shot, I did wonder if I was up to the challenge of smoothing out some of those wrinkles. The model in the third picture is beautiful and I just wanted to add some color to the face and shade to the background. Just for my own amusement, of course. :)

Monday, March 2, 2009

Upside Down

I edited some pictures today, but it's funny because they look so much better upside down than right side up. Have you ever seen that optical illusion trick where you look at the real Monalisa and a fake Monalisa upside down and can't really tell the difference, and then you look at them both right side up and see the fake has a really funky looking face? That's like the set I edited today. Well sorta. :) But upside down certainly masked some of the weirdness. Hehe.