by Susan Latreille

Creative Fun with Photo Editing (Part 2)

Continuing with the process of having fun ‘playing around’ with editing photos, I have chosen another photo that was headed for the recycle bin. I am using inferior photos to hopefully make a point of the positive aspects of using editing tools, much in the same manner as the artist uses canvas, brush, and paint to a creative end.

Just a reminder that whichever photo you choose to edit, the first rule of thumb is to make a copy of that photo, then work from the copy so the untouched original remains available if needed.

This photo of a log house was taken on the same August day as that of the hen and rooster in part 1, so the lighting is quite the same except here we have the sun shining strongly on this western wall of the house. My attempt is to make use of that bright light in the editing process.

Photo #3: Sepia (a one-click process) + Warmth (to make the sepia appear even older) + Drop Shadow Border (various shadow & background colours available, plus a sliding scale for distance, angle, & size of border). I used the same tones in the border as in the photo to hopefully enhance the old-world flavour.

Photo #4: Holga-ish (with sliding scale to blur edges and adjust grain). Holga is an inexpensive camera developed in the 1980s; its lens exhibits soft focus and chromatic aberration. I think this effect totally emphasizes the character of this 200+ year old structure.

Photo #5: Pencil Sketch (with a sliding scale for radius and strength). This version is at maximum for both radius & strength giving greater emphasis to the lines on the logs.

Photo #6: Heat Map (with a sliding scale for hue). This version is exactly centered for hue showing the intensity of the heat from the sun on this western wall.

Photo #7: This is an alternate crop of the original photo to show how crops can be used for different purposes. This crop was done manually closing in on log & chinking detail. There are a huge variety of crop options that may be used to fit specific needs such as size of photo frames, CD covers, widescreen monitors, etc. (Part 3 will run in October.)

Don’t be shy Collectif members! Send an image (or a few) of recent work to cagac.ca@gmail.com with up to 100 words describing what you did, materials used, inspiration, etc. Maybe share how you’re feeling & how creativity helps. We’d like informative, inspiring show & tell. Writers, send us poetry, lyrics, a short piece or excerpt.