Let's Get Random - Everyday Photos & Different Editing Tricks

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.

~~Sidney Poitier

Every now and then I like to take my camera and just take photos at home.  I try to challenge myself into getting some good shots out of commonplace, everyday life.  

It's also interesting to look back a few years later to see what life was like.

Apparently my home life in 2014 was dominated by my two rescue kitties.  Or maybe it's just that they are such beautiful, fun, loving creatures, that I can't help but take photos of them when they're attending to their kitty lives.    

This my Chavy.  He's weird, but I love him. 

Handsome closeup. He loves to pet his own face.  No human can do it according to his standards. 

I like this shot.  Sometimes its okay to not have the complete subject in focus.  Here, I focused on the feather that Chavy was playing with to illustrate that the photo is still interesting and the "focus" is still on Chavy. 

This is another shot that I used an effect to enhance it.  The photo from the outline of the sliding glass door to the right of Chavy all the way to the left is not edited at all.  But there were a couple of things on my patio that ruined the shot, including a dirty gas can. 

In Photoshop Elements 11, I selected the area inside the window pane and used an adjustment filter with gradient to black out everything on the patio while still maintaining the photographic look and drawing the attention away from the bright red and back to my cute subject. 

Another closeup, but this time I cropped in closer to put the emphasis on his paw as he pets himself.

This is a kitty friend that lived right beside our parking spaces.  He LOVED Adie's car and would lay on it at all times.  When she wasn't home, he would sit on the stairs or the sidewalk, but never another car.  

I wanted to keep everything shades of grey, but the window was reflecting and the underside of the stairs was brown.  Again, I selected the areas that had reflections or other color tones and applied a gradient filter to them. 

Oddly enough, the cat looks kind of weird, as if I accidentally selected part of him and included him in the gradient map.  I assure you I did not.  It was just the part of him that was shadowed by the overhang.  I actually tried to fix it, but it was very stubborn. lol

These are the gorgeous blossoms on the tree that overhangs the balcony.  

Speaking of the balcony, we had hummingbird and finch feeders which actually enticed a lot of our feathered friends.  This is not a good picture but I was always to slow to get a picture or had to go get my camera and missed it.  lol  

However, using a "Sin City" affect in Photoshop Elements 11, I was able to get enough definition in the photo, even shooting through a dirty window and a screen.  

Sin City is an effect that I love to use.  It's basically keeping only one or two colors in a photo.  

And now, MOAR Cats!  These photos were taken on a very sunny day and my boys were loving laying on the cat tree in the sun.  The bright, yet indirect light made for some very good shots.

"I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty [cat] can bestow." ~~  Mr. Darcy "Pride and Prejudice"

These two love this cheap lei that I bought at the Dollar Store.

 They only play with the red, white, and blue ones though.  

My patriotic kitties. 

Ellie vetoes my kiss.  haha

In this photo, you can see that pesky red gas can in the background...if you look for it.  I used the Sin City effect again to give color only to Chavy and the cat tree.  

Baby is getting tired of me taking pictures of him.  

Occasionally, as on this day, the camera becomes his play/prey.

I'm going to finish with two different iterations of the same photo to illustrate how the different filters/effects can alter a photo.

We'll start with Chavy's scary claws in Lomo effect from Photoshop Elements II intermediate.

Now the same photo with a gradient filter. 

It's hard, once again, for me to say which one I like better.  

I would probably choose the Lomo because it brings the ball and the claws into focus.  And it's a bit easier to use.

But the bottom line is that editing effects are endless, not just with Photoshop, but there are other good software choices as well, such as Pixlr.  

The fun of photography doesn't have to end once you put down the camera!

xoxo

Experimenting With Photoshop Filters

This was fun...  I think these turned out so cool!!

All photos taken with my Nikon D3000 using telephoto lens to soften the background and enhance detail.

Above is a pot of Iris on a flat headstone.  Taken in Sacramento Old City Cemetery in March 2015.

I used Photoshop Elements 11 and make a duplicate background layer and then added a watercolor filter.  I then changed the opacity on the watercolor layer to about 60%...basically until I felt enough of the back ground was through to add detail.

Next, I added a Layer Mask to the duplicate filter.  Using the brush feature,  I went over certain areas with the brush to further bring through the background to enhance shading and add more depth.

I like it!

Next up is...

This is another photo from my Sacramento Old City Cemetery visit.  

This one I did very similar to the first.  

I created a duplicate background layer.  This time I chose the Pastels filter and manipulated it with the sliders until it looked interesting to me.  I did not make it at all transparent this time.  

I added the Layer Mask to the duplicate layer and then used the brush again. This time, I went over the entire Robin to bring it through and make it clearer.  I left just a bare edge with the Pastel filter; I've learned the hard way when editing photos that if you err on the side of grabbing part of the background, it's very noticeable.

So Pretty!!

Last for today is this coy horse...

I loved this horse when I was out walking about Gibson Ranch County Park one day.  I have another photo (that I will post below) in color and he is just a gorgeous, different looking equine.  

After I had taken a couple photos (I always take at least 4 of the same subject haha), he turned a little and angled his head like this.  Posing for me, but playing coy.  However, there was one problem.  He has a slightly unattractive redness outlining his eye.  It was way more noticeable when he tilted his head like this.  But loving the pose, I tried to save the photo.  

I chose the Sketch filter and then selected Pen and Ink.  There are four color choices and I chose black (obviously).  Again, I just played around with the settings until I got it where I loved it.  

This was the easiest to edit.

Here is the same horse, in living color. 

xoxo