Friday, October 28, 2011

Memories (Edited)

I shared this image last Monday for the prompt "Memories":


A picture I took in 2008 using my Sony Ericsson K800i cell phone. Editing the image, I came up with this:

Baguio Cathedral

The biggest difference about taking pictures using a DSLR and a point-and-shoot camera (including mobile phones with camera) is the Depth of Field. I got to use a DSLR before (thanks to a friend) and I loved how the camera automatically highlights the subject, making it standout from the rest. Since I am a point-and-shoot camera user, I can't really create that depth of field that separates the subject to the background, so in order to achieve that, I need to rely on GIMP. :) I do love the drama between the images and the Cathedral, but I agree that the SOOC seemed a bit flat because there wasn't something that separates them together. That was where I based my main focus of the editing.

Steps I made:
  • Starting with the original image size (2000x1500px), I used the clone and heal tools to erase the antenna on the left side of the image.
  • I made a selection around the images using the Path tool then feathered the selection.
  • Inverted the selection and applied Gaussian Blur, set to 10%.
  • Scaled image to 640x480px.
  • Ran the National Geographic script, settings adjusted to my own preference.
  • Applied the Ancient Warmth action (levels adjusted after), then the Cooling - Wratten 80 filter (set to 25%).
  • Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Fall In" texture, set to Overlay at 100%.
  • Brushed a layer of the Burn tool, set to shadow at 20%.
  • Added my watermark, flattened and saved the image.


Using the Selection and Gaussian Blur method may be quite tedious, but for a point-and-shoot camera user, it was just what I needed to achieve that depth of field I want in some of my images.




Thursday, October 27, 2011

Edit Me! | Week 23

Edit Me! Week 23 - SOOC by Wendy

This week's image is by Wendy Wright of Choose Love. I so love how positive her blog is! Anyway, I just find it so cute to have the boys pose with Tinkerbell, their costumes just look adorable! I just wonder whether the costumes were provided for the photo ops or the boys had their own Peter Pan and Captain Hook costumes.

Edit Me! Week 23 - The Sketchy Edit

Getting to this edit is a result of another round of playing around the GIMP settings I have on my netbook. At first, I thought about creating a pencil sketch edit (kinda like those pages of a coloring book), but when I checked the thumbnails of the edits, there's already an edit just that. Of course, I decided to go with a different edit, and coming up with this, I ...
  • Scaled image to 800x600 then made a crop selection of 640x480. I decided to concentrate on Tinkerbell and the boys for this one.
  • Ran the "Forest" action to achieve that greenish tint.
  • Ran the "Roy's Warm" script, set to 25%.
  • Ran the "Retinex Image Enhancement" script, set to low.
  • Ran the "Manny Librodo" sharpening script, adjusting the levels to my own preference.
  • Brushed a layer of the "Burn" tool, set to shadow at 20%.
  • Added my watermark, then flattened and saved the image.

I don't know how to call this edit, but I am a bit happy to come up with this.


Our tiny BIG Life

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Times 2 Edition


* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *

I took this picture last year, when my friend (and neighbor) Ria and I went to Vigan as our last travel stop before going home. I decided to use a picture from our trip because we were actually planning to travel north again (actually, we should be traveling today as tomorrow's already the Surfing Break in La Union), but I can't travel this year anymore because I took care of the bills and my savings weren't enough to cover the Ilocos Norte part of our trip. We decided to just travel next summer, giving us enough time to save up and yes, lose weight. Tee Hee!

Anyway, what I did for this edit:
  • Scaled image to 480x640.
  • Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Scripted Edges" texture, set to soft light at 72%.
  • Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Sweettart" texture, set to grain merger at 65%.
  • Ran the "Desert" action, then adjusted levels to my liking.
  • Ran the "Urban Acid" script, set to 20%.
  • Ran the "Manny Librodo" sharpening script, set to my own preference.
  • Added watermark, flattened, and saved image.





Monday, October 24, 2011

Memories (SOOC)

I sooo miss posting for Good to Wow / Shoot and Edit. This week is about memories, and the first thing that came to mind was this:


This is the Baguio Cathedral (Baguio City, Benguet). Taken 04 March 2008 at around 5:30am, my sister and I traveled all night from Metro Manila to Baguio City (hmmm.. not all night literally, we left the bus station at 11:30-ish at night, we arrived around 4am), in time for dad's first year death anniversary. Dad's death anniversary was actually 05 March, but since we buried him in his home province (La Union), and the whole family was traveling to commemorate the day, sister wanted to have a little side trip to Baguio, and I decided to come with her. We left Baguio late that afternoon to meet mom and brother who traveled from Manila earlier that day.

I took this picture using my cell phone. That time, I saw a photo contest by Sony Ericsson about Philippine Travel (or something like that), and I submitted this as my entry. I didn't win, but I was okay with it; at that time I just started being interested in photography and I was more into getting knowledge.

I grabbed this picture from my Multiply account; I can't find brother's portable CD-ROM drive, so I can't access my files now. Well, I posted this on Multiply right after we got home and I still didn't know anything about photo-editing (other than adding the watermark using Arc Soft), so this one's definitely SOOC.

One funny fact: I was in Baguio City on 04 March 2008, 2009, and 2011. Am not sure why I didn't travel there in 2010...but I was in La Union that time, meaning I could just take the bus and sit for two hours to get to Baguio but I wasn't able to travel there.




Sunday, October 23, 2011

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 102311

I wasn't able to participate the last two weeks, so before I call it a night, here are my interpretations for this week:

Keep on Learning

Words

This came from the archives; I was browsing an old scrapbook magazine and while checking the layouts for inspiration, I got to see one page containing awesome words. I took a picture of that page, and decided to continue browsing the magazine to get some words of wisdom.

Rain From Afar

Under

Yesterday morning, sister and I set up to walk and jog, but when we reached the marketplace, I got to see Colinas Verdes (our destination) under a dark rain cloud. Well, none of us brought an umbrella, so we decided to cut the walk and just take a different route and walk around the marketplace before going home.

Pumpkins

Orange

Cute pumpkins (not sure what materials they used for this) I saw around the Sky Garden of SM City North Edsa. Well, the Philippines are really embrace the elaborate and well-celebrated Halloween nowadays.

Alakim

Fly

Another picture from the archives, which I took earlier this month. It's not really a "fly" picture, but for sure this dove wanted to fly.

Yellow Flower

Always Look at the Bright Side

In connection to my "Under" picture, sister and I weren't able to jog at Colinas Verdes, but taking a different route sure allowed me to see other interesting subjects to take pictures of, like this flower. I always see yellow as the happiest of all colors, and even if there was a dark cloud that day, the hint of yellow, sure brought positivity it what seemingly looked as a gloomy day.




Don't Just Print, IMPRINT!

When the family was still using the camera using films, my siblings and I would save up not just to buy films, but to have it printed, too. That time, even if it would take time before we have films processed and printed, we would fill albums and albums of life memories. In 2007, I started making scrapbooks, my way of presenting these memories in a much creative way. When digital cameras paved way for people to freeze more memories, I called it one of the best things people can have. Being a life artist, I do love that I can take images of things, events, and people without thinking whether I'd run out of space. I can just take pictures and just select which ones I will share to people.

However, as much as digital cameras helped me to freeze those moments and explore my creativity more, I admit most of those frozen moments were just stored as digital images, as I often just share it through my blogs or through my social networking sites. I have tried having my digital images printed, but I often get disappointed whenever the images would come out far from what I expected it to be. I once took a sunset silhouette image and I intended to keep it at that, but I learned the staff at the photo shop would play at the brightness of the images, and what I got was an image with a washed out sun and the people who are supposed to be silhouette were ultra bright. I really would love to get back to scrapbooking, and because doing scrapbooks call for me to have images printed out in different sizes, I am now on a lookout for a photo printer, which I can have here at home so I can just print pictures. When I received an invitation from Nuffnang Philippines for an exclusive event for Canon Pixma Printers, I immediately told them I'd attend it. Being a Canon camera user, I do know the quality behind the brand, so this event was something I didn't want to miss.

Band at Play

Brother and I arrived just in time for the event. We were able to roam around, as well as have early dinner - thanks to the foods by Las Paellas Cafe, which catered at the event. Us having our own food and drink stubs, we were treated to a buffet-style dining while listening to the band play awesome music. Too bad I wasn't able to catch their name as brother and I were still registering for the event when they started playing.

Canon Pixma Printers

Canon Pixma Printer Canon Pixma Printer Canon Pixma Printer

How many of you own a printer, scanner, and photo printer and wish you just own an All-in-One gadget where you can scan images as well as print documents and pictures? Canon have thought about this, and through this thought, they came up with an AiO gadgets that not only offers good quality prints, these are also user-friendly, cost-efficient, and eco-friendly.

Presenting the newest Canon Pixma Printers - E500, MP287, MG8270, MG5370, and iP4970. What each model offer in a nutshell:

Canon Pixma MP287
Compact and stylish, it may be the cheapest among the five printers in terms of price (p3495), but it sure produces excellent and quality print-outs. Being that affordable, it can be a good printer for personal use, especially for students.

Canon Pixma E500
This is a printer for the printer-happy people, especially those students who are currently doing their thesis (and other school projects) because this printer will let you print about 1200 pages per set of cartridges. Photo-wise, it can let you print stills from a video and create filter effects. It also has a quiet mode, which allows users to print documents and images even at the wee hours.

Canon Pixma iP4970 Photo Printer
Now, if you're more into printing images, you can opt for this one as this uses FINE (Full photo-lithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering), Hybrid and ChromaLife100+ technologies to give vivid print outs that will last 300 years. Just like the E500, it will also allow you to have Full HD Movie printouts, fun filter effects, and auto fix.

Canon Pixma MG5370
This is the WiFi enabled printer that allows users to connect wirelessly, as well as print images using Android phones, iPads, and iPhones. This printer has five individual ink tanks, assuring you to have great images. Although it's already coping with the present times, it still has the direct photo print functions like the Pictbridge and direct card printing.

Canon Pixma MG8270
This is really the digital age, but even with so many kinds of digital cameras sprouting in the market, there are still photographers who prefers using films when capturing images. This printer not only allows users to print images captured digitally, this also has the function to let you print pictures using films, because this has film scanning capabilities. Well, we may not use film anymore, but am sure all of us have a lot of film negatives from the past that we sure want to have printouts of. Aside from that wonderful option, this printer comes with six individual ink cartridges, which can give you excellent monochrome prints. This printer is also WiFi enabled.

Other Details You Should Know
  • MG8270 and MG5370 printers will soon have the PIXMA Cloud Link service, which allows printers to connect directly to online photo albums to view and print photos, without the aid of a PC.
  • Fun Filter Effects in printers include: Miniature Effect, Fish-Eye Effect, and Toy Camera.
  • Canon has equipped the iP4970, MG8270 and MG5370 and MG4170 with additional ECO settings. These easily adjustable settings allow the user to set the printer to automatically print two-sided printouts when printing PDFs, photocopying, or printing templates.

Trivia Game Scan & Print Me Game

The event was attended by media people - TV, print, and online writers. In between presentations, there were games - first was the "Trivia Game" featuring different movies using the Canon Pixma printers. Second game was about the "Scan and Print Me Game," where players had to answer riddles by scanning and printing different items contained in a basket. Both games called for groups - three members each team for the first game and two members each team for the second game - and all the members of the winning teams got to take home their own Canon Pixma printer!

Jill Santiago

The event may be about the new printers, but this day was also about gratitude. Canon extended their warmest gratitude to everyone who appreciated their products as Canon Pixma was named #1b for the first half of this year.

Print Wall

Canon Brand Ambassadors

Jo Avila Per-Andre Hoffmann Jun Miranda

In line with this event, Canon asked, "What was the best thing you've printed?" For Canon brand ambassadors Jo Avila, Per-Andre Hoffman, and Jun Miranda it would be: a picture of his kids with their grandfather, a picture of the Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, and a picture of his Cambodia trip respectively.

The Best Thing I Have Printed

As for me, the best thing I have printed (aside from the school project which I wrote a few hours before the deadline during my college days - because I received a 1.0 grade for that project), it would have to be the butterfly image I took while in Baluarte (Vigan). It took me more than an hour chasing the butterflies just to capture pictures, and that image was something that sums up all I went through that time. Of course, part of the reason why I love that image was because I did use a point and shoot camera to capture that, yet it still came out wonderful, despite the limited settings I could use.

It didn't win me a Canon Pixma Printer, but I guess for all of us, the best thing we have printed will always be the image that's closest to our hearts. Well, I am sure I have captured some images that would prove to be better than that butterfly image, but the operative word was "printed," so for now that would be the best.

I am personally glad Canon came up with these printers. I forgot to ask if the printers can accommodate 12-inch papers (my scrapbook layouts are 12x12in in size), but even so, I think my eyes are already set on one of the five featured printers that day. Because of this great innovation, I can now print quality pictures at the comforts of my own home.

Canon has this tagline that says, "You get one shot at immortality." I have always viewed photography as a way to immortalize ourselves, a way for us to get in connected with people even if we are no longer around. Pictures do paint a thousand words, but if we just keep images stored in our computers and memory cards, not everybody can really see it, especially if we didn't share it online. I always believe pictures are much better seen and touched - like the way family members and friends pass around printed pictures - and with Canon Pixma printers, we sure have more means to make our mark in history.

To learn more about Canon, its products, and current promos, please visit their website - http://www.canon.com.ph

Big thanks to Nuffnang Philippines for the invitation.