Edit Me! | Week 08

Welcome to the 8th week of Edit Me! Wow... time flew really fast, it's been two months since I started playing with images and ending up with a totally different look.


This week's image was provided by Jen of Mama Schell says. I totally love the feel of this image - it's like a scene from an Old West movie. I am actually imagining that after the stage coach pass, one character would enter the saloon and have some beer. :)

Since I envisioned the image to be something from an Old West movie, I decided to go sepia with my edit. At first, this wasn't my final image... but as I uploaded the images on my Flickr account, I decided to re-edit and add some textures.

The recipe for this image:

• Using the path tool, I made an outline around the stage coach (I also included the road), inverted the selection and blurred the background.
• Resized the image to 640x425. (GIMP has this auto scaling that resizes the image based on the size wanted so it would look proportionate. Since I always post images at 640px on the longer end, I just entered 640 and GIMP scaled it to 425px on the shorter end. Normally, pictures I share here on my blog are 640x480px).
• Ran the auto white balance command.
• Converted the image to sepia.
• Ran the Ancient Warmth script (levels I adjusted to my liking).
• Ran the Retro Active script.
• Ran the National Geographic script (I always use this on my images).
• Adjusted the curves.
• Applied two Kim Klassen's textures - "Chamomile" set to normal at 50% and "Canvas Back" set to divide at 60%.
• Flattened the image, gave it a pass of the unsharp mask tool and burn tool, before adding my name stamp.

Although I liked the first edit I created because it was sharp and bright and looked as if the image was taken just now, I liked my final edit more. I felt this edit was something taken from text books, and it somehow looked like an old post card.

Happy Thursday!

*** Jenn ***

Art of Composition | Roads / Path

There were a few skips, but we are now on the 22nd exercise for the Art of Composition meme.

This week, the prompt is "Roads / Path," and although this image is somewhat similar and might pass as an entry for last time's exercise (Stairs), this was basically the only road/path image I took in monochrome.

I took this while at the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain in Antipolo City (Rizal Province). It may be called a mountain, but getting into the prayer huts, guests had to actually take the path going down. This image I took while my mom and her friends were exchanging reflections about the gospel for that day. Since their statements were about their life and how people around influenced them, I felt I had to let them talk because I am my mom's daughter and I felt my presence might hinder mom to share what she wanted to say.

Walking around to find photography subjects, seeing this path made me remember this week's exercise, so I switched my camera's setting to black and white to take this shot, but of course I also took images of this path in color (though it's obviously a bit different as I didn't bring the tripod).

*** Jenn ***

Texture Tuesdays | The Number Three Edition

This week on Texture Tuesday is brought to you by the number three and here is my share (hehe, that sounded like Sesame Street):

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *

I feel a little lazy to rummage through my folders and DVDs to check if I have a fitting image for this prompt, so I decided to take a new picture. The first thing I saw when I went out of the house were these bird decor, so I just took three and photographed it, using the stone washed wall as the background.

To make this edit, I did:

• Using the path tool, I created a selection around the birds and bamboo poles and after closing the paths, I inverted the selection and applied Gaussian Blur at 30%.
• Resized image to 480x640.
• Ran the Unsharp Mask tool set to default (0.50).
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Warm Sun" texture set to soft light at 100%.
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Mayzee" texture set to burn at 40%.
• Gave it a pass of the National Geographic script, adjusted the curves and flattened the image.

Being a point-and-shoot camera user, it was difficult to make the subject stand from the background, so I needed to blur the background during post-processing, especially if I didn't set my camera to macro mode. To achieve the "bokeh" or "depth of field" look, I do the first step on my "recipe" using the original image, as I realized it's always better to select certain parts of the image using the biggest image size possible. I also do the same thing when I needed to do color selective technique. For this particular image, not only did I use the original image size, I also had to zoom it to 150% because certain parts of the images were still "too small" at 100%.

See you next week for the Pink edition!

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | 4th of July

I was seriously considering linking up my "Edit Me! Week 7" post for this prompt because it had the American flag and that the image had a quote, but I canceled the thought and thought of something else. While reading Nicola's post and seeing Marla's thumbnail on the Linky both had the fireworks image, I started thinking of using an old fireworks picture I took during the 2009 4th of July weekend hosted by the American Embassy at the Sky Dome. It was rather an old image and I did struggle with camera settings that time (most of my shots were mediocre), I thought I can't join this week, until...

... I remembered I own two shirts with "4th of July" designs. The white one had stitched hat (that looked like Uncle Sam's hat) and some beads that looked like fireworks, the other - a red shirt with this heart design that looked a bit like the American Flag. I quickly ironed the shirt and took some pictures and edited it to be posted for this week's Quotography post.

USA has a big influence to the Philippines, at one point in time our country celebrates Independence Day every fourth of July, too, until former President Diosdado Macapagal declared the 12th of June as the Philippines' rightful date of independence. The same president also declared this day (04 July) as the Filipino-American Friendship Day to commemorate the joint forces made by Filipinos and Americans against the Japanese during World War 2.

Since the design of my shirt was heart-shaped, I went to choose something about "the love of country," and even if this image bears the colors and design of the American flag, I think the quote suits whatever nationality.

Happy Filipino-American Friendship Day,

Happy 4th of July!

*** Jenn ***

ps - one trivia: the movie "Born on the Fourth of July" starring Tom Cruise was shot here in the Philippines. :)

Foto Friday | Red White & Blue

I have no red, white, and blue image in my folders, so I decided to make one for this prompt. A very simple take to it - I just gathered three each of my Prima flowers (these flowers are for paper scrapbook), took out the quite big butterfly embellishment (which I bought many years back as our Christmas tree decor), and just laid it on my mom's bed. Today, my sister took my camera with her as she is also a blogger now and she wanted to take pictures of things that would spark her curiosity, so this image I took using my cell phone.

Post-processing wise, I just added an "old paper" texture (one set to soft light at 100%, the other set to multiply at 60%). then adjusted the curves.

The blue flower may not be as blue as the USA flag, but I think it's still blue. :) Happy 4th of July weekend!

*** Jenn ***