# Shop 'Til You Drop



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

I thought I would post some examples of pictures edited in Photoshop or similar programs - not editing to add the beer looter to the family Christmas picture but editing to remove unwanted elements or improve coloring, framing, or other parameters.

This one most of you have seen since it was my entry under the "Structure" contest. The original is from my old camera and has a low mega-pixel count but that is what I had to work with.

The original color picture:



The edited color picture:



Sepia tone:



These are some pictures I used to draw out some elements for a logo design attempt:





And the logo itself (not used):



[Continued in next post.]


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

*Continued*

[Continued from previous post.]

This is a picture of my older girls with a hog I shot while hunting with them - the before it a 35mm scan and the after is from my digital camera since I lost some shots in a hard drive crash and so not have the before in digital. Looks like the "after" shot could use some saturation adjustment, but I am not going to mess with it right now.

Before:



After:



I cleaned up the blood, edited out the corn, and generally tried to make it more appealing.

For this one I do not have a before shot but it is a rather poor editing attempt I did when my wife asked to be deleted form the picture:



This one is a landscape I took that I have never been able to really fix satisfactorily. I leveled the horizon but have not been satisfied with attempt to correct the color saturation.

Original:



Edit:



I know I have some others but I think that is enough of my efforts. I also know there are some of you that are far better than I am at editing. Any examples for us to see and from which to learn?

[Click pictures for larger versions.]


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## MsAddicted (Jan 25, 2005)

I dont know how yet to remove items from pictures like you did in the first series Charles. I know you know this stuff but for others that may be reading, by playing with a few pictures, I figured out how to make some simple changes that sure make my pictures look better. I dont have photoshop, I use irfanview for resize and rotate mostly...very simple and free. I use Jasc paint shop for changing colors and exposure.

The changes I most often make are:
1) crop (just a simple crop can do amazing things!) 
2) rotate them to straighten the horizon 
3) enhance color by saturating, changing the flash exposure, or sometimes stretching 
4) sometimes I will sharpen or soften 
5) fix the red (or green) eye so often seen with pets and occasionally people

The cat picture involved many of the above tricks but what a world of difference. Did alot of work on the eyes but it payed off.

I found that for most of my pictures of my recent trip to Baja, I had to add color back into the photos. They looked dull and lifeless and I knew the colors of the pics werent the way I remembered seeing the water and scenery. Once I changed just the saturation level in many of the photos they looked vibrant like I remembered! The attached is only from fiddling with the colors, no cropping or any other stuff done to it yet. Still not totally happy but it was kind of a bland late afternoon light.


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

I know what you mean about the color saturation levels. Of course sometimes I go a bit overboard and my wife says "That grass was not nearly that green!"


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

*Challenge Accepted...*

 Charles,

If you email me the full shot of that landscape I'll take a shot at it for you. No promises, but it will be fun to tinker [email protected].


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

RustyBrown said:


> Charles,
> 
> If you email me the full shot of that landscape I'll take a shot at it for you. No promises, but it will be fun to tinker [email protected].


 Email sent -- thanks.


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

Had to take one more shot at the landscape, but still not completely satisfied:


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## MsAddicted (Jan 25, 2005)

Looking pretty good I think. Where is that by the way?


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

MsAddicted said:


> Looking pretty good I think. Where is that by the way?


 Namibia in Africa. Not too far from Etosha National Park. Technically the Ehi-Rovipuka Conservancy.


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## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

Just playing around a bit. have no idea where you want to go wiht it.


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

grayfish said:


> Just playing around a bit. have no idea where you want to go wiht it.


 It was a bit flat out of the camera -- just trying to get the colors/saturation a bit more natural without going overboard. I think my last one is probably pretty close.


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## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

Are you working on the whole picture? Or just the mountains and sky? Do you use clipmasks and layers? That may not be the term in PS as I use Corel Photo-paint. The original here is a little small to work with . (Size and resolution).


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## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

One more try.


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## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

Last one. I promise?


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

*Well I tried...*

I manipulated the curves away from the blue cast and bumped up the sat, but it didn't look any better. Sorry.


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## MsAddicted (Jan 25, 2005)

Grayfish, its fun to watch the different morphs coming through. Amazing the different stuff that can be done these days.

I found your pictures online Charles. What time of year were you there?


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## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

Grayfish --thanks. I think the features are just too flat (from a color perspective) to do much without oversaturating it.

Rusty -- Thanks.

MsAddicted -- It was June of 2005. Wintertime there.

The shot was done at 300mm. Here is the same place but at 100mm, straight out of the camera:



Edited a bit (the horizon is not completely level but I will let it be):



I think the distance with the zoom give the blue cast to the mountains, and the dry grass is a rather bland counterpoint.

[Click pictures for larger image.]


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