Lilahpops

Are you doing the April Challenge over at photochallenge.org?

So, we are halfway there and now I know why it’s called a challenge; yesterday I almost forgot to take a photo! There’s quite a bit of discipline involved in taking a photo a day on a specific topic. I know I’ll miss it when it’s all over, but I have to admit it’s starting to get more difficult to find something entropic to photograph that I haven’t tapped into in previous photos. Rust is looking good.

If you haven’t been following, or participating in, the April Challenge is all about Entropy. Decay, deterioration, chaos, disorder. You’d be amazed at how much is out there! If you have been following, or particpating in, I’d love to hear how you have been going in the comments.

Check out the new gallery of images that I have submitted to challenge (I’ll be updating this throughout the month of April). The photos are also available on my Flickr account - I created a set dedicated specifically to the April Challenge.

If you have been subscribing to Lilahpops through a feed reader then you would already be getting your daily dose of images already. You can subscribe here.

Make sure to check out all the entries in the April Challenge - there are some stunning photos.

The results from “the Fork Project” are in!

In March I entered the Iron Chef Photography project, the challenge being to photograph a fork in a creative and interesting way.

This was my entry:

There were 28 entries altogether and I am pleased (and excited) to say that I tied fourth in the Judges’ Choice with two other entries and fifth in the Public Choice.

Check out all the entries over at Neil Creek’s website - there are some stunning images to view.

Did you enter the Iron Chef Photography project? How did you fare?

Related posts

• What my blog statistics reveal about you
  
• Flickr is the key to my social photography experience
  
• Results from the Shoot Yourself project

iPhoto editing features can make an ordinary photo extraordinary

This is the next installment in the iPhoto series.

One of my cats, Cordelia, agreed to help out with this post. Gorgeous as the subject is, the image is a bit dull; there’s not much color and the background could have been better. And, I unfortunately cut off the tip of her right ear. But she is worthy of rescuing with iPhoto!

Before I begin I’ll make a copy of the image.

Open the special effects windows

In this iPhoto edit we’ll combine a few special effects features. So, select Edit and open both the Effects and Adjust options.

Move the special effects windows to either side of the image so you can see the changes as you edit. The editing sliders in the Adjust window are all at the default settings and you should already see the special features from the thumbnails in the Effects window.

Adjust the levels to brighten the image

Adjusting the levels is always my first step when editing. Sometimes a slight levels adjustment is all a photo needs. The left-hand slider controls the darker tones and the right-hand slider controls the lighter tones while the middle slider helps to balance the brightness and shadow. Play around with the settings to see which best suits your image. I moved each slider for this image. I also slightly increased the Exposure (to 0.24) and bumped up the Contrast (to 20)

See the difference these changes have already made. The background is more washed out and Cordelia is more prominent.

But, we can do more.

A tiny retouch

In the original photo do you see the tiny blemish under Cordelia’s right eye? It looks like I took the photo before she had finished grooming. Using the Retouch tool, I moved the slider to roughly the size of the blemish and simply clicked over the spot to remove it. Much tidier.

OK, let’s adjust those settings.

Add some warmth and saturate the colors

The Temperature slider can cool down or warm up your picture. In this instance, we want a bit of warmth so I moved the slider to the right (set to 6.5). This has changed the colour of her eyes to the correct shade of gold. The picture still needs some more color so I slid the Saturation to the right (up to 61). To remove a bit of the darkness on the fur I moved the Shadow slider up (to 6.1).

Each change is small but significant.

A crop and a matte finish

Cordelia’s is looking slightly more reddish than she should be (well, she is a Chocolate British Shorthair after all, not a Reddish British Shorthair) so even though her eyes are now a more true to life colour, I added a slight Tint (to 9.8) to tone down the reddish fur and bring out more of the chocolate color.

Now to the Effects window, I selected Matte. Then a slight Crop to finish. Why the crop after the matte and not before? I did try it that way but the crop was too tight and the matte finish covered part of the cat in white. So I added the matte and then did a couple of crops to get it just right. Having said that, the matte does help disguise the fact that the tip of her right ear was clipped.

Et voila!

If you have other iPhoto tips you’d like to share let us know in the comments. If you’d like to write a guest post about using iPhoto then get in touch with me via the Contact Form.

Related posts

• How to resize an image in iPhoto
• Add special effects to your images with iPhoto
• Use the tool in iPhoto to edit your images
• Duplicate an image in iPhoto

More great articles for you to read:

Bokeh in detail

This article at bokehtests.com is by far the most technical explanation of bokeh I have read:

• About bokeh

Shooting the snow

RRD Photo has some good tips on shooting snow scenes … if only I lived somewhere it snowed!

• Exposing for snow
  

Creative Common Licenses

Jim M. Goldstein has a thought-provoking article on the creative commons licensing and photography. Make sure to follow the discussion in the comments:

• Creative Commons, only as good a those that use it

Where’s it gone?

The West Ring has a tip as to why your photo’s metadata may have gone amiss:

• Is your EXIF data missing?

Are you doing the April Challenge?

Trevor Carpenter is running a new photo challenge on Entropy. Deterioration, decay, devolution - go forth and shoot a photo a day for the month of April. I have never participated in a project such as this before, fingers crossed I can keep up!

• April Challenge

Enjoy.

Related posts

• See other posts from the What I learned about photography this week series

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about my blog’s statistics for a project being run by Tibor Radványi over at photonovice.net. This project turned out to be the push I needed to sit down and analyse my web stats in detail rather than do a frantic count of page views, as is my usual way. It’s odd that I hadn’t taken the time to do this for myself because I constantly analyse web stats at work. I suppose I spend my available time writing content for my website rather than doing necessary behind-the-scenes checks on what’s working and what’s gotta go.

So, as a result of participating in this project, I discovered the direction in which this website is heading. Which has to be a good thing, right? Rather than continuing along the road in which I thought it was heading, I now know the sorts of posts people are stopping by to read.

I have to say I admire all the bloggers who set projects for their readers. I mean, you might have a good readership, but will everyone participate? I have started participating in projects but there are many that I have simply watched from the sidelines. What value can I bring? Well, you can bring a lot of value to a project just by participating! Tibor hasn’t had a huge response to his first project, so I’d like to ask if you have been analysing your stats of late please check out his project and see about submitting a late entry.

If you’d like to be involved check out the project guidelines for the next installment or contact Tibor at photonovice.net.

Here are the entries:

Now … on to the April Challenge!