Selective colouring ... ...

I figured I'd start adding a few tutorial type posts to this blog, haven't really paid it much attention of late.

So to start I'm going with a bit of 'selective colouring' or colour popping (I think some people call it that) I use mostly open source software, so for this tutorial I'm using The Gnu Image Manipulation Program (or GIMP for short, I know) and I'm using the latest version (2.8) which amongst other improvements now has a single window mode, which is very good.


One of a few pictures I've used this technique on -

My youngest a few years ago now.

Gimp is free for linux based operating systems, and for Windows and Mac systems, although the Windows and Mac versions aren't officially supported by the people behind Gimp, and considering it doesn't cost anything it can do most of what more expensive programs can (like Photoshop for example) and you can make it do much, much more by adding plugins and extra brushes and a variety of other stuff.

This tutorial is a good way of adding a little something extra to a picture, and takes hardly any time, although having a graphics tablet is handy, it makes the colouring easier.

My graphics tablet, bit old but it still does the job -

Right lets begin, firstly I'd suggest making a copy of the image you want to use, this way you will have the original from which you can use again, I always work on copies of my photo's.

So open your image in gimp, for this I'm going to use another picture of my daughter, you should be able to do this in photoshop and other similar software, although some of the steps may be different.

My chosen image open in gimp (credit to my lovely wife, who took this particular picture she takes much better pictures than me) -

Gimp 2.8 (latest version) has a single window mode.

Firstly you want to duplicate the image, you can do this by pressing ctrl+a to make sure the image is selected, then to duplicate it press ctrl+d, if you are using gimp 2.8 you should see another tab open in the top left corner.

Two images now -

In gimp 2.8 you should see this.

Now we need to convert the copy to black and white, make sure the copy is selected then go to image ---> then mode ---> then greyscale (the picture should turn to black and white) then go to image ---> then mode ---> then select rgb

With that done we now need to create a new layer, firstly make sure that the original colour image is selected, you can do this by clicking on the right tab (you should have two, one colour and one black and white) next go to the layers section, which should be on the right of the screen, then click on the picture you can see, then if you right click you should get a box pop up with various options, you need to select new layer, give the layer a name, like b&w then click ok.

 Creating a new layer -

Give the new layer a name, I've used b&w

 And this is what you should now see in the layers window -

A few steps left before colouring in time.

Next make sure the layer you created is selected, it should be highlighted, like it is in the above picture, now select the black and white image from the tabs in the top left, then press ctrl+a to select all, then press ctrl+c to copy, next click on the colour picture from the tabs in the top left and press ctrl+v this should paste the black and white image onto the colour image.

The colour image should be obscured by the black and white image you just pasted, and once that's done you need to click on the anchor button in the layers window, then you can close the black and white image window if you want to.

Now in the layers window right click on the layer you named b&w (or what ever you chose) and select add layer mask, and in the options that open select white (full opacity)

Selecting the layer mask - 

Almost done.

Now make sure black is set as the foreground colour in the toolbox, which should be on the left of the screen, then select the brush tool (hint it looks like a brush ;-) you should select a fairly large brush, basically what you're about to do is paint transparency into the layer mask to reveal the colour picture below.

Start colouring, and this is why it's handy to have a graphics tablet, you can you a mouse, it's just easier with something that resembles a pen.

As you colour you should see the colour start to show on the black and white image, you can zoom in on the image as you colour to make sure you don't go over the area you intend to colour, to zoom in use the + sign on the number pad, or go to the view menu and select zoom in.

After a minute or two here's how mine looks - 

Simple really.

And here's the finished image - 

Pretty in pink.

And that's it, quite simple really, and to be honest you'd be surprised how many of these photo effects aren't actually that complicated, and you can even do it using free software (who says open source software isn't any good) 

I've added a short screencast of the steps taken to make an image like this at the bottom, I only did things quickly, it's probably best to take a little more time than I did for the video, after all you are going to want it to look nice, the video has captions to help you along the way, but before I go, I'm sure you've seen the types of pictures people have been taking with smart phone apps like instagram and others, you can do that in gimp as well, and the best of it there are plugins for gimp that will do it for you in much the same way as the smart phone apps do, have a look at the picture of my daughter below.

 My daughter being a mouse (apparently) - 

I thought kangaroo, but no she says it's definitely a mouse.

Here's the video (you might want to view it in full screen mode) - 

And you can download gimp 2.8 from this site - http://www.gimp.org/ (opens in new window)


Thanks for reading.

Manipulating images ... ...

For some time now I've pondered whether I should tweak my photo's, or manipulate them, and how far I should take it.

Trouble is, where is the line or should there even be a line ? what constitutes a manipulated image ?

There has been a lot of talk of late about airbrushing in magazines and how these "perfect" models are warping peoples views (especially young people) of how they should look, and to be honest I agree that the images you see in most every magazine aren't a true representation of what the particular person or persons look like, and it may be doing more harm than good.

The reality is however that, that sort of image sells magazines, and as with most things it comes down to money, everyone has to make a living right ? although if we as consumers of this kind of media stopped buying it, then maybe they'd listen and use the airbrush a little less.

For me personally the reason I manipulate my photo's is simple, I like doing it, I see no harm in tweaking the colours of an image for a more pleasing look, but even this could be a step too far because the edited image is no longer a true representation of the original scene, I guess it depends on peoples views (back to the whole "art is subjective argument")

There's a time and a place for tweaking,editing or manipulating images, I guess as an example it's not a good idea to change the colouring of a flower photograph, especially if it's for identification purposes, or for some kind of book where you need a real life (or as near to it) representation, but it's okay to play about with the same flower photo for artistic reasons, so maybe it's down to common sense ? trouble is there doesn't seem to be much about these days.

I've had this kind of argument before with people, but I think to an extent it stifles creativity, I see no harm in tweaking an image (unless of course we're talking magazine covers or flower guide books) and you only have to look at the myriad of photography related apps for smart phones to know that people like being creative with their pictures.

But as a my daughter, and to a lesser extent my son grow up I find myself wondering if things have got so out of hand that the types of magazines and such like that line the many shelves of just about every shop and supermarket are causing a great deal of damage to young people.

As an example today I made a trip into the city (as I often do) and I could have quite easily lined about 40 or more people who were dressed and looked almost identical, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being fashionable, but at what price ? these people all looked like clones, same clothes,hair,make up and the same types of phones and bags and such like, where's the individuality ? this is what I meant people being warped by the way the media seems to think people should look, I'd even go so far as to guess that most of them all read the same kind of magazine.

So what's to be done ? to be honest I have no idea, but a little realism wouldn't go amiss, as I said if we stop buying this type of thing maybe the companies behind it might take a step back and listen ? or perhaps it's something more grass roots than that, maybe we as parents need to show our kids that how they look is just right, they don't need to be a certain clothes size and wear their hair in a certain way, as long as they are healthy and happy does it matter if they don't wear the right brand of shoe to fit the current fashion trend ? does it matter if they get a spot ? or a freckle in the wrong place ?

To be honest I've been around a bit and I've never met anyone who looks like the models on the covers of just about every magazine you see, I'm talking perfectly thin, no spots or blemishes, not a hair out of place or a curve that's not quite the right sort of curve.

Keep it real I say, the world will be a much nicer place if people are who they are, and not what a magazine or fashion company says they should be, and with that I'll leave you with this video, which basically says what I was trying to, but in a much better way.

As it says at the bottom of the video - ' This commercial isn’t real, and neither are society’s standards of beauty.'

Click the link and enjoy.

Fotoshop by Adobé

A rant about kids and cameras ... ...

I'm going to have a rant about cameras, or more specifically kids and cameras.

Do your kids have cameras ? and if so what sort ? the reason I ask is because of a certain camera that's available to "kid's" I'm talking about this thing --- Kidizoom opens in new window.
 
Firstly I'd like to point out that these are my opinions and mine alone, I don't like these types of toys, never have and I never will, although it has to be said that V-tech make some good stuff.

Now I have 2 kids, one is 7 and one is 3 (boy 7 and girl 3) they both have cameras, my son has had his for a while and my daughter recently got a camera for her third birthday, and they are real cameras, not toy type things, okay so they aren't slr's or anything like that , but they are good cameras with a host of useful functions.

I know these types of toys are designed to teach kids how to use a camera, but I think you can buy a proper half decent camera and teach a kid to use it, without destroying it, which is a big feature of the toy camera, it'll take a beating, but this in my book doesn't teach a kid to respect the item, lets face it if your iphone or android phone bounced and wasn't marked in anyway would you be so careful of it ? I suspect not, I know I wouldn't ;-)

So onto the cameras, my son has a Nikon coolpix L22 camera (in red, his favourite colour) and my daughter has a Vivitar , Vivicam 7024 (in pink, which is her favourite colour)

The Nikon -

It's a good camera.

The Vivitar -

No as good as the Nikon, but as cameras go it's okay.

Obviously there are differences between the 2 cameras, the Nikon is better and has more features and the image quality is better than the Vivitar, but both take a pretty good picture. Now the Nikon has 12mega pixels, and the Vivitar has 7mega pixels, compared to the 2mega pixels of the Kidizoom, okay so the Kidizoom does some fun things, like adding hats and such like to pictures, but you can do this on a pc with a half decent image editing application (like GIMP for example, which is free) and in my opinion this is better than doing things in camera, because kids can learn how to edited images using a program like GIMP, which in turns teaches them about things like colour balancing, histograms and such like.

You might think editing images like this, is beyond young children, in fact you'd be surprised how much they learn, and how fast they can pick it up, cameras like these aren't that expensive, in fact the Vivitar was cheaper than the Kidizoom (it was on offer to be fair) and it does more, the Nikon we also got when it was on offer it was half price (£60 instead of £120)

The thing I like about giving a proper camera to a kid is the way they go about using it, they'll learn it's features quickly, my daughter already knows she needs to switch to macro mode for close up pictures and my son knows more about his camera than I do, I often ask him what button I need to press if I use it :-) and I also like the way they take pictures, they aren't bound by the rules of using a camera, like framing, setting the scene, correct lighting and such like, the cameras do compensate for this a little, but you get some really good pictures, and some not so good it has to be said.

This is something I'm trying to do with my photography, be a little more free in the way I take pictures, try and forget some of the rules and see what happens, it's also a good way to spend time with the kids, go out for a walk and take pictures of anything and everything, then when you get home you can all sit round the pc and look through the pictures.

So if you're thinking of getting a camera for your son or daughter, then have a look at proper cameras before you go down the toy route, yes you'll need a case, and yes you may have to show them they can't play football with it, but you might just be surprised at how much they learn and how much they get into it, and you never know you might find a new hobby as well :-)

Here's a couple of pictures taken by my kids, they aren't great but it shows imagination and they really love taking pictures, we're not talking David Bailey photo's but that's not what matters, it's the experience and with digital cameras it's easy just to remove the bad pictures :-)

Taken by my daughter -

She took it while watching tv on my computer :-)

I'm reliably informed it's some kind of Pokemon (according to my son) My daughter must have been taking pictures of tv programs, which I find quite interesting, I'm waiting to see what programs she try's next :-)

The next picture was taken by my son -

He loves bugs :-)

You can see the difference in the camera quality, and subject, but just because your son or daughter likes to take pictures of tv programs isn't a reason not to let them have camera, it's about letting them be creative with technology, and who knows you might just end up with the next big thing in the photography world :-)

Thanks for reading.

Chasing the light ... ...

What is photography ? I know it's taking pictures, I know it's framing, I know it's art (well to some it is) but what is it essentially ?

What I'm on about is the process of making what you see into an image, be it digital or on film, when you look through you view finder what do you see ? is it a bird, a flower, a landscape or a smile ?

Every photo you take has something in common with all the others you've taken.

What do they have in common ?

Simply put it's light, light is each photograph, be it on your sd card or on your film, light is what made the image you see, light passed through the lens of the camera and was either exposed onto film or with a digital camera it was exposed onto the sensor and then converted into data.

Okay so the process is a little more complex than that, but light is what makes a photo, whether it's good or bad. If we didn't have light we wouldn't be able to take photos and the world would be a very dull place indeed.

This is how I try to approach my photography these days, I did used to go for the technique of taking a photo, correct framing, making sure the conditions were right, the iso was correct and such like, but it got boring, and I found it wasn't very good for creativity.

There's nothing wrong with making sure your using the right aperture setting or shutter speed, all I'm saying is don't worry about it too much, enjoy the experience of taking a picture, the experience of capturing that the one brief moment in time.

Think of it this way, you want to take a picture of you son or daughters first steps, you grab the camera, you turn it on,check the aperture setting, make sure the iso is right, you go to take the picture and they sit down, moment missed because you were trying to get the settings right. 

Of course you can just let the camera do the work, our slr has an auto mode (as do most cameras) it's just a default setting, but more often than not it produces good pictures, and no need to mess with settings and miss a moment.

Now some might say that you're not getting the best from the camera and you're not really learning how to use it, but there's a time and place for messing with the settings, I'm all for learning how the camera works because in truth you will benefit from knowing how to use it, and so will your photography.

What do you think of this picture ?

Just a daisy.

This obviously wasn't shot using the auto mode, and it's not a technically correct photo, it's not all in focus for a start, but I like it, that's another thing I do, I try to take pictures I like, and not worry what others might think of them.

I'd have to admit I'm not sure why I like the daisy, it's just nice to look at, had I shot this using the auto mode I'd have ended up with a very different shot, but this picture shows what I meant about there being a time and a place for messing about, give yourself time to take photo's maybe go out for a walk on your own (if you can, not that easy with kids) and spend time looking at the way light interacts with things around you, you might just end up with some interesting photo's, but remember to put the camera back into auto mode when you're done, other wise when you most need it if you have to have to mess about adjusting settings, you might just miss an opportunity ;-)

Like this photo, which I'm very fond of (and not just because it's of my son)


Who shot who ?

It's a great photo, well I think it is.

This is what I mean, this was shot using the auto mode, my son was taking pictures of bugs and plants, something he does a lot, he turned round and decided I was his next subject, so I just pointed the camera in his direction and pressed the button, this is what I got, I love it :-)

So my advice is use the auto mode, it's there for a reason, but by all means mess about with the settings, but give yourself the time to do it, more of it will sink in that way.

I thought I'd finish with a couple of books I have, which my lovely wife got me, they are photography books by a chap called Tom Ang who is an excellent photographer, he has some interesting views on photography and it's well worth reading his books, he has many tutorials as well.


Digital Photography Masterclass : Advanced Photographic and Image Manipulation Techniques for Creating Perfect Pictures By Tom Ang.

Amazon link - Tom Ang on Amazon. (opens in new window)

And another great book by Tom Ang.

How to Photograph Absolutely Everything :  Successful Pictures from your Digital Camera By Tom Ang.

Amazon link - Tom Ang on Amazon. (opens in new window)


Thanks for reading.

Biting off more than I can chew ... ...

Yes I may well be biting off more than I can chew by starting up another blog, I struggle sometimes to find the time for the other 2 I have, but I seem to have this need to try and put the things I want to do into some kind of order, and if I'm honest I've been thinking about doing an arty / photography related blog for the best part of a year now, just wasn't sure I could maintain it and the other blogs I have.

So I decided I'd give it a go, so to that end welcome to my new blog :-)

I will be posting about some of the things I draw and some of my photography, I'll also be including the odd how to and such like now and then.

As I'm  Linux user (Ubuntu) most of the editing applications I use are native Linux applications, some may have a Windows or Mac version but most probably don't, I do also use Photoshop Elements 6 which I have running through wine, although if I'm honest I only use the camera raw plugin for small tweaks to the odd photo now and then, most of the time I'll use rawstudio or rawtherapee or one of the others that handle raw files.

 Time for a picture, this is one of my latest photo edits, it may not appeal to a lot of people, but that's one of the things I like about art (if that's what you want to call it) it's subjective, something for every one :-)

Lens flare (one of my favourite effects)

The flare was added using gimp, but I try where possible to capture it using the camera.

This is an added effect using gimp, but I often try and capture the flare using the camera, although many image editing applications have a good selection of flare / light effects they never seem quite as natural as the real thing, but they still make for some interesting images, well in my opinion they do.

I haven't been taking photographs for long, just a few years but in that time I've changed the way I view the whole process. It all started when I got my wife a digital slr for Christmas one year and now we both use the same camera, although we've added extra lenses and various filters and attachments, we've also both taken a short Open University course on digital photography which was very interesting and gave us both the skills to use the camera to it's best.

When I first took the course I tried to keep to what it had taught be about using a camera and for a time I tried to keep to getting the settings right and making sure everything was lined up nicely and such like, but after a while I found it to be a little restrictive, so I stopped trying to get a correctly taken photograph, and started taking the photographs I wanted, which was when I developed the taste for lens flare, the first picture I took that had it was an accident :-)

The next picture is the result of one of my first experiments using the raw format, I'll go into what raw format is another time, but this is one of the reasons I like it.

Another lens flare effect -

This image has been greatly altered from the original.

The editing in this picture was done in 2 stages, the first was to a adjust it using an application that can handle raw files, after tweaking the settings I settled on this, I was really pleased with the colours and the way the tree is in silhouette.
The next bit of editing I did was done in gimp, although there was some flare I changed it for a more obvious effect.

I can't say enough good things about gimp (I know it has an unfortunate name) if you want as close to photoshop as possible with out paying the hefty price then gimp is worth a try, I have an older version of photoshop which I no longer use because I prefer gimp and I've found some really good plugins for it over the last few years (you can even write your own) here's a link to the gimp website, go and have a look, it runs on Windows and Mac systems (I think it runs on Macs) it is very good --- http://www.gimp.org/ (opens in new window)

That's enough for now, I kind of got carried away a little, this was meant to be a short introduction :-)

Thanks for reading.