The Colorful Pot.

[jiro]

One of the few colorful pots that you can find along the walking area at the SeaWorld complex at San Antonio, TX. Thank you very much for viewing.

Click the image to see it in lightbox.


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Nikon D70, Nikon 18-70mm lens set at 70mm, Exposure at ISO 200, f5.6 at 1/800 second, Matrix Metering in Manual Mode, Color Processed in LR 3.

[Peter Ryan]

I normally like your work Willie for the balance andproportion you give the elements in the shot. I like the strong colours andidea of the dappled shade. I also like the angle of the pot but I find the redflower just a little too close to the top of the image and when I look moreclosely at it (as you know a little red goes a long way in a shot) I getdistracted by the pot in the background. If it had of been more stones it wouldnot have drawn my attention so much.

[jiro]

I normally like your work Willie for the balance andproportion you give the elements in the shot. I like the strong colours andidea of the dappled shade. I also like the angle of the pot but I find the redflower just a little too close to the top of the image and when I look moreclosely at it (as you know a little red goes a long way in a shot) I getdistracted by the pot in the background. If it had of been more stones it wouldnot have drawn my attention so much.

Thank you very much for your objective comments, Peter. There are two things that attracted me to take this shot - namely the colorful painted pot and the play of light on the scene. I was more concentrating on the angle of the light hitting the pot that I seem to compromise the pot at the background interfering with the red flower. Let's see if I can clone out the pot in the background and convert it to stones (This photoshop is making me a magician! ).

[MVW22]

I think its a really cool picture. My eyes eyes are drawn back and forth from the right side of the pot - where the fish is in the sunlight - to the left side of the photo where the flagstones are in the sunlight (and shadows for that matter)....
The light and shadows were the first thing that caught my attention about the photo. Once I read Peter's post, I noticed the pot in the background (behind the red flower) and I do agree with him - the red flower would really pop without that pot behind it....
I admire your eye for the photo... I think I would have glanced at the pot and walked right by a great opportunity - Great picture.

[Shambhala]

I love the picture Willie, I am anxiously waiting to see your photoshop genius! I really like the angle of the pot and the colours.

[jiro]

How's this for the edit?

[Shambhala]

AWESOME!! I like this version just a touch better! You are definitely a Photoshop Pro.. I can't even imagine how you did that. LOL.. !! It hurts my head just thinking about it.. Love the picture.!!!

[jiro]

I think its a really cool picture. My eyes eyes are drawn back and forth from the right side of the pot - where the fish is in the sunlight - to the left side of the photo where the flagstones are in the sunlight (and shadows for that matter)....
The light and shadows were the first thing that caught my attention about the photo. Once I read Peter's post, I noticed the pot in the background (behind the red flower) and I do agree with him - the red flower would really pop without that pot behind it....
I admire your eye for the photo... I think I would have glanced at the pot and walked right by a great opportunity - Great picture.

Thank you very much, Mark. I really appreciate your comment. I'm glad I was able to direct your eyes to where I want it to be with this image.

[jiro]

AWESOME!! I like this version just a touch better! You are definitely a Photoshop Pro.. I can't even imagine how you did that. LOL.. !! It hurts my head just thinking about it.. Love the picture.!!!

Wanna know my secret, Shannon?... COFFEE!

What I did is I extracted the top part of the pot and the red flowers so I can preserve their pixel data. Then, I cloned some rocks here and there (the trick here is to make it random so the eyes won't notice the copied areas by association), then subtly play around with dodging and burning so I can mimic the play of light and shadows on the new areas that I cloned. Basically, that's it.

[Shambhala]

LOL, That's it eh?? It's nothing short of a miracle, read my thread about me trying to use GIMP and Photoshop and you will see what a genius you are!!

[lufkin]

you are truley a master at what you do Jiro

[jiro]

LOL, That's it eh?? It's nothing short of a miracle, read my thread about me trying to use GIMP and Photoshop and you will see what a genius you are!!

Nah, you're fine. We all go through that stage when we're starting to learn a new software. Unfortunately, even Photoshop is not that intuitive to use when it comes to photo editing. Only until they started incorporating ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) that photoshop became really user intuitive (but still not as intuitive as Lightroom). You can actually download a 15-day trial copy of Lightroom and give it a try. I think the 15-day grace period is enough to let you see how easy it is to make your images look better using LR than Photoshop.

[jiro]

you are truley a master at what you do Jiro

Still a Padawan, Josh. Just with some few tricks I have on my sleeve. Thank you very much for your kind words.

[MVW22]

Very impressed with the editing. BTW, you must have done that with Photoshop, right? Not Lightroom...? I'm pretty green in the PP world...
Interestingly, the edited version doesn't feel much different to me. Now that you took out the background pot - and made the red flower pop (which it does) - my eyes still seem to bounce back between the colors/light on the "main" pot and the light/shadows on the left-side flagstones. The draw on my eyes to those two areas of the photo is such that the changes make virtually no difference in my preference of either version. I like the edit as much as the original... huh, I did't expect that.
That being said, I'm really glad you made the edit (I learned something about drawing the eyes - or power of it) and I'm still impressed with your ability to remove the background pot and fill it in with the stones! Great job.

[jiro]

Very impressed with the editing. BTW, you must have done that with Photoshop, right? Not Lightroom...? I'm pretty green in the PP world...
Interestingly, the edited version doesn't feel much different to me. Now that you took out the background pot - and made the red flower pop (which it does) - my eyes still seem to bounce back between the colors/light on the "main" pot and the light/shadows on the left-side flagstones. The draw on my eyes to those two areas of the photo is such that the changes make virtually no difference in my preference of either version. I like the edit as much as the original... huh, I did't expect that.
That being said, I'm really glad you made the edit (I learned something about drawing the eyes - or power of it) and I'm still impressed with your ability to remove the background pot and fill it in with the stones! Great job.

Yes, the edit was done in Photoshop using the clone tools. Lightrooms' weakness is that it does not have layering capabilities. If it does (of which Adobe would be jeopardizing the sales of Photoshop if they do that) then LR would be a very powerful editing tool by far! I think Scott Kelby partnered with onOne Software and came up with a new software (still under beta version) called "Perfect Layers". This gives LR the missing layering capabilities that it needs. Not a full blown layering system like photoshop does but enough to make LR a very good stand alone editing platform.

I learned the idea on "how to draw the eyes of the viewer to where you want it to be" by reading some composition books, some art history books, and color harmony books. I think I was able to understand some of them eventually. Hehehe.

Thank you very much again for your kind words.

[Shambhala]

I will have to keep the 15 day trial in the back of my mind, I am not sure if adding something else new to learn and try out is a good idea for me.. I will stay awake for weeks trying to learn it and my head might explode.. I don't even know how to open RAW photos in photoshop..

[ucci]

Jiro
What this site needs is another icon. One which shows a forehead being slapped by the palm of a hand to indicate, ' Damn, how the heck did I not see that!" I need it!
I was so drawn to the beautifully sharp colours and patterns on the pot' s base that the nefarious background pot that eyes keener than mine picked up, I totally missed. Until I went back after reading their comments. Mine were totally focussed on the pot! But then again, I console myself with the thought that this is what you had intended for those viewing all along!
Nice piece of art, mate! Good work with PS as well.
You said this was one of several decorated pots you saw. Got any more to post and share?
Ken

[jiro]

I will have to keep the 15 day trial in the back of my mind, I am not sure if adding something else new to learn and try out is a good idea for me.. I will stay awake for weeks trying to learn it and my head might explode.. I don't even know how to open RAW photos in photoshop..

Are you using a PC or a Mac?

[jiro]

Jiro
What this site needs is another icon. One which shows a forehead being slapped by the palm of a hand to indicate, ' Damn, how the heck did I not see that!" I need it!
I was so drawn to the beautifully sharp colours and patterns on the pot' s base that the nefarious background pot that eyes keener than mine picked up, I totally missed. Until I went back after reading their comments. Mine were totally focussed on the pot! But then again, I console myself with the thought that this is what you had intended for those viewing all along!
Nice piece of art, mate! Good work with PS as well.
You said this was one of several decorated pots you saw. Got any more to post and share?
Ken

Thanks, Ken. This one is the most colorful among them. Some are actually very large pots (as tall as a small boy) but not as pretty as this one. I'll see if I can do something about them on the post-processing to make them a bit interesting to look at.