Two more Carl Milles sculptures for C&C...

[Glenn P]

Hi Dave,

Glenn's example of artificially widening the aperture is useful for some recent shots.

"artificially widening the aperture"

I like that. I think I'm going to use that from now on instead of "blurring the background."

[Glenn P]

Hi Izzie,

I really liked your Sunglitter shot so I took a crack at "artificially widening the aperture" on it.

This one was a little harder than what I normally work on because just isolating the statue alone made it look awkward because the water that should be in the same focal plane got blurred out too. So I added another layer to keep that sharp as well.

Thanks for helping me polish my PS skills on a great image.

[IzzieK]

Thanks Izzie.

I find I do my best work when I am alone and take my time (at an appropriate location and time of day). My wife likes photography too, but tends to be less patient than I am and she will wander off while I want to stick to a particular location. I do manage to get out alone when we are at home, but when we are traveling, I generally don't get the time to shoot the way I want to.

Life -- sometimes it gets in the way and I just can't wander off especially at night. Not my way but I still want to be a good photographer. Thanks for the extra help.

[IzzieK]

Hi Izzie:

I don't think I have anything new to add to the comments, but I did want to chime in and say that I also think these subjects would look better in colour. As some of the other posters mentioned the tones of the subject blend in with the busy backgrounds. Shooting with the largest aperture possible may help to isolate the subject and blur the background. Also, I think the dark hedge in the first image cuts the photo in half. All in all, a great effort with some very interesting subjects!

As Manfred suggested, I have to go on a different day to get these and probably repeat the whole excursion to get it right. I can do that but not immediately as I have to finish up some tasks around here like my bookeeping and the garden apart from the usual cleaning and my favourite, cooking -- add annoying my husband to bits being goofy together. We are chalk and cheese you know... Anyway, I will try your suggestion one of these days this week and come back to it with a colour version. I just thought really it was a lost cause by now...and I'd rather shoot a better one instead.

I appreciate your help and being very nice in your comment...thank you.

[IzzieK]

Hi Dave,"artificially widening the aperture"

I like that. I think I'm going to use that from now on instead of "blurring the background."

There used to be a guy who taught me that method here. He hasn't been around lately but he has a nice looking dog like Richard Crowe and he is a fireman...but he taught me to do it with flowers, wide aperture using a zoom lens. I had the D300s at the time...

[IzzieK]

Hi Izzie,

I really liked your Sunglitter shot so I took a crack at "artificially widening the aperture" on it.

How did you "widen the aperture" artificially? Just asking...

This one was a little harder than what I normally work on because just isolating the statue alone made it look awkward because the water that should be in the same focal plane got blurred out too. So I added another layer to keep that sharp as well.

Thanks for helping me polish my PS skills on a great image.

I can just imagine how hard it is to rework this shot as there are smaller details in the water drops too. With a simpler image it is easy to do quick selective editing but with little stuffs to include with it, I'd be very impatient.

Thank you for passing by and making me think too...I appreciate your kind comments.

[Glenn P]

How did you "widen the aperture" artificially? Just asking...


I can just imagine how hard it is to rework this shot as there are smaller details in the water drops too.

Hi Izzie,

It's really not that hard. Open in photoshop and make a copy then use the quickselection tool to isolate what you want to cut out. (I'm always amazed at how well this tool works, even on this photo in B&W. Getting the water drops wasn't that hard, just zoom way in and use a small brush. Basically just clicking on each one and letting the quickselection tool do it's stuff.) Once you're happy with the edge cut it out to a new layer. Blur the background copy (I use gaussian at 3px) and you're done.

At least normally this is where I'm done. But on this shot because you can see the foreground in front of the statue I had to make a second layer cut out that was the water on either side of the base. Once again the quickselection tool made easy work of this. For this I used the "define edge" function to soften the cutout so it would look like the focus was fading in and out on DoF.

Maybe 15 minutes all-in-all.

[IzzieK]

Sorry for the late response, Glenn....I was a bit occupied yesterday. I did photograph a simple flower I bought at the supermarket yesterday and I forgot to change my metering again so I have to repeat the whole shooting thing today to practice on a simple quick selection tool. Truth to say, I had not used this tool for a long time but I did manage to remember to take my time in editing. And when I do take time to concentrate on my editing, I want different shots to practice it on so it will be second nature to me, until I go out and forget again...call it old age. Thank you so much for your response. I really do appreciate it very much.

Hi Izzie,

It's really not that hard. Open in photoshop and make a copy then use the quick selection tool to isolate what you want to cut out. (I'm always amazed at how well this tool works, even on this photo in B&W. Getting the water drops wasn't that hard, just zoom way in and use a small brush. Basically just clicking on each one and letting the quick selection tool do it's stuff.) Once you're happy with the edge cut it out to a new layer. Blur the background copy (I use gaussian at 3px) and you're done.

At least normally this is where I'm done. But on this shot because you can see the foreground in front of the statue I had to make a second layer cut out that was the water on either side of the base. Once again the quickselection tool made easy work of this. For this I used the "define edge" function to soften the cutout so it would look like the focus was fading in and out on DoF.

Maybe 15 minutes all-in-all.

[Glenn P]

Sorry for the late response, Glenn

No worries, I'm and old school guy (hell I don't even have a cell phone) so I might not respond till days later. Like now.

Thank you so much for your response. I really do appreciate it very much.

My pleasure. Always glad to help if I can.