Just a few more from Sunday’s shoot that I’ve had time to process. As I mentioned earlier, I forgot to alter my lighting setup when I switched from portraits to full-length shots, so these suffered a little from that error. They weren’t nearly as crisp as I like them to be, and the light was blown out a little – so I used Pixlr to disguise these flaws a bit. Plus, I’m getting bored of the beige backdrop now – it wasn’t nearly as easy to transform into another color as I thought it would be, and was next to impossible to do in these full-length shots (you need a lot of contrast between the subject and the background – which is why people use greenscreens so often – and that mottled beige background did NOT contrast with what I was wearing at all) so without some Pixlr-ing they weren’t all that exciting to me. At first I wasn’t excited by them even after giving them the Pixlr treatment, but they’re starting to grow on me.
Can anyone spot the kitten in this photo? I purposely left him in the shot.
I always try to go easy with the Pixlr effects, because it’s a very popular free program and I don’t want my shots to scream that I used it. I don’t know why this matters to me; I guess I just want the edits to blend well into the shot and not have any one particular filter or effect stand out to people.
Clearly though, I like the scratchy textures Pixlr offers.
Love the movement of the skirt in this one.
I used some interesting overlays here – one was a space filter, and fire was another. I kept them subtle so you wouldn’t be able to recognize what they are; I think the end result looks rather ghostly.
mareymercy. 
For what it’s worth, I doubt that anyone is thinking you are using Pixlr to edit your shots unless they know you or are doing similar kinds of editing. It was all new to me, for example. These are great, especially since the wig and dress look so incongruous together. Can’t see Simon. Especially like the first and last ones. I can see buying backdrops can get pricey.
Simon is way down on the left-hand side, not really in the corner but off to the left. It’s just his head and ears showing.
I get paranoid about my Pixlr use being noticed because that is totally what I do – LOL – I can spot a Pixlr edit from a mile away and therefore I don’t want anyone to do it to me. Not that there is any reason to care – it’s not like I think it’s bad when I see someone used Pixlr. I guess my vanity wants to appear that everything I do is totally original. I’m weird.
(I see his cute little head, now that you pointed it out. Adorable). No, you aren’t weird, artists want to be unique. But you are! Who does this thing with all the wigs and jumps (meanwhile what happened to flickr rick there for awhile, that was odd) and costumes. Processing is what you enjoy but it isn’t the core of the art there, imho.
What happened with him? I saw his photos disappear but never knew why.
That is what I mean, his pictures disappeared for days and he didn’t write any explanation on the one picture that remained – still hasn’t, that I have seen. I just think that was unusual, when people follow you the way people follow him, with such interest. Usually some explanation is forthcoming. Fine with me but, a little mysterious.
Yeah, who knows. All sorts of things happen on the internet. At one time I hid all my photos because that whacko on YouTube was stealing everything and making silly videos of me, but I did try to explain what happened to people. Sometimes things like that happen – you find some stranger has taken you photos and used them somewhere, and you get ticked off and take everything down then think better of it. Who knows. I have always found the ability to ‘disappear’ virtually to be appealing. I’ve done it several times, as well as shutting down blogs and opening up other ones with a completely different focus. I know some people hate it, but I like the idea that it’s one way to make all this online content feel like I own it – the fact I can remove it, even if it is only to an extent.
Didn’t think of that. Makes sense. I have done that with my websites and with FB (although I just left FB in place, rarely returning). Also, sometimes we just need to refocus when something seems stale. I think, other than FB where all the nutty family and school friends are, I would probably just cycle away for a time and then back. I have put up and taken down lots of these things. At least now I know more about what to do to avoid burning out completely (I hope!), lol.