Evolution of a photograph

Posted on November 4, 2013 by marey mercy

I thought I’d show the evolution one of my photos from Sunday’s shoot went through, because I personally found the process interesting. This photo didn’t end up at all where I thought it would, but I do like the results.

When choosing which shots to process, I decided to play around with this one in spite of its flaws, because I found the pose and facial expression to be compelling (if it’s not snobby to say something like that about myself; I don’t consider me “me” when editing my shots anyway, I’m just the subject of them).

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do anything with this because of the makeup problem here – it was not applied THAT badly, but at this point in the shoot it had gotten a bit smudged, and that combined with the lighting I was using accentuated it. In this shot, I wasn’t using the softbox I normally use for portraits, because I’d already taken it off the flash and wasn’t interested in putting it back on (this was taken right at the end of the shoot). Without the softbox, I get a much softer light on the face, which is a prettier effect for portraits, but it creates its own problems – especially on a middle-aged face. For example, when looking in the mirror I do not see dark circles or major wrinkles under my eyes, but with the external flash attached to my camera and bounced off the ceiling, they are definitely accentuated (the bounced flash also creates a lot of shadows on the face, which on one hand adds a lot of interest, but can also highlight wrinkles and flaws, unless you’re a spring chicken, which I am not). So, when I choose to use the bounced flash, I almost always end up needing to use Photoshop to get rid of things it accentuates that are not appealing. This is why I normally choose to go with the softbox, as it hits my face with a lot of light, which erases lines and shadows, but it’s filtered enough that I don’t get that awful “hey I used a flash in this shot” light blowout that occurs with an in-camera flash.

Bit of a digression here, but this example to compare the two. This first one is using the softbox on my external flash (I shared this shot yesterday as well):

The softbox allows me to aim the flash right at my face – great for eliminating those dark eye circles and other wrinkles, but it’s definitely a “look.” I consider it a high-fashion look, but that’s just my little name for it. While the softbox won’t create too many shadows on the face, it does create a lot of background shadows that are very sharp and dramatic, which can work well, but it isn’t always what I want.

Now here’s another shot from the same shoot, taken without a softbox and with the external flash bounced off the ceiling:

TOTALLY different look. The overall effect is softer and more dimensional, I think, than the one using the softbox – but I did have to do more editing to my face to get rid of the dark circles that magically appear when using this lighting.

Anyway, back to the original shot. The bounced flash created a bit of a mess around my eyes, so I managed to use PS to edit most of that out. The end result was this:

I also got rid of the freckles on my arms, I don’t care one whit about them in real life, but in photos I find them distracting.

Much better, but still a bit of a problem. I pulled the shot over into Snapseed and gave it a go; I was pretty sure I’d need to go black and white with it, since all that color around the eyes and the smudged makeup on the nose was going to be bitch to even out without it looking weird, but on its own the B&W wasn’t appealing to me – it still needed more oomph to work. So I ended up using a red B&W filter on it, which gave it a crazy glow, then added a “Grunge” filter with texture to give it an antique-y feel, and well, here’s the end result.

Now I really love it. I don’t think I’ve ever used a red B&W filter before as it makes everything overly bright and glowy, and I’ve never known what to do with that. But it worked here to eliminate the problems of the shot as well as contribute to the tense mood I felt the expression created. It looks nothing like the original, but it fixes the flaws of that one while really ‘coming into its own,’ so to speak.

I don’t think I’ll ever get bored with editing photos and playing around with filters. It’s the same freedom and magic to me that coloring held when I was a kid. Now if only I didn’t get so absorbed in it that the kitchen stays dirty for hours and I get to bed way too late. But one thing at a time, I reckon.

A few more shots to share tomorrow!

Medusa shoot

Posted on September 22, 2013 by marey mercy

I had some time to work with one of the wigs I got from Target today. I also did some more light experimentation, but those shots are so different from these that I am going to create a separate post for them later.

I don’t have a whole lot of preliminary stuff to say about these, because it’s quite late and I’m tired, so I’ll just show you what I’ve had time to process so far. Between this shoot and the tutu pics from last weekend, I have a ton of stuff still to work with, so I may lay off doing any more shoots for awhile until I can catch up.

For this first one, I decided to change the color of the snake wig to match the backdrop and the dress. That’s not something that always works out, but it was easy to pull off this time. I also have a plastic shower curtain hanging up behind me; the creases in it can’t be steamed out, unfortunately, but it still creates an interesting backdrop, and I managed to pull off some cool stuff with it in my light experimentation shots I’ll share later:

Not bad, but I do like the bright green of the wig so I didn’t do this again.

For the second one, I cut up this cheap old Cleopatra hat so I could use the silly-looking snake that adorned it as a tongue. This really didn’t work all that well so I don’t plan on processing any more of these. But the Cleopatra tongue-snake did match the silliness of the wig, so it was worth a shot.

I’m torn on this next one. I love the color but at the same time, I think it might work better and as black and white shot. I can’t make up my mind which one is the real winner. The goggles, by the way, were purchased off Amazon a few years ago, and have been used in several shoots. This dress was an eBay vintage find; it was pricey but it’s great for photos:

I pulled out all sorts of old props and doodads to throw on with the wig; one of them was this bellydancing scarf I picked up somewhere. In this shot I’d flung it around a bit and I liked the way it was moving across my face here:

The sequined gown I am wearing in most of these shots, by the way, belonged to my mother-in-law. It is full-length, all sequins, weighs a ton, and cannot be pulled over my hips to save my life. As a result, I had the whole thing yanked up like some sort of weird miniskirt during the shoot. Also, it is backless with one of those little hooks at the neck to keep the entire top from falling down due to its weight; there was no way I was going to be able to fasten that hook on my own, so the dress is being held together at the neck by a chip clip. Nothing but the classiest for me – YEP.

More pics to come!

Gah!-roceries

Posted on September 14, 2013 by marey mercy

Well Saturday was both the most awesome and the most disappointing grocery store trip ever.

First of all, I noticed as I pulled into the parking lot that it was exceptionally crowded. It was 1 PM on a Saturday, true, but I’ve been at this Kroger plenty of times during that part of the day and never seen quite as much traffic as I saw this time. Then I noticed this:

And I knew something was up.

The entrance to the store was all decked out in football regalia, which is not unusual for any day in Texas this time of year.

There’s a hint in that placard, if you can read it. My photos were particular crappy this time out.

Now, generally, this is how I approach all things football:

In fact, I know so little about my city’s own team that I actually thought this guy was one of our players, based on the simple fact that there was a lot of football stuff around, he was a rather big dude, and a few people in fan jerseys were talking to him – but I guess I was wrong.

Can you see what the little guy is holding? YEP.

Whatever was going on involved a pretty long line, which snaked around and inconveniently blocked the aisles of toiletries:

Notice that woman in the red shirt & khaki pants guarding the line? She’s one of many who ruined what could have been the most awesome grocery day ever.

In case you haven’t guessed yet, the team’s cheerleaders were at my grocery store today to sign copies of their calendar for fans. Cheerleaders! In tight sparkly silver shorts! And silver go-go boots! With super-long stick-straight hair extensions and awesome spray tans! SCORE! How could my attempts to take entertaining, super-cheesy grocery store photos get any better than this? I swear all these photos are so blurry because I was trembling with joy at the opportunities I briefly envisioned. That is until the FIRST Kroger employee eyed me suspiciously while I whipped out my cell phone. Hm, I thought, that’s unusual. Usually no one thinks twice about a woman on her phone in the grocery store.

Then of course I noticed all the guards and cops and the over-abundance of store employees gathered about, trying to prevent anyone from taking photos of the cheerleaders for free. Damn! Try as I might, and as stealthily as I tried to wander the aisles, looking for some crack or crevice in their makeshift staging area that wasn’t guarded by an eagle-eyed individual, this is the ONLY shot I could get of them without buying a calendar and standing in line, and yeah, it’s pretty disappointing:

Don’t think I didn’t seriously consider buying one.

I tried to circle around a bit and get something better, but they were totally onto me. I eventually started to feel like a pervert so I went about my business, completely uninterested in taking any other photos for the rest of the day. When you miss the opportunity to get pics of grown women dressed in cheerleader gear in front of the baby wipes aisle, well, nothing is really gonna get you over that level of disappointment but time. I’m not over it yet, but I’m getting there.

Groceries! Part whatever.

Posted on September 8, 2013 by marey mercy

I’ve captured a few interesting shots here and there lately, so it’s time to share. I’m gonna save my fave for last, but let’s start with this one, found in the cheap wine section:

That pretty much sums up the attitude of people who buy box wine. YEP.

I’ve been wanting to capture this little mixed message for several trips now, but located as it is at the front doors to the store, and given the fact that I never remember about it until I’m on my way out and my phone is already stored away, it’s been a hard one to catch. But on a recent quick trip where I was just picking up a few things I remembered to leave my phone out, and although the shot’s a little blurred I think you can still make out the quandary this might put a shopper in if she or he is too literal-minded:

I’m not sure what to do here.

I passed by these pastel-colored booze bottles on the way to the checkout line one day (didn’t pay attention to what sort of booze they contain) and couldn’t resist a quick snap. On its own the picture wasn’t worth much so I gave it the Pixlr treatment:

What happens to your vision if you drink too many of these.

This is one of my favorite iPhone captures of recent memory. This little heart post-it was stuck to the parking lot concrete right behind some dude who was getting out of his car when I stopped to take the photo; he looked at me like I was bonkers, but he did keep his feet out of the shot.

When searching for art in the everyday, be sure to look down on occasion.

Aftermath

Posted on September 6, 2013 by marey mercy

So for my final shots from Saturday’s session, I decided to get some shots of me taking all that makeup off. I don’t really know why. The camera was set up so I figured, why not?

One thing about all that stage makeup is it does a real number on my rather sensitive eyes. The only eyeliner I can comfortably wear is MAC Powerpoint eye pencils; the liquid liners and glitter shadows I use for photoshoots stings when I apply it, and if I leave it on too long will cause my eyes to swell and itch a bit for a day or two after. And the glue from false eyelashes is bothersome too, so my eyes were itching during the entire shoot.

At the same time, when I spend an hour and a half putting on makeup I hate to wash it all off right away, so I tend to keep it on longer than I should. As a result, my eyes were a red, itchy mess the day after this photosession.

This one needed to be black and white for some reason. I think it was the shadow created by my hand that convinced me.

At first I had the idea of wearing a different wig while taking the makeup off, because I rarely take photos of me with my real hair. There’s nothing wrong with my real hair, in fact it’s longer right now than it’s been since I was 30 years old (although it’s still short). It’s just that my wigs have become such a part of my photography-persona that I never care much for shots where I’m not wearing one. But it was too much hair covering my face and I couldn’t get the shots I was after, so I took it off and left the wigcap on. And for some reason I don’t quite understand I chose to put this chambray/ruffle top on; I actually bought it thinking I would wear it for real, but on me it looks pretty ridiculous IRL. However, I am always on the lookout for tops with interesting detail that would look good in portraits, so I kept it. Honestly, it still doesn’t look all that great, but I thought I’d try it out.

It kind of pains me to post a photo of myself without makeup, but I’m willing to suffer for my art.

And, a few photos of the mess I make on picture day:

Neither of those clocks are accurate.

Torture tools for sensitive eyes.

Outtakes

Posted on August 17, 2013 by marey mercy

Still really sick. Haven’t felt this crummy in several years. Too sick to write in complete sentences, obviously. Who needs subjects anyway? Predicates rule.

Found this broken piece of ornament on the pavement by the school’s bell tower. No idea why it’s there in the middle of August, or what sort of ornament it might be other than a Christmas one. Anyway, great colors.

I also found a little graffiti inside the tower; being a good employee I was sure to tell the facilities manager it was there so they can clean it up. Hey, love graffiti is still graffiti, after all.

This is the shot I referenced in my previous post about taking these photos; my friend had the idea to shove the crepe myrtle branch over so it would show up in the shot and I was focused too far out, capturing her hands in the shot. I don’t know why, but this really cracks me up (we did get a much nicer shot when I focused in more closely; she’s still pushing the branches over so they show up in the picture).

OK, this last shot I love. We were taking some photos from the school’s balcony when I noticed this weird mannequin head in the window of a teacher’s classroom. I have no idea why the teacher owns this thing; who knows – I popped off this shot really quickly and loved everything about it, even in the LCD screen. The shadows and reflections are just perfect, at least in my opinion. Not exactly what the advancement director wanted for her school brochure, but this is definitely the shot that made the whole day worthwhile for me.

That’s all for today…back to bed.

No SOOC for me

Posted on August 16, 2013 by marey mercy

This post kinda piggybacks off yesterday’s about Pixlr and photo editing, which I always want to make one word but then I get the red squiggly line of rejection from my operating system. Anyway.

I forgot my camera Thursday but convinced my lovely husband to bring it to me in the afternoon so I could wander the school with the advancement director and take photos she could use in the capital campaign brochure. I have a lot to say about this experience, but it’s late and I am tired and my allergies have gone haywire again, so I’m going to save all that blather for a later post. I’ll have more photos to upload this weekend from this shoot anyway so there’s plenty of time for that. Suffice it to say that taking photos for someone else reminded me why I never want to be a professional photographer.

For now, I just thought I’d share a few before and afters because, well, I find them interesting. I have never, ever, been able to upload a photo without editing it first. The idea kinda scares me actually. I always see what could be better about it no matter how good the shot is initially (which is what SOOC means – straight out of the camera). When I only had a little point and shoot I used editing to create the effects a better lens would have given me, like bokeh, and I’ve never backed off from there. It is true that as my skill and equipment have improved I’ve learned to make do with less, but even the simplest of shots can benefit from some fine-tuning.

I really wanted to point out to my friend (the advancement director) how much better a photo could look with a little work, because of conversations we had while snapping photos about just that subject, and when I sent these before and afters to her, she really couldn’t see what the big deal was. Without getting too much into it now, I’ll just say it is a big deal to me (in an I really enjoy the editing part of the photo process way, not an I will never speak to you again if you suggest SOOC photos are fine) and when it comes to editing I’ll leave no stone unturned to make the photo just how I want it, no matter how close to perfect I think it might be – but I never think an original photo I take is perfect.

So here’s the first example. She really wanted a shot of just the lion’s head against the sky, but there was no way to do it without getting something in the background, unless I was going to shoot right up the lion’s nose.

The sky was really cloudy Thursday and kinda wimpy-looking, and the edge of that crepe myrtle stood out in a bad way. I thought I could work with those clouds and emphasize the strength of the lion statue by emphasizing shadows and contrast as well, like this:

I used a clone brush to get rid of the branches, and had to add a lot of blue to the sky as well as really emphasizing the shadows, but I think the second one looks much better. I may have darkened the school a bit too much though.

Here’s another one – now this was a totally random shot I popped off while the two of us were in the hall talking with another teacher. I really like it and think it’s one of the best of the bunch:

I just love the lights in the hallway and their reflection on the floor, and while the focus is on the lock instead of the sign, I still think it works. And it’s my photo so what I say goes. But, the locker had all this tape and crap on it, and I wanted the colors to pop more, so I used Paint Shop Pro and Snapseed to take care of those things.

I also edited out as much of the red that was reflected in the light hitting the locks – my friend was wearing a red shirt, and in the original you can see all these little pinpricks of red in the glints of light. That’s a really picky detail but shit like that bugs me if I don’t get rid of it. Once I’ve noticed it, it must be fixed, or it will drive me batty.

I also added structure and sharpening, obviously, and brought out the red and yellow in the signs. Added some vignetting too, to draw focus towards the lock. And you can see I wasn’t able to completely get rid of the tape and other gunk on the lock but it looks much better in the second photo. I may have oversharpened or saturated the red in the locker sign, but I will try to live with that.

Here’s the one that my friend could not tell the difference at all when I showed her both of them:

One thing about this school is that it’s fairly new, and only has one building; while it’s functional enough, it’s not very photogenic. This little garden is pretty weak; it has the Mary statue, one sad pot of roses on one side, and one lone crepe myrtle on the other; the grass around it is pretty brown right now, and the two stone benches that face Mary aren’t symmetrical. It’s a bit of a stretch to call this a “garden,” but it’s doing the best it can I suppose.

Funny thing about that crepe myrtle: it was actually nowhere near the statue, but my friend decided that to add interest to the shot she’d stand to the side and shove it over as far as she could without breaking it in half so it would be in the frame. I took a few of the photos focused out too far and you can totally see her hands pushing the tree down. It cracks me up every time I look at it, and I want to share that one along with a few other goodies I discovered (this one I took of a mannequin head that is for some reason stuck in a teacher’s window is just awesome) but I only had time to edit a few shots tonight so I’ll have to share it later).

Anyway, here’s my edit:

Snapseed has an awesome clarity/details feature that really sharpens photos beautifully – something that is hard to do without ruining the shot. I think you can see that really well here. I used some control points to darken the bricks and then saturate them a little for a richer color; I also wanted more contrast in tone between the bricks and the statue. I brightened up the roses in the corner because, why not; and I brightened the branches on the crepe myrtle so they would pop a little and the veining on the leaves would show up. Then I reduced those shadows on Mary’s face (especially on the right side where they were a little too dark) and actually reduced the saturation on her a bit too. Then I added the slightest vignette blur to give her a little depth, since I was using my 17-40 mm wide-angle lens so any sort of bokeh or blurring is subtle if it exists at all. I mean sure, the first photo is fine, but the second one is far more balanced, focused, and interesting. Still not a thrilling shot, but for what my friend is looking for it’s fine. And it is still fun to take a decent shot and see how much better I can make it. Looking forward to working with and sharing some more – especially the few weird ones!

Barbecue and birthdays

Posted on August 12, 2013 by marey mercy

Today is my husband’s birthday, so yesterday he decided he wanted some brisket to celebrate. I know, we’re real wild ones over here. Anyway, our favorite local restaurant is closed Mondays for reasons we don’t understand, so on a whim we decided to try out this old rustic hole in the wall up the street that I’d never even noticed, but my husband said was known to have good grub.

I didn’t even think about taking photos until we were almost on our way out the door (they closed at 7 PM and it was 6:35 when we got there, so we got it to go – you can tell you live in the sticks when all the restaurants have weird, inconvenient hours) so I only took a few, but this little shop had a lot of character, and the food was really good, so I can see going back soon to get more. Pictures, I mean, not food. But I would probably get more food too.

I took these in a rush, because my husband was hungry and in a hurry to get back home so we could eat.

I wish all those signs weren’t so shiny.

I hear for every bag of Tom’s chips you buy they give a bag to a hungry cat in the back alley.

Pretty much the entire dining area.

The “parking lot.” No, that is not our vehicle.

Traveling

Posted on July 27, 2013 by marey mercy

I woke up Friday morning feeling much better, so I loaded up the car and headed out of town to the in-laws. Because I’ve never made this drive on my own, I wasn’t sure of exactly where I was headed, and therefore my desire to meander and snap pics was seriously subdued. I was spending most of the drive wondering if I was even headed in the right direction. My goal was to make the 4-hour drive without stopping, but of course this did not happen. And when I pulled off at a roadside rest stop and saw how spiffy it was, I decided I had to take a few quick shots.

My memories of rest stops are fuzzy as I am not a big road-tripper, but in my mind the ones I visited in the past were nothing more than glorified Porta Potties. No air conditioning, definitely no one keeping the place clean, and definitely no toilet paper. This thing was swanky. It had a little community center inside and huge, air-conditioned bathrooms that were well-lit, well-ventilated, and seriously tidy. I didn’t even do that thing I normally do in pit stop bathrooms where I struggle to disallow any part of my skin touching any surface whatsoever while I’m in there.

Welcome Wagon

Also educational

As I pulled off the main highway and onto one of the many country roads that would take me to my sister-in-law’s house, I discovered that Texas is close-minded and judgmental towards not just women, but cattle as well. Then again, maybe this goes without saying.

Slut-cow shaming

7/21/2013: Photo Day

Posted on July 21, 2013 by marey mercy

I literally spent all Saturday taking photos; I set up the studio early and then worked in a few hours of shooting intermittently throughout the day, alternating it with doing laundry and other domestic duties. Sounds thrilling I know.

I took about 400 photos and there were several costume changes. I’m still obsessively working through the results, so I don’t have much to say right now. But I did want to pop by the blog and share a few I’ve processed so far:

I realize the ground is slightly tilted in this photo, but I promise it is perfectly level in real life.