Pixels at an Exhibition

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Polyunsaturated

I'm adding this mainly as an example to ahab of what can be done with various online imaging programs. I used Preview to desaturate this without turning it completely black and white; I considered going the other way, and really bringing the colors of the county fair way, way up, but eventually decided that I liked this very subtle, almost-black and white/almost-pastel image better than any other view of this shot I tried. To me, it looks sort of like an old hand-colored image that you might find in a vintage postcard shop.

This is also an example of how I post-process my pictures. This shot was taken in color, with lots of bright reds and yellows against a deep blue sky background. I often experiment with saturation levels, contrast, exposure, brightness, gamma, temperature, sharpness and other options before deciding on the final "face" I'm going to present to the world. On occasion, I'll create two or even three different versions of the same photograph to post at Flickr or wherever. Whatever the final outcome, though, the real fun is always in the experimenting, in seeing what the possibilities are, and where I can go in different directions with any given image. There are lots of photo manipulating programs out there, and my guess is that most of them are probably better than Preview, which is pretty basic. But even with a simple application like that, anyone can make a few manipulations with a just a couple keystrokes and turn a mediocre picture into a decent or even very good picture.

Of course, as I remember saying to Tom and his brother Steve about a year ago, all the manipulation in the world won't rescue a bad picture or put a good image in your camera. With all due humility, if you don't have an eye for framing and composition, if you don't bring something halfway decent to the table to begin with, no photo imaging program in the world will turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

(I'm trying desperately to resist the urge to use a "you can put all the lipstick you want on Sarah Palin, but she'll still never be a viable candidate" metaphor, but obviously my will is weak. Anyway, I think you get my drift.)