I guess I won’t be the first to get impressed by photography of Rarindra Prakarsa. You can just check on Google on how many blogs and forums people were discussing his work and technique. Having in hand the June 2008 issue of “Popular photography” magazine with 8 steps tutorial (published also on some forum) how to achieve similar effects, I decided to give it a try.

It works best if you have a picture with lot of green grass and an outstanding figure. I also had to redo it for the second time, when I noticed how the eyes can be highlighted if I make them gold as well. Personally, I find the selecting in Photoshop challenging and cumbersome, but this is a very important step in the overall goal, so be patient. Then, if you are familiar a little bit with Photoshop, adding all the layers will take just few minutes. Additional bonus- later, you can copy most of layers into another photo, getting the effect, assuming you like, in even less time! The effect- stunning.

Few days ago, I just felt like photographing something. And there it was, yellow single leaf, out of nowhere on my deck. I took my macro filter and took several photos, closer, further, focusing on different parts of composition. I think this one came out particularly interesting.

I was looking through all the pictures I have currently on my hard drive to find the one appropriate for new Photoshop trick I want to try, when I found this photo. I was quite surprised to realize both how interesting it is, and that I have not put in on my blog it the day I was taking photos of the rainbow. I guess it got lost in that all “oh, rainbow” fuss. But this was indeed the picture which made me get up and start shooting that day. The dark, just after the storm sky behind the tree lit by soft, just before sunset sky… And the small house in the dark shadow.

Today a simple photo session. No Photoshop gimmicks. OK, there is a trick, hardware this time. Before I started, I put Hoya Intensifier filter on my camera, which is maybe not exactly the intended use for the filter, but worked perfect to make the blue more intense. The sky and clouds just were there. And I wanted to see if that alone can be an interesting theme for a photo. It apparently did. The remaining 20 I will keep, I may need interesting background one day.

Today an interesting trick to save otherwise boring photo and make it an exciting picture. I found it in John Clements book and just had to try. I spend some time finding just the right photo for it, something looking good and natural as reflection in imaginary lake. The essence is in copying, flipping and adding Ocean Ripple Filter (be sure to try different values for parameters!). Who would guess, just looking at it?

As the rainy weather continues, there are beautiful phenomena happening. It’s just a question of being, or looking, at the right time in the right spot. I was actually taking photos of clouds, and almost missed forming rainbow. It was on one side first, then it formed whole arch, and then on both side another one appeared! None of panoramas turned out well, but I think this photo is worth putting on blog as well.

So far, I was under impression that in Iowa, there is always sun. Close to 300 sunny days a year. This year, it seem like it is raining all the time. Even better. It is not that hot and humid, and also there are great photo opportunities. Like the thunderstorm yesterday evening. Luckily, early enough I didn’t go to sleep yet, and late enough to get a little bit darker. Long exposure (25 sec), taken one after the other, without moving a camera on the tripod, rewarded me with 4 out of maybe 80 shots with thunder on it at all. Two were worth working on. So I did some playing with hue and saturation to make colors more intriguing, and here we go.

While reading “The Adobe Photoshop CS3 book” by Scott Kelby, and looking at the “Double-Processing…” chapter I thought of a picture I took some time ago, which would be just perfect for this trick. Now, some explanation. If you have a photo like this:

with some parts in bright sun (wind mill, tent, people) and some parts in the shadow (water mill wheel), you can combine picture exposed in camera or “fixed” in Photoshop or Lightroom separately for foreground and background, so both have details visible and distinguishable.

I guess correcting exposure for foreground and background on separate copies was the easiest part.I had some fun with Adding a Layer Mask and then painting on it with soft brush, white color. It is a smart idea! But I think it requires some practice. Figuring out where the boundary should be, and what opacity (I decided on none at the end). Fifth time worked… I think. Check for yourself.

Few weeks ago, my husband bough me a bike, an addition to the one he has for few months. We are biking on weekends, but it is also a great photo-taking opportunity for me. I was trying to make photos showing movement, and this one showed up. I like it, even if the tire is not as much in focus as I think it is, it is still a very interesting photograph.