Photoshop

Throwback Thursday – 4 generations

Life

As I mentioned, I am taking a Photoshop class and this week we learned about restoring old photos. It just so happened that my mom brought me a photo album that belonged to my grandmother that I, for some reason, had stored in my things at her house in Spokane. Many of the photos neither of us had seen before and this is one of them! And it’s such a great photo! Here we have me at around 7 years old, with my mom, great-grandmother in the middle, and grandmother on the right.

The original photo has a red cast to it and now I wonder why. Is it due to the fading of color in the print? It seems like a lot of old snapshots have a red cast to them. In the original photo below you will see that I have a gnarly gash on my chin. I was trying to remember how I hurt myself and then it hit me, this is when I took a serious spill on my bike. I wrote about it here.

4 generations before

before

Here is my “new and improved” Photoshopped version. I corrected the color, removed a ton of dust, and removed the scab on my chin.

4 generations after

After

I am kind of proud of the finished version, but in some way it makes me a little bit sad too. Like I’m rewriting history or something.

It’s interesting because I posted both of these on Flickr and I got more response on the original version. One person even said that the original’s red cast appealed to them. I kind of feel like the original, red cast, scabbed chin, and all, tells more of a story. What are your thoughts?

100 days

Photography

I’ve been told that today marks the day that there are exactly 100 days left in the year. So why not start a 100 day project? I love 100 day projects! I am currently doing a 100 day project in which I draw something everyday. But I thought that on this most auspicious of days it would be fun to start another 100 day project. Something that won’t be completely overwhelming. I have decided to post something everyday on this blog from now until the end of the year. Admittedly, my blogging mojo has been waning and I am hoping that this will get me excited about writing again.

So let’s start with this: I am taking a Photoshop class for work and here is something I did for the class. It was supposed to be an exercise in fake tilt-shift but It didn’t turn out as great as it was supposed to. It is best to start with a photo of something looking down on a city scene. The only photo I could find of mine in a hurry was this pinhole photo of Oregon City.

This was shot using my Ondu 35mm pinhole camera. I can’t remember which film. Probably Fuji Superia.
papermill

The class is awesome though! Today we learned how to restore old photos. I will share one that I fixed later this week.

More International film swap fun (and a discussion about photo manipulation)

Photography

The International Film Swap with Brendan continues (as I previously mentioned)! Hooray! I am really enjoying these collaborations.  Here are my favorites from this round (Click on a photo to start the slide show).

My shots were taken in Santa Cruz & San Francisco. His were taken at the Grand Canal in Dublin, Ireland. Again. if you are interested in participating get in touch with him! It’s fun and easy. Just shoot a roll of film & pop it in the mail. I am also down, too, if you are interested in sending film my way. I am in possession of a film leader retrieval tool so I am able to expose over your roll of film if you are so inclined. Just let me know by leaving a comment on this post.

OK. Now for a bit of a rant discussion about some questions that have been raised about this project. Feel free to stop here and enjoy the photos or click “Continue Reading” to read the rest of the post.

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