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Showing posts with label photoshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photoshop. Show all posts
a stroll along henley marine drive
In a bid to resume some sort of exercise regime after years of inactivity, I woke bright and early on a Saturday morning at the start of spring to join the boys for a relaxing walk along Henley Marine Drive in Drummoyne, hoping to gradually increase the pace to a slow jog after a few such sessions. As I expected the elderlies' pace to be rather slow, I lugged my entire camera gear along hoping to get some good snaps. Below are a few of my favourites from that short photowalk, one of which was a result of extremely great timing - the water polo's anguish at missing a shot. All the other pics can be viewed here.
first visit to haji lane
I went to Haji Lane and Arab St for the first time when I was back in SG this Feb. I have never ventured outside of the air-conditioned malls or complexes in the vicinity, hence never had the chance to discover the old world charm of these streets and back alleys. If not for the extreme humidity, I may have stayed a lot longer and explored every single nook in the area. Many have raved about the eclectic mix of fashion boutiques that have sprouted in weird, hard to find corners of this area but I didn't find anything exceptionally alluring that I wouldn't be able to purchase on the web or elsewhere. However, I would really like to visit again if possible, to do a real photowalk and take perhaps another thousand photos.
Here are some of my personal favourites taken that day. It's strange that most of the outdoor photos I take in SG somehow don't look as good as the ones I take in OZ. I think lighting is one of the main factors - all the skyscrapers in small SG block too much natural light and throw unnecessary shadows everywhere, and the lack of open space / land / sky just makes most shots look overly cluttered with too much cramped into one small frame that I get confused as to the focus of my shots. I tried my hand at variations in sepia tones for the first time for some of the pics below. I think it helps to simplify the photos, reduce distractions like too many colours that clash or unwanted details and to enhance the feelings of old-fashioned picturesqueness (I went to google and wow there really is such a word!).
Click on each photo to view enlarged version.
Left: This scene reminds me of the show 甜蜜蜜.
Right: I haven't seen such a traditional goldsmith shop since I was a kid.
Left: Giant Mentos! Apparently Hup Seng is the sole distributor for Mentos in SG. Never knew that.
Right: Empty street. I think this is one end of Haji Lane.
Left: Love these colourful Turkish glass/lamp ware that was found every corner I turned.
Right: Fancy some Ali Baba pants? I also found an Aladdin's shop at a junction.
Another altogether different sight as I rounded a corner from Arab St onto Beach Road. 
Left: Why is there a need for barbed wire on this quiet back alley?
Right: Divine pleasures... hmmm...
Left: Saw lots of cool graffiti at several spots. I wonder how long they would last before they get painted over.
Right: Painting over graffiti...
By the way, have I mentioned that I left my dSLR with all its lenses and another vintage film SLR (gift from a friend) in SG? I really miss my camera and am upset that I can't go for therapeutic photowalks until I somehow find a way to get them delivered to me in Sydney intact.
through the eyes of the tiger
While enjoying my Tigers on Singapore's special day, I snapped away unabashedly and look what nice pictures I took in my semi drunken state!
The world seems smaller but clearer once you've had a beer. Yes?
I particularly love how the glass door throws multiple reflections at you whenever something / someone passes by. Isn't this how the world looks like after a few beers? Check out the lady with a blue headband - I think she looks way cool.
I couldn't help but take more shots of the lady with blue headband. I then did a random tilt of my quite-heavy-after-five-beers head and caught the doors ajar scene without thinking.
Do two halves make a full schooner? And thus we ended a great tiger evening at Bank Lounge.
strangers in newtown
Here's sharing some of the photos I took on a walk around Newtown today with the aim of practising candid portraits. I find it difficult to focus when there is movement, hence some of the photos didn't turn out as sharp as I'd like. I need to be able to anticipate people's movements better instead of passively following them and end up half a beat late in capturing the moment. However, I am rather satisfied with the overall look and feel of the pictures here.
Window shopping
Boredom
Strung together
Indignance
Our lives in the mirror
Portrait artist
Twirl with me
Hula girls
In a mess of hoops
the red and the greens
I thought I would break the series of gloomy posts by sharing some of my favourite photos taken during a recent walk in Newtown - a suburb that I never tire of exploring.
Left: Red man in the cabinet
I was in a cafe with the housemate when I saw the reflection of the red man on the mirror of a small cabinet at the counter. It took me a long while adjusting the focus manually to capture this on top of having to wait for the human and vehicular traffic to pass. I must have appeared weird because the housemate kept wondering wth I was trying to capture - I suppose I was the only one able to see this scene because of the spot I was seated at. I had wanted to get a shot of the green man too but the cafe staff started opening and closing the cabinet too frequently to get stuff that I didn't get a chance to do so.
Right: G'day sale!
I had the intention of turning this into a black and white picture but keeping the vibrant green of the leaves the moment I saw the bicycle and before I even framed the shot. Afterwards, I spent hours outlining the irregular edges of the vines in quick mask mode in Photoshop, going into each pixel - the perfectionist in me couldn't accept missing out a pixel even though it probably won't even be visible in the end product.
You can click on the respective photo for a larger version.
walking on reds
I was in Newtown on a wet and dreary weekend. Saw this pair of red shoes whizz past me amidst the grey surroundings and followed it without thinking. I had the 250mm zoom lens on manual focus for some other shots prior to this lady appearing and couldn't keep up with adjusting the focus on the red shoes. By the time I switched to auto focus, the girl has disppeared across the road. Although slightly upset by the blurred photo, I still like the overall effect. Tweaked the colours a bit in photoshop and it became my favourite shot of the day from the Newtown photowalk.
on creating those pop arts
Dante has been bugging me for the article "Create a Pop Art Portrait" by Howard Millard that was featured in Better Photoshop Techiniques Issue 16 ever since he saw my virgin pop art portraits. I am unable to send him a copy of it as I don't think I can find it anymore so I shall attempt to illustrate it step-by-step here SPECIALLY FOR DANTE. Please do pardon this very noobly written guide by a very noob me intended for a noob student.
Firstly, you have to select a suitable photo to work on. This pop art technique works best on photos with strong edges and outlines and good contrast. If your image looks dull / flat / lacks contrast, then try to enhance it first with a Levels / Curves / Contrast Adjustment Layer before going to the next step outlined below.
Below is the image I selected for this exercise.
We will need to convert it into the high contrast black and white image as shown on the left below. In the Layers palette, choose a New Adjustment Layer called Threshold. You will see the window as shown on the right image below. Adjust the Threshold Level until the image shows good bold outlines that you are satisfied you can add in the colours on. I have set it to 165 in this case.
Next step onwards (the adding colour part) is the most tedious part of the whole process (but still very easy so don't worry!). Create a New Layer (icon is shown at the bottom of the Layers palette). Name the Layer according to the part of the photo you are going to apply a particular colour to. For example, I decided to colour all the flowers yellow and hence named my new layer "Flowers". Notice I have the "Skirt", "Ribbons" and "Face & Hand" layers below. It's not a must to create separate layers for each part but this makes it easier to edit or fine tune a particular section / colour afterwards. Before you apply the colour, change the Blend Mode (top left corner of the Layers palette) from Normal to Multiply. Then choose a Brush, select your desired colour for the brush, set the opacity and size of the brush and you're ready to paint over whichever sections as you like. The black parts of the image will not be affected. Repeat the same steps for the different sections until you complete the whole photo and there, you have your own pop art portrait. Very easy right?
I have only done up to this point for the above photo as it's solely meant for illustration purposes. I don't have too much time to perfect this pop art or complete it so will leave it at that.
my pop art portraits
I spent a whole Saturday at Borders poring through photography and photo-editing magazines and then half a Sunday trying to apply what I read.
I remember I'd always wanted to get one of those bright, colourful Marilyn Monroe pop art portraits and I thought I'd try creating my own. After reading an article "Create a Pop Art Portrait" by Howard Millard that was featured in Better Photoshop Techiniques Issue 16, I selected a few suitable photos from my photo library and played around with them. The results can be seen below. They are not perfect, but I love them.
Maybe I should make a few of these prints, frame them and hang them up in my room.
One thing I thought I should mention is that I actually did all the above with the touch pad on my laptop cos I don't have a mouse at home. It's a helluva lot of hard work trying to paint without a mouse!
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