Here is the original picture. The bird is really too small, too much background and the colors are washed out. The problem is a slight overexposure, but also the fact that I forgot to change ISO from the day before when I was shooting inside, so it stayed at 400.

The first experiment was to crop the picture and adjust the contrast. I also changed it to bw, because I thought I had enough contrast, the bird is white and I don’t really care about the background color.

Ok, that’s better that original. But then I blew up the color photo with adjusted contrast and noticed nice yellow on the beak and legs, so I cropped it even tighter, vertical, to show just the bird.

I like that one too even though it is a completely different picture. And finally, just for fun, I Poladroid-ized this one to get:

So what to say in the end? I am a total beginner at this… but it does seem that some pictures definitely benefit from post-processing. However, where is the end to processing? There are so many tools, even in Gimp (which I am using), and you can spend hrs doing just that. I wonder how much can be accomplished by knowing the technical tricks of the photography? When you see photos on flickr… some are obviously changed, even if it does not say so, but often I wish people would disclose if the picture were photoshop-ed.(it would be nice to know what tool were used, but I know that’s asking too much).

I know I will do some processing in the future, but really my goal is to shoot and “develop” without any digital tricks. After all, Ansel Adams did not have Photoshop…

The pictures…

more here…

Now that I have the new camera, I like to take it (and the dog) for a walk. And I take pictures. Here are the ones from today.

A gorgeous gate. Old wood, rusted metal. I just realized that I have not changed my ISO setting, so all these were shot at 400. Not a tragedy, but 100 would have been better.

I almost missed this one. Can you guess what it is? A handle on another gate.

Beautiful orange flowers on a huge cactus. I usually don’t get to see a flowering cactus, or I see it when it’s all over.

On the way back, I took a stroll through the Canals. It’s always nice to walk there. I have not seen too many ducks today.

But there was this guy.

I wish I were sitting under one of these, on a beach, sipping a coctail.

I know there are thousands of pictures of these flowers out there, and much better than this. But, oh well, this is mine and I like it. So there.

For photography class, playing with dop.

Tuesday was a foggy day.

I am really looking forward to these Thursday morning hikes, but I will have to be more prepared. The is getting warmer and I will need a hat, some light hiking clothes (long sleeves and pants) and shoes, definitely better shoes; light hiking boots or trail running sneakers.

Photography class, second assignment: shadows (60% of frame).

I am loving this flicker photostream right now:: Fragile cargo (via snappy chappy)