The Darwinian Evolution of Photoshop

I found this sweet little graphic earlier today. Click on it to view larger.

Infographic: The Darwinian Evolution of Photoshop by Tech King

The sky is falling!

 
This image is over 300 30-second images over a 3.5 hour time frame stacked on top of each other.

My new wife and I just started our honeymoon in Maui last two nights ago. Since she was knocked out by jet lag as the sun finally set, I set up the tripod on our balcony (Oh! Quick sidenote: We had originally booked a "garden view" room at the uber-nice Sheraton Maui on Black Rock, as anything else was insanely expensive. Well, upon checking in, we found out the hotel upgraded our room to an OCEAN FRONT view... at no extra cost! Booom shakka lakka!!!)

Anyway, I let the camera shoot one 30-second photo every 45 seconds for just over 3 hours, 30 minutes (it may have lasted longer if the batteries didn't die when I fell asleep).

Nevertheless, I was astonished at how visible the stars were with so much ground light shooting into the palm trees. I think a little over halfway into the video the lights on the ground dim lower, so next I may wait until 12:30 a.m. (that's about when they dimmed, according to my EXIF data) and start a new one. And this time I'll use brand new batteries, so we'll see what happens

 

Portland Golf Club

A friend of mine from high school is now the membership director at the Portland Golf Club. They needed photos for marketing materials, so of course a photos-for-golf trade was all I needed!

The lighting wasn’t perfect, but we still had fun. If anything, we scouted spots for next time. HDR brought out some locations better than others:

My Photographic Evolution

I think it’s funny to look back at the “Edits” folder of my computer. That’s where I keep any photo I shot that I took a few extra minutes to make sure it looked good enough to share. Since it’s organized by date, it’s very easy to notice the trends I’ve gone through in just the past year.

You can tell just by stepping back and looking at the bunch as a whole where I first learned about Vibrance/Saturation in Photoshop CS4, as well as when I took the saturations to extremes. Then there was the heavy editing thanks to automated actions you could download from all over the web, followed by the heavy vignettes. There’s lots of panoramics and night shots, as well. Eventually came the HDRs followed by the use of Topaz Adjust to bring out single images into HDR-like fashions; not to mention long exposures, fast exposures and time-lapses.

Now, I’m into letterbox-style black borders. Why? I have no idea, aside from the fact that I’ve seen a few photographers (see here, here and here). Maybe it’s how they turn into a square. Perhaps it’s the contrast. Like I said before, I have no idea – I just like it.

…at least for now. We’ll see what happens next month.

Anyway, I’ve been busy playing with some older photos and taking some new ones this week and last. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

This little dandy was hiding deep in one of my Coeur d’Alene folders. Shots like this make me miss my drive to work in Idaho, all along Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive.

This was at sunset tonight. Holy friggin’ moly it was insane! I didn’t think I’d get it to look nice at all, and especially since I didn’t have my tripod handy. But I guess I was wrong…

I have wanted to shoot this photo since first moving to Portland, especially after seeing some awesome images of this same vantage all over flickr. Tonight was my night! This is actually an HDR of three separate 15-second exposures (+1, 0, –1).

From the same spot as above, overlooking downtown Portland from the top of OHSU. I had never been up here before until tonight, and I can’t wait to go back again! (Looks WAY better large!)

New edit of an old shot: This was from back when John came to visit. A little too dark for my taste, but I think that’s probably why I kind of like it, it’s not my normal edit.

And lastly, one of my favorite shots ever with an updated edit. This is probably my best “journalistic” shot, as I was on a police ride-a-long for a page design I thought might look nice. I borrowed a Canon from school and rode with a cop (who I actually went to middle school with, oddly enough).

Waiting for Heidi

A few weeks back I met my good friend Heidi downtown for pizza and beer at Rocco’s (more about that place in a bit). Nevertheless, since I had the afternoon off work and didn’t want to wait indoors for our meetup, I headed downtown an hour early with camera in tow.

Now, I’ve seen this elephant before, lastly when my buddy John visited over Thanksgiving, and we simply took a few shots with our Smart Phones. But this time I had my Canon S5, so I grabbed an HDR:

I’m fairly certain that this might be my greatest HDR capture yet. Especially with the blue skies and white clouds behind, thanks to Photomatix for helping me pop the colors and contrast (Of course, I cannot wait for Photoshop CS5, check out the new HDR file handling it boasts. Can I get a Boom Shakka Lakka?).

Here are the rest of the shots I captured while waiting. All in all I’d say arriving early was worth the wait!

Editing

A while back I shared a photo that I shot after being inspired from others on Flickr (here is the shot that inspired me). Anyway, in the comments under that photo somebody recommended I try a photoshop plugin called Topaz Adjust.

So, I did. and while I really think the newer version looks better, it still looks too much like a cartoon. But I guess that’s how most HDRs look. Oh well, here are the two different versions. The first one is my edit with Topaz adjust, while the second image is the original.

I guess that my favorite part of topaz is that it really brings out the contrast in things, like the clouds and the wooden pillars.

More Photos

With all that’s going on around me lately it seems that this blog has been at the very back of my mind (unlike this time last year, when it was indeed at the forefront of everything I did). However, I’ve been busy with work, trying to more work, bouncing between Coeur d’Alene and Portland to visit my grandpa, not to mention preparing for the upcoming Little League season (more on that later).

Nevertheless, I definitely have been taking photos.

With my newfound obsession inside the wide world of Flickr, I’ve been following other local photographers religiously. It’s especially intriguing to me how others shoot the same landmarks, as their perspective is often times quite different than my own. Long story short: I love my camera again.

As for my recent stuff, I’ve leaned pretty heavy on the HDR and processing in Photomatix and Photoshop CS4 with Topaz Adjust. I think I’m going to try and back off the Topaz Adjust a little bit, however, and maybe try the HDR a little less. I know it looks pretty sweet sometimes, but more often than not the photos just look fake. Even some of the amazing photographers I’ve seen sometimes overdo the HDR. But maybe I’m wrong. Who knows. I don’t really care, as long as the picture looks good.

Lately, though, I’ve finally started exploring parts of Portland I’ve only seen through Flickr. Photographers like Aaron Reed, Andrew Curtis and Zeb Andrews have chronicled some of the best Portland imagery, and it’s by following their Flickr Photostreams that I see where the best views can be attained. I’ve learned a great deal about my camera and how to use it better by attempting to imitate some of their shots before looking for my own.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to lately. Seems I’ve got a love affair with Portland-area bridges:

Underneath the on-ramps an off-ramps of the Fremont Bridge.

Mt. Hood behind downtown Portland.

Looking up from the ground at the bottom of the St. Johns Bridge.

  
Silhouette of the St. Johns Bridge at sunset.

 
From the hillside at the south end of the St. Johns Bridge. In case you can’t tell, I love this bridge!

 
Fremont Bridge just after sunset. I think it looks fake because the sky turned out so incredibly blue. Oh well, what can you do? Not a cloud in the sky…

More Portland-Area Photos

Here are some more photos I’ve taken lately in and around the Portland area. After seeing so many great shots on Flickr, I’ve gotten the itch to get out as much as possible. I now have a huge list of photos I want to shoot thanks to seeing what others are doing in the same areas.

Here is what I’ve been up to lately:

 

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

There is a technique among photographers that turns high-contrasting scenes into seamless masterpieces. It’s called High Dynamic Range, or HDR for short. Here is a simple breakdown of what happens:

Let’s say that you want to take a picture of a cityscape next to the river. What’s more, you want to do this in very low light. You want the lights on the building to show perfect, the water to reflect perfect and the sky to come out perfect as well. Unfortunately, most cameras simply aren’t capable of creating such an image. Either the highlights get washed out when the shadows are perfect or vice versa.

That’s where HDR comes in handy.

If you are creating an HDR image, you are going to take separate photos at different exposures before merging them all together. One photo will be underexposed, one perfect while another may be overexposed. When you merge the three together in a program like Photoshop or Photomatix, the best parts of each photo show up in the end.

And that is what I did this morning. When I woke up at 6 a.m. for reasons unbeknownst to me, I couldn’t fall back asleep. So I decided to be productive. I had seen many phenomenal photos on Flickr taken from the same spot down on the river. I tried to mimic them the other night, but to no avail. (Here is my favorite photo on Flickr of this scene).

Instead, I got an overall dark image. Here is my first version from the other night:

I got down there a little later than I had planned, but still gave it a whack. You can’t even see the pilings in the dark, and I even tried using my flash. No dice.

So, this morning, as I laid awake in bed thinking of how to be productive at 6 a.m. in the morning (without waking Holly, of course!), I decided to get the same photo as the sun came up. That way I could get the best light possible.

I was stoked when I got down there just before it got real bright out. I figured an HDR would be the best way to get all the elements I wanted, so I took dozens of the same exact shot. When I loaded them up in Photoshop CS4 afterward, they just didn't impress me.

But then I remembered a friend who always talked up Photomatix, so I downloaded that to see what I could do.

Voila!

I think I am love. I went back and ran another image through Photomatix instead of Photoshop, and I loved the results! Here is the HDR image that I shot this morning. Without a doubt, I have to say this is probably the greatest photo I’ve ever made – and it’s all thanks to HDR:

 
View it larger on my Fickr page here.

Holly Mosaic

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on here, so here is a something I’ve been working on in Photoshop. It’s just 12 different photos repeated, while Holly is overset and the transparency is tweaked. I think I’ll try a few more with this technique, as I really like the way this simple one came out.

Austin a.m.

Funny thing happened around 3:30 a.m. this morning: I woke up. I was ready to get up. I was ready to for the continental breakfast in the hotel’s lobby and stoked for this journalism conference in Austin.

But it was 3:30 a.m. So I went back to bed.

Even though yesterday was exhausting (I hate flying anymore), I woke up again at 5:30 a.m. after a combined nine hours of sleep the previous two days, and I was up for good. A shower and a short shave later (I’m keeping the beard until I go back to Oregon), I decided to take some photos of the capitol building down the street.

My buddy told me about a program better than Photoshop when it comes to HDR merging, so I decided to try that – but then my tripod broke. So I tried my best, and only came out with one decent shot. I haven’t downloaded Photomatrix yet, but I plan to later today and play with these photos some more.

Anyway, here’s the one shot:

Tilt-Shift Photography

Thanks to inspiredology.com for showing me a new photo-editing trick. Apparently you can you do this with a special camera, but I’ve now discovered the effect is greater if you edit the photo in Photoshop.

Here is insiredology’s description of the technique:

Tilt-shift photography involves using both tilt and shift camera movements to simulate the depth of field of a macro lens, making life-size objects appear as though they’re actually miniature in scale. The effect can be incredibly powerful, instantly turning a sprawling metropolis into a miniature village or toy town. Many people have been tricked by it over the years and you’ll have to inspect the stunning images below carefully to believe that they are, in fact, real.

While some photographers prefer to use expensive cameras and lenses to create their tilt-shift images, others choose to use postproduction techniques instead. By blurring the top and bottom of an image, as well as increasing its contrast and saturation, you can create a tilt-shift miniature fake that looks just as good (if not better) than the real thing.

Click here to view their page showcasing “40 Stunning Tilt-Shift Images of Urbanity.”

Needless to say, I don’t exactly have many personally-shot photos of “sprawling metropolises.” Thus, I borrowed these original photos from Google images and Stock.Xchng. But, after following the editing techniques I learned from this tutorial, voila!

 

A Jakewood Milestone!

Holy hell! I was dinking around in my Google Analytics account today and just noticed something I was wondering about: How many unique visitors have I had to my blog? Conisdering I don't advertise it at all (aside from a few Facebook notifications), the only traffic I get should be from people I inform. Sure, there were a bunch of Google referrals -- albeit the mighty iPhone -- but when it was all said and done, yesterday marked my 1,000th unique visitor!

Mother of God.

While there are blogs who probably generate that much traffic on a weekly (if not daily) basis, I was astounded. That seems like a big number concerning how I semmingly blab about nothing important; in my life, however, everything seems important.

Finally, stay tuned. I am in the process of moving this entire project over to Wordpress. It will become part of my personal website, a massive project I am undertaking involving my graphic design portfolio, writing portfolio, my online photo gallery and of course, my blog. It will be a one-stop-shop pertaining to everything Jake Donahue-related, much like a Costco (except you don't need a membership card at ww.JakeDonahue.com

Anyway, it's a long process, and since I'm working on other sites as I learn HTML and website design, don't expect anything soon. But there will be a big announcement when the move takes place (maybe then I will start advertising. How else could I get people to check my portfolios?)

Lastly, to those who continue reading this often, let me offer a mighty THANK YOU! While this whole thing started as an outlet for me to force myself into writing as much as possible, seeing comments and hearing that people are reading Jakewood make me want to continue as long as possible.

So Thanks, stay tuned, and let's shoot for 2,000!

More Photo Edits

Here are some more before and after edits of photos I had on my computer. I’m still in disbelief how easy it is to make a boring photo look great …

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Madness

Well, now I know how people take good photos – Photoshop!
Oh, sure, I’ve always been a fan of the infamous photo-tweaking platform, and I knew photographers used the tool to edit their pictures to a certain extent. However, after some online research and tinkering of my own, I just discovered how make a bad photo look good.
I mean BAD photos look GOOD. Take this before/after for example, it only took five minutes to edit the hell out of:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

I mean, seriously, holy hell! I feel lied to. I feel betrayed. I feel like every time I’ve seen a photo I admired it was a sham! I’ve spent so long trying to capture the exact image as it should be in my viewfinder when all I needed was Photoshop.
Yes, there is always some editing to be had – whether vibrancy, saturation or brightness/contrast. I just never assumed it would be to this extent!
Here are some more before/after pictures I edited tonight. I am in awe of how big a difference some retro tints and vignettes can make.