Photo: Autumnal Leaves

Autumnal Leaves — the leaves of autumn are about to fall

The leaves of autumn come out. Took this in my yard last fall (2007); the tree always has sublime colors; though not vivid reds and oranges, there are stately reds and browns. This is wide-angle to show how big the maze of branches and leaves is, giving a sense of awe. The dark leaves at the corners help bring your eyes to the center.

No spot editing was needed; I did some simple contrast enhancements to bring out colors and tones.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/640, F3.5, 18mm, ISO100, 2007-09-23T11:30:30-04, 2007-09-23_15h30m30

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Yellow Sunshine

Yellow Sunshine — sunlit yellow flowers mix with a vivid blue sky

Flowers with the sun behind them. I included the sun in the frame, but it goes to white or else everything else would be black. This was a great scene, especially for the deep blue sky and cloud formations that work together with the yellow flowers.

I added a blurry glow while keeping the grain in the sky as a counter-point to the soft flowers. The added contrast pushes the branches to black while keeping detail in the clouds (not the sun), but adds focus to the flowers. There’s more info in my short article, On Exposure.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/800, F8, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2007-08-19T14:38:25-04, 2007-08-19_18h38m25

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Photo: Flowers of Gold

Flowers of Gold — bright yellow flowers against a sunny blue sky

These are some golden-yellow flowers in my aunt and uncle’s yard. These were low to the ground; I had to lay in the grass to snap this, potentially exposing myself to pesticides and bugs. It’s worth it for my craft, of course!

I added a lot of contrast and brightened the sky. That was the hardest part, because I wanted the sky to be uniformly and realistically lightened, so I analyzed the dodging by setting the brightness level on the image to be very dark (with an overlay layer), and then looked for dark patches, which I’d dodge or clone out.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/3200, F2.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2007-11-12T14:37:44-05, 20071112-193744rxt

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Stock: Yellow Grasshopper

Yellow Grasshopper — a sharp bug on a white background

A yellow grasshopper from my yard, with my attempt at isolating him. I did alright, so I’m releasing this as a resource to the world.

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Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/30, F2.81, 5.8mm, ISO74, 2006-07-07T16:42:13-04, 2006-07-07_16h42m13

Photo: The Yellow Symphony

The Yellow Symphony — vivid flowers against a warm sky

Yellow flowers from an roofless flower shop; you can find good photos anywhere. I took this from a low angle, so you can’t see any people or products in the background; just the sky. There’s interesting stuff among the stems and flowers below, but most people just look at the flowers at the top.

I spent a while changing the colors; I was debating between cooler blue tones or warm red and yellow, finally choosing the latter after comparing. There was an out-of-focus flower that creeped into the bottom-right of the frame that I cloned out, and I applied contrast enhancements and a subtle glowing effect. I let the sky go to pure white and the shadowy jungle below the flowers to black, because those areas don’t deserve detail.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/1000, F4.5, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2007-06-08T14:23:26-04, 2007-06-08_18h23m26

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Photo: Rose of Orange

Rose of Orange — beautiful orange petals decorated with raindrops

An orange rose with water drops; I took this at a Lowe’s flower shop. The bubble in the center is a droplet that looks to be floating; I didn’t use a dropper as this was after a storm.

The flower is a red hybrid-tea rose; I made the color shift by changing the white-balance setting in-camera.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/15, F2.8, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2007-01-18T16:29:42-05, 2007-01-18_21h29m42

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Photo: Assimilation

Assimilation — a lone red leaf in a sea of death

A bright-red leaf out-of-place in a field of sickly brown leaves. I happened upon this idea as I saw a red leaf amongst all the brown leaves in our yard, so then I went and found a better leaf and positioned it like this. It was rainy and overcast, so the lighting was lower contrast and a bit blue, which is fitting for this image.

This didn’t need much spot editing, but it did benefit from added contrast and a shift to cooler colors. I added red to the leaf and desaturated the background (just a tad) to make it stand out more.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/10, F7.1, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2007-01-08T14:07:05-05, 2007-01-08_19h07m05b

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Photo: Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes — eight bite-sized tomatoes in a row

Cherry tomatoes that I arranged in a line. The yellow table makes a great background for red-colored still life. They look good enough to eat!

I cloned out the dirt that was on the tomatoes and table, removed background reflections and distractions, brightened the image, and added contrast.
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Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/74, F2.81, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2006-08-07T14:27:03-04, 2006-08-07_14h27m03

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Photo: The Stuccoed House

The Stuccoed House — a lit, yellow home at night, with three ghosts

A thirty-second exposure of my house at night, with the lights on. Our house has creatively applied stucco that is painted yellow, so it makes an interesting and reflective texture, particularly with the yellowish indoor lights. The ghostly figures are of me standing next to two windows and in the light behind the house; I stood still in each spot for eight seconds to achieve the effect (took four tries). I don’t own a proper tripod, so I used a step-ladder; it does well in a pinch.

For the glowing effect, I used a gaussian-blurred layer with soft-light blending in Adobe Photoshop CS3. Other than that, I added contrast and color, burned the sky, and dodged the ghosts.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 30″, F3.5, 18mm, ISO400, 2008-03-22T22:11:14-04, 20080323-021114rxt

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Photo: The Green Vortex

The Green Vortex — green leaves through a pinhole

Some leaves on a tree, through a rolled-up poster right in front of the lens. The reflections on the glossy paper inside make it look like a vortex… a vortex of doom, of course. Green and black are the colors of spring.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/160, F4.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-02-29T12:19:33-05, 20080229-161933rxt

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