Tag Archives: purple


Photo: Blue Marbles 4: 4 Blue Marbles

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Blue Marbles 4: 4 Blue Marbles — light, reflections, and spacing make for three-dimensional orbs

The fourth entry in the series, containing four of the respectable spheres. You already knew that from the informative title, though.

I was innovating with placement of the still life here; one is at the front, two far back, and one back even further. It’s pleasing to my eyes, as is the contrast between the sky reflections and dark marbles, even if the table goes to white.

I added contrast, removed dust, and kept the blues under control, as normal.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/185, F2.81, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2006-05-31T14:21:36-04, 2006-05-31_14h21m36

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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.

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Photo: Blue Marbles 2: Darkness

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Blue Marbles 2: Darkness — stacks of marbles, with a touch of purple and black

The dark marbles, with traces of black and purple. This has colder lighting. The stacked marbles contribute to an interesting composition, as does the stray line in the background. I picked marbles that were cracked and weathered, to oppose the smooth perfection of the first photo. This is a sub-par entry in the series because the purples are ugly and without detail, but it’s been in the series for two years so it’s worthy of staying. This new edit is an improvement over the two-year old original.

I set tungsten white balance on this, over-exposing the blues horribly. I had no concept of color back in early 2006, and because this is from a low-end JPEG only camera, the detail is unrecoverable. In the new version above, I darkened the marbles, desaturated the clipped blue hues and cloned in the color of the dark marbles, giving purple, and added contrast. It’s a big step up from the original.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/8, F2.81, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2006-03-21T06:46:32-05, 2006-03-21_06h46m32

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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.

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Photo: Pink and Purple Sunset 3

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Pink and Purple Sunset 3 — a psychedelic, neon sky

The capstone of the series, despite nearing two years of age, Pink and Purple Sunset 3 maintains a permanent spot in my portfolio. It is beloved wherever I show it, though vocal few hate it, calling it as over-edited and “phony.” I don’t believe this; this is my photography, as is the work of a whole new generation theirs. Read The “Pure Photography” Myth for further discussion.

I’ve put more time into this photo than any other, as I strive for it to be perfect, which, for me, is to reveal no blemishes nor traces of editing, even under intense scrutiny. The contrast enhancements are high, but I did not need to shift the colors nor fabricate the clouds. The finished work you’ve seen is the third revision, the first being to remove the building on the right, the second for removing the tree on the left, and the final, only coming this month, to match the print gamut and clone out the remaining JPEG artifacts (which aren’t visible except in large copies). In the June 2006 release I’d already dramatized the colors and removed the pesky streetlights which cluttered the neighborhood, but with the finalized edits this can even be imagined as a scene out in the wilderness. If I ever doubted the value of RAW mode, I found it here; because in 2006 I only had a cheap digicam, this is a lossy JPEG. In bringing the colors out so dramatically, I struggled against compression artifacts and color banding, which would have been no issue if I’d shot it now in raw format with my Canon Rebel XTi. It is not in comparing JPEGs and raw files side-by-side that the choice becomes clear, but in the digital darkroom where the extra bits count, and the “invisible” JPEG compression becomes greatly magnified when you add darkness, saturation, or contrast. My solution for the artifacts was to clone them out by hand, a tedious process that I spent some three hours on. But if I’m working for my art, it’s always worth it.
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Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/2, F3.07, 6.8mm, ISO116, 2006-06-11T20:39:14-04, 2006-06-11_20h39m14

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Photo: Pink and Purple Sunset 2

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Pink and Purple Sunset 2 — bright and colorful clouds in an evening neighborhood

A beautiful and colorful sunset from my back yard. I remember taking this when I was sick with a cold; I was too tired to walk down the road looking for an open area, so the sunset is occluded by trees and power lines. It’s still pretty good, though.

I added contrast to make this pop, and cloned out stray tree branches at the left.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/20, F4.2, 12.9mm, ISO100, 2006-04-01T18:51:48-05, 2006-04-01_18h51m48

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Photo: Pink and Purple Sunset

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Pink and Purple Sunset — vividly colored clouds and sky

An impressive array of clouds at sundown. I like how the colors turned out, and the shape of the clouds is quite a bit different than what you normally see.

This one is heavily edited. I used curves to add a ton of contrast and darkened the edges. I didn’t have to mess with the color, except desaturating parts that were too vivid; the beauty of the scene was all there, but just needed to be brought out.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/30, F4.44, 14.9mm, ISO98, 2006-03-22T18:42:07-05, 2006-03-22_18h42m07

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Photo: Leafy Sunset 4

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Leafy Sunset 4 — green leaves on a sunset of purple and yellow

A lively purple and yellow sky surrounds a branch of vivid green leaves. Dark green and bluish-purple complement each other. I used a flash to light up the branch; the alternative was to silhouette the leaves, but that didn’t look as good here.

I added saturation to the colors, darkened the edges, and increased the contrast.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/70, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2006-01-27T17:55:10-05, 2006-01-27_17h55m10

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Photo: The Eerie Sunset

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The Eerie Sunset — a cold evening sky

When the sun goes down, the monsters come out… This is a creepy looking sunset I saw out front of my house. I helped add to the creepiness with a cool white balance setting and boosting the blue color channel in Photoshop. The grain is there to add character.

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/50, F3.5, 18mm, ISO800, 2007-08-26T19:53:31-04, 2007-08-26_23h53m31

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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: The Sky’s Camouflage

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The Sky's Camouflage — a cloudy car in nine colors

Reflections of a vivid sky on a black car. This is my new vision for Sky’s Camouflage; it started with the blue version in the center, and the others I digitally colored for this arrangement.

I’ve been trying this out on my bedroom’s wall for a while; looking at it everyday hasn’t annoyed me yet, so it must be good.

I increased contrast and saturation on the original (blue, center), and mixed up color channels for the eight variations.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/278, F2.81, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2006-06-17T14:44:08-04, the-skys-camouflage-rxt

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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: A Purple Evening

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A Purple Evening — barren trees against a darkening purple sky

The sky turned purple in this sunset, so I got this photo of the clouds with some bare trees in front. The clouds were darker above, which you can see at the top of the frame.

I darkened the clouds at the top, shifted the colors to be more purple, and improved the contrast.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/80, F2.2, 50mm, ISO400, 2008-01-05T17:53:56-05, 20080105-225356rxt

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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: The Last Hour

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The Last Hour — a striking purple sunset

A beautiful purple sunset from our front yard. I used the kit lens because it’s the closest I have to wide-angle. Enjoy!
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/4, F3.5, 18mm, ISO400, 2007-12-21T17:57:55-05, 20071221-225755rxt

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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.