Tag Archives: red


Photo: Reach for the Dream

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Reach for the Dream — the red ornament

I found this red ornament on the ground while walking with my camera, and was inspired to set it on a nearby tree branch and reach my hand out as a reflection. The ornament represents your dreams, and the hand represents your continued pursuit of them. Don’t give up!

For this, I brightened the ornament while darkening my fingers, added contrast, a blurry glow effect, and stripped the background down to black and white (selective color).

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/80, F5.6, 55mm, ISO400, 2008-05-12T19:06:17-04, 20080512-230617rxt

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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 Brave Rose

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The Brave Rose — a pink rose trapped by a chain-link fence

This is a brave rose, because she’s trapped behind a chain-link fence. I went out for a walk with my camera this morning and spotted this; the rose was right near the fence, so I moved it to be peeking through one of the diamonds. The background was a house and the rest of the fence, but I opened up to F2.5 to blur it almost completely, keeping your focus on the flower.

By only leaving color in the red channel, everything else went black and white. I used subtle coloring on the rose, a glow effect, and added plenty of contrast. To balance the frame and draw the eye toward the center, I darkened everything else with the burn tool, especially toward the edges. This is a good example of how editing can produce a mood, the mood here being one of sadness and reflection, not only from the rose being behind the fence, but from the dark feel I added, and by alienating the subject from its surroundings with selective coloring.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/100, F2.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-05-17T06:47:05-04, 20080517-104705rxt

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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: Assimilation

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

Photo: Cherry Tomatoes

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

Photo: Ashes and Embers

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Ashes and Embers — fiery red embers in a fireplace

Leftover embers in my wood-burning stove. The foreground is crumpled paper that didn’t burn thoroughly; makes for some interesting folds, colors, and patterns. There is still a bit of fire left in them.

I burned in the highlights a bit, made the colors redder, and added contrast. I was hand-holding the camera and the scene was dim, so I went up to ISO1600; the original is grainy. It’s nice grain, though, which I kept, though you can’t see it except at higher resolutions.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/30, F1.8, 50mm, ISO1600, 2008-02-28T21:00:45-05, 20080229-020045rxt

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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: Ketchup 3

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Ketchup 3 — a row of black ketchup bottles

These are the evil, dark ketchup bottles. This is a normal still life arrangement, but I used a shallow depth-of-field which I find more interesting. Enjoy!

I made the background pure white, added contrast which darkened the bottles, and brightened the labels. The labels look weathered and are dodged unevenly, which is the look I want.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/5, F1.8, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-01-20T20:23:20-05, 20080121-012320rxt

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Photo: Ketchup 2

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Ketchup 2 — a creative arrangement of ketchup bottles

A crazy arrangement of Heinz ketchup bottles. When you place every other one upside-down, they fit together well.

I lit this with a small flashlight and took the shot on a tripod; the lighting was dim so I used a 3.2 second shutter-speed. In post-processing, I brightened it up so that the reds are vibrant and the contrast is eye-catching.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 3.2″, F2.8, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2007-06-03T20:44:14-04, 2007-06-04_00h44m14

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Photo: The Red-Brick House

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The Red-Brick House — black clouds threaten a lonely abode

A house of red bricks stands alone against an impending storm. This is my neighbor’s yard; the clouds formed into an ominous circle right before the rain. The phone pole was not optional, as I couldn’t compose the frame as such while excluding it, but I’ve come to like it; its crookedness keeps the level horizon from becoming boring. I made a decision in post-processing to not give color to anything except the red house, and a tiny bit of green to the grass, which gives punch, and makes this conceptual; the house is unique and alone. Hope you enjoy it; I don’t do many landscapes, but this one I’m proud of.

This was challenging to edit; all the elements were there to start, but needed to be perfected. I burned in the clouds, telephone pole, trees, and edges of the frame, then remapped the tones through curves in the Lab color-space, including the contrast and color channels. I had problems with the shadows remaining dark-red, but corrected them by desaturating everything but the house, grass, and trees in the center. I debated placing the colors as more yellow or blue, but found this compromise to be the most natural and compelling.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/25, F3.5, 18mm, ISO400, 2008-02-26T17:55:09-05, 20080226-225509rxt

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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: Ketchup

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Ketchup — 11 bottles of Heinz ketchup in a line

Ketchup bottles in a line; my best tomato-related photo. :silly: This took thirty minutes of test shots and fiddling; I was lucky to have so many ketchup bottles of varying fullness at my disposal, as I was at a restaurant.
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Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/16, F2.81, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2006-07-09T18:58:07-04, 2006-07-09_18h58m07

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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.

More of the Ketchup series.