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: Ashes and Embers

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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Photo: Leafy Droplets 6

Leafy Droplets 6 — liquid drops on an colorful orange leaf

An orange leaf decorated with water drops. It’s unconventional, but I decided to fade to white at the top of the frame, as though the scene is overwhelmed by fog. Like with Leafy Droplets 2, I changed the leaf to orange, though this photo is brighter and composed differently. This is on my point-and-shoot camera, as it focuses closer than the lenses I have for my DSLR.

I changed the colors to orange, added contrast, cropped, and dodged and blurred the top part so the photo fades to white.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/60, F3.5, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2008-02-24T10:49:51-04, 20080224-154951rxt

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Photo: Leafy Droplets 3

Leafy Droplets 3 — drops of water on a vivid green leaf

A rainy green leaf reflecting the bright, overcast sky. This is the same type of leaf from Leafy Droplets 2, but with natural colors and a new angle. My reflection is in some of the raindrops, but I don’t think it hurts the piece.

There were some specks of dirt on the leaf that I took out, and I added contrast and sharpening. I exhibited a lower-contrast version of the photo before posting it here.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/160, F2.8, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2007-01-18T13:33:17-05, 2007-01-18_18h33m17

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Photo: Leafy Droplets 2

Leafy Droplets 2 — a dark orange leaf with raindrops

A dark, orange leaf with drops of water. It was still cloudy so the lighting gave contrast, without being too harsh. I decided to fade to black at the top-left, which should add intrigue. This is a re-edit (old version); the leaf started as green, but orange is more interesting and stylish.

I changed the colors through curves in the Lab color space, burned in the parts that are now black, added contrast, and cropped from 1:1.33 to a 1:1.5 aspect ratio.
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Canon PowerShot A620, 1/25, F2.8, 7.3mm, ISO50, 2006-11-08T07:46:00-05, 2006-11-08_07h46m00

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Photo: The Rebel

The Rebel — a girl smoking in front of a no-smoking sign (shameful!)

Sarah rebels against the no-smoking signs. I posed her for this; she didn’t notice the sign till afterwards. Somehow, we didn’t get in trouble. It was noon-time, but fortunately the light wasn’t too harsh.

This is from 35mm black-and-white film (developed, printed, and digitized). I decided to burn in sign (in Adobe Photoshop); it adds punch. Don’t smoke kids! Cigarettes are too expensive.
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2008-05-22 Update: This is on my new Gawker Artists page! Read more here.

Canon Elan IIe, EF 50mm 1:1.4, ERA 100 35mm film, 2008-02-29, the-rebel-rxt

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You can use the model’s likeness for anything not defamatory. You are one of my “licencees.”

Photo: Ketchup 3

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

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

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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Photo: The Black Sunset

The Black Sunset — black clouds crowd out the sun

This dark sunset is from my front yard. The division between light and dark was fascinating, and there were bright red highlights on the clouds, but by the time I’d fetched my camera they’d diminished to this. Still looks good, though.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F2.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-01-04T17:44:56-05, 20080104-224456rxt

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