Photo: Out of the Frame

Out of the Frame

Rachel, pointing out into space.

She has the same name as my seven-year-old sister, who doesn’t post much.

This was the only pose I could think of. I’m running out of ideas…

Anyway, I took color out of the background so the focus is just on Rachel. She’s pointing up at a squirrel or something.

I also darkened the background a lot.

Rachel is a photographer and has her own photographs here: photographsbyrachelwhited.com. She’s a great model too. I’m only good at photography, fortunately. :grin:

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/200, F6.3, 38mm, ISO400, 2008-01-13T12:04:27-05, 20081113-170427rxt1

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Beautiful Heart

Beautiful Heart

A girl named Lyric, holding up a print of Fiery Hearts, which represents her heart. Don’t hurt her! She’s fragile like the glass in that picture frame.

I always try to get my models to look down with eyes up toward the camera, or toward the side… it’s a much more interesting pose than a dead-on stare. That worked well here.

I took out her nose ring, part of a tattoo, and some of her clothes. The photo is much more appealing that way. :cool:

The framed picture didn’t turn out good to start, because it was mostly a blue reflection of the sky. I burned it in quite a bit and took out the blue, so it looks great now. The other big change on this was selective color; I took out all colors except in the red channel, which puts emphasis on her and the picture, makes the background black and white, and makes her skin a bit weird looking. But in a good way.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/500, F5.6, 75mm, ISO400, 2008-11-07T11:42:05-05, 20081107-164205rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

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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.

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

Photo: The Pale House

The Pale House — a ghost house with dark clouds

Something about this house just doesn’t feel right. It’s got no color to it. Most things have color. The grass looks warm and inviting… but what’s with those dark clouds overhead? Such oddly shaped clouds too. Like a giant C in the sky.

This is a return to The Red-Brick House… but this time the house has no color at all. Only its surroundings have that privilege, and in the warmest tones. It could be a beautiful afternoon in the country, if not for the ghost house and scary clouds.

This was quite a scene to start; I hadn’t seen a cloud formation that ominous, and it was followed by lots of rain and lightning. Once the rain started pouring, the sky went mucky gray. All the tension disappeared. That happens in most storms.

Editing on this was substantial, because it involves almost everything you see. I shifted the white balance in Adobe Camera Raw to make everything yellow, before importing the image into Photoshop. I went over the house with a desaturation brush at 100%, burned the corners in repeatedly with my pen tablet, and burned that dark line across the sky. It was there to start, but I added the curve going up to the left and around just with the burn tool.

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/200, F5, 18mm, ISO100, 2008-07-28T16:45:44-04, 20080728-204544rxt

Location: 1832 Nelson Ave., Ormond Beach, FL  32174-7228

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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: Red Candy

Red Candy — tasty red flowers in the woods

I came across these delectable flowers on an evening walk. Just had to have them. I positioned the camera to have some palm frond leaves on the sides as a frame, and then snapped away. In Photoshop, I darkened everything but the flowers, desaturated all the color channels except red, and burned the corners especially. An eye-catching effect. Selective coloring is often tacky, but I hope I’ve done a good job of it here.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/50, F2.8, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-07-10T19:43:55-04, 20080710-234355rxt

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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 Sibling Flowers

The Sibling Flowers — A red flower and a white flower together

A pair of flowers; one white, one deep red. I shot this at the garden section at Wal-Mart; the flowers were already close together, but I moved them closer. It’s a good combination. I got as close as my lens would focus to cut out the background.

I under-exposed compared to my camera’s meter on purpose, as it was blowing out the whites in the auto-exposure mode. In Photoshop, I desaturated everything, but left color in the red flower and a bit of green in the leaves. I didn’t go all the way to black and white, as I feel the green adds to the mood. Then, it was just a matter of darkening everything and adding in some contrast. I also cloned out distracting highlights at the top and burned the corners slightly.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F3.5, 50mm, ISO400, 2008-05-04T18:54:55-04, 20080504-225455rxt

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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: Reach for the Dream

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

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

Photo: Complicity

Complicity — a pair of beautiful pink roses

The definition of complicity is “involvement as an accomplice in a questionable act or a crime.” So these roses are not your normal, law-abiding citizens. :wink: This is along the same thread as Simplicity and Implicity, my other photos of roses, which have similar backdrops.

I spent three hours getting the rose and background to look just right. I used the kit lens as it’s the closest I have to macro, but it lacks good “bokeh” (blurring in out-of-focus areas), so I blurred the background in Photoshop, but sharpened the flowers to make them stand out. I desaturated and darkened the background as normal, and went for a less colorful, more contrasty look than Simplicity.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/50, F5.6, 55mm, ISO200, 2007-11-11T08:13:21-05, 20071111-131321rxt

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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: Implicity

Implicity — a beautiful yellow rose

Darkness surrounds a fallen yellow rose. I darkened and desaturated the rose’s surroundings to make it stand out.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/15, F5.6, 55mm, ISO100, 2007-10-10T17:41:04-04, 2007-10-10_21h41m04

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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.