Digital Masking and Selection

I have taken 2 images to demonstrate the use of masking and selection:


The image on the left shows where I have taken part of the image on the right (a selection) and painted it onto the image on the left.  By using the healing brush tool and clicking on the daffodil yellow centre, I then painted it onto the other image... by clicking and holding down the mouse while you paint over the area you want.  The more you paint, the more daffodil appears.

These are the 2 images I started with by placing them both in photoshop

This shows the selection of daffodil painted onto the left image.

Then I looked at using the quick mask icon at the bottom of the tool box and when used this paints in red.  You click on the tool and paint over the image in areas where you want to mask, (protecting that part of the image underneath). Painting over areas in red will reveal the image below in these areas, for adjustment, then you click image, adjustments, 'revert' and it places the marching ants around the selections.  As you then use the adjustment sliders ie. brightness/contrast you see how the objects within the selections are adjusted.  You can revert back (or press Q) to change between the screens to adjust the rest of the scene, or none selections. 

You can see the painted out (masked) parts here. Any adjustments will only be applied to the other parts of the scene, once the marching ants are revealed around the selections:

You can then change settings ie. contrast and brightness to effect specific areas of the image:

The above shows all the remaining objects are selected for adjustment.

Then you can click on image, adjustments, revert, so that the selections are the adjustable areas.

Above I used a different image to experiment with masking techniques, as the screen grabs show, where I painted in red and tried some techniques:

This shows how the red paint seems to seep into the backgound.

This shows how the brightness and contrast effects the selections.

You can paint over all the background so that the only selection showing is the part that is affected by any adjustments, and visa versa following the same process as described above.

You can use the 'invert' to apply adjustments to the background and not the selected painted mask area.

By inverting you effectively switching the 'viewed' selections, to either the painted top parts or the non painted underneath parts.

  

          

This shows how you can look 'through' the mask (the red painted area) to see how adjustments now effect the underneath green background selections.

Impressionism - for theme 1

Impressionist art is a style where the artist captures an image of an object as if someone had just took a quick glimpse of it.  Painters like to capture mostly outdoor scenes, without detail but with more use of colours.  Therefore their pictures can be bright and vibrant.  I decided to look at this when Steve thought some of my research was leaning this way, ie the blur painting sort of look.

Here are some of the great impressionist artists of the past, with details of the subjects they loved to photograph:-

Edouard Manet influenced the development of impressionism - he loved to paint everyday objects.

Claude Monet - was interested in subtle changes in the atmosphere.

Camille Pissaro and Alfred Sisley - painted the French countryside and river scenes.

Peirre Auguste Renoir - loved to show the effect of sunlight on flowers and figures.

Edgar Degas - enjoyed painting ballet dancers and horse racing.

Berthe Morisot - painted women doing everyday things.

                                                                  Sunrise by Claude Monet

Monet displayed this famous painting at a Paris Art show leading a critic to label the whole show 'impressionist' because of its patchy texture.  This led to the name being given to  the movement.

I like the  pastel tones in the picture and the sun's reflection in similar sky colours.
To me it does display that dream quality, though not in the same blur way as I have previously looked at.  The focus point is on the people in the boat passing through, maybe on their way to work, as the background looks to be industrial.

I have  looked at some Renoir images too (see below)  because  I had heard of him and because  he loved the effect of sunlight on his subjects, which is what I am interested in.

                                                                           panting by Renoir

                                               shutter 1/100 aperture f4.0 iso 800 Focal L 82mm

I took this image of an entrance that was looking vibrant from the sunlight beyond.  I compare it to the above in way of colours  and because the the most active part of the scene is grouped to the right: sun light reflects on the branches in the right foreground brightly as  it does in the foreground right flowers of the painting.  Other bits of colour are introduced to his painting ( reds and blues) as are in my scene, but to a lesser amount. The tip left corner of my image shows a small section of blue sky as does the painting and then the predominate colours in both are shades of green. The form of people figures in the painting is replaced by the form of branches in my scene, and my drive path seems to be going in the same direction of that of an imagined path in the painting.

                                                                         painting by Renoir

                                                  shutter 1/32 aperture 7.1 iso 200 Focal L 105mm

I compare these images to the impressionistic look of the paintings above and below for their vibrance and similar colours. The pictures have a jolly yet relaxed feel to them just as in the paintings. I took both images at Calke grounds when I visited before using a Canon Eos 5D hand held.  I was pleased to get the birds in flight, though they were not clear, because I used a slow shutter and hand held the camera, though they do not need to be clear here to give an impression,  which is what I want.

                                            shutter 1/64 aperture f7.1 iso 200 Focal L 67mm

painting by Renoir

These images are very vibrant and have an overall calming feel to them.  In  Renoir's images the people look relaxed going about their hobbies.   Their presence is important and is the focus of each scene...that tells a story of where they have been, going or have arrived at.  I like the blend and mix of colours used, giving a bright and happy outlook,  giving the impression it is a sunny day with its reflections on the water, field and grasses.

shutter 1/12 aperture f7.1 iso 200 Focal L 70mm

There are no people in my images but they are relaxed and have some vibrance. Each of the Renoir's paintings here have gold colours in them and trees, so I compare my above images in the same way.

shutter 0.3 aperture f22 iso 320 Focal L 105mm

This two images are a bit impressionistic to me. The top one is blurry as the tree was blowing in the wind as I took the shot in the garden, I also moved the camera to the side slightly when releasing the shutter.  I think the lines are unusual and it  shows pattern and colour.

I like the bottom image for its bold colours and to me it looks like the two springs may be ornamentally hanging from a wall. Again the shot was taken in the garden with the Canon Eos 5D, hand held.

shutter 1/50 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 99mm

Research - Linda Hackett for theme 1

taken by Linda Hackett

                                                            Taken by Linda Hackett

I was looking at a book in college class ( Contemporary Photography And The Garden) and noticed some images by Linda Hackett.  They were blurry which gave a soft look with a dreamy sort of mood. There is a sense of  happy spring time in the above and its very colourful. The blur makes your eye search out things in the scene.  I decided to experiment with some blur and some focus in search of the dreamy look....

Linda Hackett is an American who started photographing an abandoned estate garden near her home in Southampton, New York in the mid 1980's.  She exaggerates colour and plant forms in her hallucinatory type imagery where elements of light and air take on an almost phisical presence.

She uses a pin hole camera which encompases extended exposure times to record the effects of wind movement through the garden.  She often places the camera so close to the subject that it would be unrecognisable without the written descriptive.  Hackett works exclusively at dawn and dusk when longer exposure times are required and adopts a "plants eye" perspective of the garden.  Her pin hole camera distorts light to give a metamorphosis mix of the light and intense colours resulting in the production of a surrealist atmosphere.

I have taken the following shots  in the garden at dusk in the shade.  I don't think the above was taken in any direct sunlight.  Here I am experimenting  firstly on smaller objects, to try to achieve a dream like effect, before I go out and try the full scene shots.  However I do not have a pin hole camera so will try to achieve the best I can with what I have.

shutter 1/6  aperture f4.0  iso 200  focal L 99mm

These 2 images contain some sky as in Linda Hackett's but not the same lovely blue.  I have included them because I like the curves of the twigs, but they don't have the appeal overall of Linda Hacketts, they don't really work the same.  Also these are where I have focussed in  a lot closer to the subject whereas Linda's  shot more of a full scene.

                                                shutter 1/25 aperture f4.0  focal L 105mm

I used a slow shutter speed and wide aperture which helped with the blur effect to the background and zoomed in to capture some detail.

shutter 0.4  f4.0  iso 200  focal L 105mm

The above image is better where sky is not included, I think it makes for a better composition and is more colourful because of the contrasts of the flowers to the dark green background.  Whilst the flowers are bright, they do look abit over exposed in parts, and  this loses detail, which could be ok here as I did not want all the details to be apparent anyway.

None of these images are completely blurred like that of Linda Hackett's which I think is not so easy to pull off successfully.  The sun was fading when I took this shot,  and no light was on the scene at all but because it had been a bright day and was now dusk, light still caught the flowers (above image) making them look bright. The dark shadows of the conifers gave the dark background.

                                                  shutter 1/25 f4.0  iso 200  focal L 75mm

The image above is more of a scene where I zoomed out abit.  I like it in part because it is unusual.  I think it captures dreamy slightly but it has hardness with the softness, given by the form of the tree trunks. In Linda Hackett's image the darkness on the left gives some drama and I wonder if the darkness here on the right achieves that.  What I do like is the triangle view of the sprigs, and it does make me think about the image more than my close shots above, which is what Linda Hackett's did.

                                              shutter 1/6  aperture f4.0 iso 200 focal L 105mm

The above is my completely out of focus image but it is only slightly so it still does not achieve the right effect.  I gained this all over out of slight focus by moving slightly as I took the shot hand held.  It has no dreamy quality and it left me wishing it was actually in full focus because I liked the colours and composition. 

 Again it is using hard and soft materials together and I had seen images that did this by another photographer in that same book, which I will look at again during class. 

 I took all these shots hand held thinking that any slight normal blur, by movement, may help what I trying to achieve.  If I was to attempt such shots again I could use a tripod and try tapping it as I released the shutter, but overall I think I need to use a slower shutter speed and move the camera around more.  I had had my camera set on a single centre focus point thinking this would also help make less of the scene in focus, but then I did focus with this centre point, in all but the last image, so this would not be the answer to achieve an overall blurry image either.

Other images I took:-

These images show some blur and some clarity in each just as my above ones do, hence still not achieving that overall blur look that looks correct.  However I do hope to capture the effect I am effect with digital manipulation later on:

                                                 shutter 4.0 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 105mm

shutter 1/8 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 75mm

                                             shutter 1/12 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 75mm

This is the cover of the book I have taken inspiration from in college class, Contemporary Photography And The Garden, Deceipts & Fantasies... where a group of artists in the mid 1980's turned to gardens as a subject for their photography.  It holds a wide range of artistic images whereby gardens are reflected upon as  sites of lyrical beauty and luxurient atmosphere to show them in a dark visual metaphor for the manipulation of nature.

Tree story

I prepared before going out by making sure my battery was fully charged.  I took my kit and started out to Calke grounds with the intention of taking some shots of trees for  theme 1 and some close ups for theme 2 within the same journey.  Once there I parked up and chose a walk route.  I carried my camera hand held, leaving my tripod in the boot in case I wanted to return to collect it.
In these images I have concentrated on form, pattern, colour, texture and perspective.

                                         shutter 1/640  aperture f.4  iso 200   focal L 50.0mm

I have used the rule of thirds in most of these images.

                          

                                        shutter 1/328   aperture f.4   iso 200   focal L 50mm

                                        shutter 1/1000  aperture f4  iso 200 focal L 24mm

These images show pattern, form and colour.

                                          shutter 1/1328  aperture f4  iso 200  focal L 24mm

                                                 shutter 1/1000  f4  iso 200  focal L 24mm

Tree Story depicts  different angled shots of the same monster of a tree showing off its shadow patterns and perspective that appears to look like its branches reach out to meet  the trees in the background behind the fence, when in fact there was quite a lot of space between them.  The above image looks like the branch is suspended in mid air, it is a close up of the image above, which is a part of the image above that...

                                                                        Sunny Side
                                         shutter 1/1600   aperture f4  iso 200  focal L 24mm

Sunny Side shows the tree from the other side showing which way the  sun light  is coming from  providing the hard shadows and more of  a siluette appearance. The image shows pattern and form.

                                                                           Arms                    
                                           shutter 1/1000  aperture f4   iso 200  focal L 28mm

Arms shows form whereby  tree arms and shadows form  together to create  a jigsaw look over the whole scene, showing pattern and form.

                                                                       Down Below
                                          shutter 1/250  aperture f4  iso 200  focal L 35mm
The above image shows texure and form.                          

                                                                          Up above
                                               shutter 1/1000  aperture f4  iso 200  focal L 35mm
The above image shows pattern, form and texture.

                                                                           Platelets
                                       shutter 1/500  aperture f4  iso  200  focal L 105mm

A close up shot shows the barks flaky peices... a hard form left contrasting to the delicate leafy twigs of the right and blue light touches coming through from the background. The image shows form and texture.