Category: Experimentation

  • Photo experiment – day 31 of 31

    This month has been fun trying new things. I’m glad to be done, and glad I actually managed to stick to something for 31 days in a row. It’s been a useful way to become less hesitant about experimenting – with the daily task of trying a new technique, I haven’t worried about waiting to…

  • Photo experiment day 30 of 31

    Today’s experiment is a image made into a half-tone, with dots somewhere between newpaper-sized and Lichtenstein-sized, using Photoshop’s filters.

  • Photo experiment day 29 of 31

    You could wait forever to catch two trains absolutely simultaneous in the Metro, or use Photoshop to create a mirror image like this –

  • Photo experiment – day 28 of 31

    Today’s experiment (actually, from last night): out-of-focus lights. Done by setting the camera focus to up close, and the aperture wide open (50mm 1.4 lens) while photographing lights at a distance – here, on Pennsylvania Avenue.

  • Photo experiment – day 27 of 31

    Today’s experiment is taking a new photo and making it look old, by applying texture layers, experimenting with the blend modes and opacity until it looks good.

  • Photo experiment – day 26 of 31

    Today’s experiment is turning a photo into the look of a pencil sketch.   The sketch was created with the Tiffen Dfx plugin for Photoshop.  I tried a couple of other things first – the Photoshop sketch and other artistic filters, and Topaz Simplify, but none of them gave the look I wanted.  I ended…

  • Photo experiment – day 25 of 31

    Today’s experiment is taking an old pre-digital photo in bad shape, and adding enough grunge texture to it that the flaws get less visible among the new grunge.  The grunge was added in Photoshop – actually 2 grunge texture layers were added, with varying degrees of opacity and blend modes.

  • Photo experiment – day 24 of 31

    Today’s experiment is faking the weather. This iPhone shot was taken in full sunlight (yes, the reflecting pool is in the process of being refilled, after two years of repairs!), and then two iPhone apps were used – one to add the lightning (AlienSky) and one to add the rain and gloom (RainyDaze). Clearly fake…

  • Photo experiment – day 23 of 31

    Today’s experiment is a zoom burst – zooming the lens while the shutter is open.  This shot was hand-held, standing in the  middle of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Different/better results can be gotten when using a tripod.

  • Photo experiment – day 22 of 31

    Today is experimenting with subject matter – creating The Scream out of food (carrots, blueberries, hummus, cinnamon sticks, eggplant, butter, peppercorns, dried strawberries, cocoa powder). Kind of pointless but fun. The main photographic challenge was finding a way to photograph it so that the light did not glare off the elements too much – the…