Hookswords' Scrapheap

[Hookswords]

I am by no means a photographer. I've only posted a few things in this neck of the woods. What's my point? No clue. I snapped a few shots at Summerfest, in Milwaukee, with the intention of attempting some faux tilt shift techniques on them in photoshop. These were taken from a ski lift kind of thing that goes over the festival grounds. These were taking with my girlfriend's dying ( I had to power it up to take each picture) 8 megapixel camera. It was probably later in the day than would be optimal for making a really convincing faux tilt shift, and those ski lift carriages arent to most stable. All that being said, I think they turned out alright.

[Nike]

welcome to photographymob

Nice angle and nice colors - I like the idea of partly blurring the pictures. One thing that strikes me a bit is that there is not much variation in blurryness in your picture - take a look at some tilt-shift-lens photos and see how the strength of the blur is also affected by distance etc. which can make the photo more interesting to look at.
Some of your pics would also benefit of an a bit tigher crop I think.
Either way - really nice shots - keep shooting and posting

[Hookswords]

Thanks. That's a good idea. I'll try playing with the blur variation.

[Hookswords]

Here is a little more playing with faux post processing work in photoshop. Mostly faux lomo stuff along with some playing with focus and a dingy portrait.









I should note that I did not take this picture. It is a picture of me taken at my friend's wedding by the wedding photographer. I just did some work to it to give it a more striking look.



Seems I cant change the thread title. I dont suppose a Mod could change it to Hookswords' Scrapheap could you. Thank You!This thread was move here, otherwise I would have named it more appropriately. Thanks

[HunterKiller_]

A wedding photo? It looks like something from a horror movie, haha. (in a good way)

Nice shots.

[Hookswords]

Horror movie eh?

[Hookswords]

The lady and I made a day trip to Chicago yesterday. I took a ton of images, but here are a few I've played with in post processing. Chinatown, Millennium Park, around town, and Sears Tower.















This shot is from the new observation platforms at the Sears Tower. They are retractable glass cage that extend off of the side of the building. The first step is freaky but it's really cool.

[BgDM]

Gotta love Chicago. One of my all time favorite cities in the world. Have to get back there some time.

Great images from Chicago as well. Especially the river shots. The blur makes them very surreal and almost not real. More like dioramas. Great use of selective blur on those.

BgDM

[EvrEst]

Your work is really nice! The broad architecturals feel like im looking at a model of the city, its an interesting effect! Keep it up!

[Hookswords]

This was the final stop for my vacation. My girlfriend's parents have a dairy farm. These are from all around the farm.

[purplerose]

Love the vibrancy of the yellow flowers. Would have experimented a bit more with the composition though.

Keep posting!

[Hookswords]

Originally Posted by purplerose

Love the vibrancy of the yellow flowers. Would have experimented a bit more with the composition though.

Keep posting!

I'll agree with you on that. For some odd reason I am enjoying floral images...I'll keep that in mind for future shots.

[EvrEst]

My favorite is the rusted light bulb. Extremely well done! Question. do you convert to sRGB before you post online or do you leave it as it comes off the camera?

[Hookswords]

I have to admit that I had to look up how sRGB was different. So...that's a no. Looking in Photoshop I dont even see it as an option. Might there be a plug in or something? All of the photos I've posted have gone through post processing in Photoshop. The tilt shift pieces are RGB and the Lomo pieces get converted to Lab Color for part of the processing, but then back to RGB. All of the pictures shown are taken with a Kodak EasyShare M1033 10 megapixel camera (with the exception of the Summerfest tilt shift pictures that were taken with my girlfriend's 8 megapixel something or other camera). Not a terribly sophisticated piece of equipment, but it takes a clear enough picture that I can play with in Photoshop. I am very much an amateur just enjoying a media that I havent played with much before.

[Hookswords]

Just a couple shots of the lighting from a great outdoor dinner with friends. I couldnt help but think it a bit odd that the lighting was a bit post apocalyptic while our dinner of mussels and goat cheese macaroni and cheese was quite delicate.

[purplerose]

Love the abstract feel of the last one. The touch of green is great as well.

[Hookswords]

I went on a little photo journey today. Chasing childhood memories, paranormal, and urban decay. Oh, and a weird nunary.

Grant Park









Eyeball bush




Urban Decay























This is one of the lions at lions bridge in Lake Park right by the north point lighthouse. Both areas are said to be haunted. I do have to say that rather than stoic and tough, the lions have a sad expression on their faces.

[purplerose]

Love the first one in the Urban Decay series. The skull is awesome too.

[Hookswords]

[Hookswords]

[purplerose]

I like the small bridge image. It has a good composition. If you wanted to get more of a mood in it, you could try playing around with a slight vignette.

The shoreline one in the same post isn't loading on my computer, so I can't offer any feedback on it, sorry.

[Hookswords]

I reloaded the shoreline pic through photobucket. Let me know if that helped.

something like this?

[purplerose]

Almost, but something that's less opaque. I pulled your photo into PS and did a quick edit. (Hope you don't mind! Let me know if you want me to delete it.)

I numbered everything I clicked to get my edit.

My Edit: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...ridgewedit.jpg

Edit Steps: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...t/edithelp.jpg

1. Click that shape under the layers window and then click "Gradient..."
2. Click in the labeled area.
2b. Move the top right marker to get the stop settings shown. Click OK.
3. Change the angle to 135.
4. Change the scale to 96.
5. check the reverse box. Click Ok.
6. Change the blending options for that layer to Soft Light.


You can play around with it to get different looks. It's basically an easier way to burn large areas for a slight vignette look. Hope that helps!


As for the shoreline image, I love the minimalist look it has. I think you could play around with B/W & Sepia toning and saturation if you want to get more of a mood from it.

[EvrEst]

Love the last few posts! your composition is greatly improving. I think the sRGB is only in lightroom or photoshop Bridge. It is a color cast made for the web. Its how my colors seem really vibrant and not flat. If you can get a copy of Adobe Lightroom 2 it will be your best friend for everything!

[Hookswords]

Originally Posted by purplerose

Almost, but something that's less opaque. I pulled your photo into PS and did a quick edit. (Hope you don't mind! Let me know if you want me to delete it.)

I numbered everything I clicked to get my edit.

My Edit: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...ridgewedit.jpg

Edit Steps: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...t/edithelp.jpg

1. Click that shape under the layers window and then click "Gradient..."
2. Click in the labeled area.
2b. Move the top right marker to get the stop settings shown. Click OK.
3. Change the angle to 135.
4. Change the scale to 96.
5. check the reverse box. Click Ok.
6. Change the blending options for that layer to Soft Light.


You can play around with it to get different looks. It's basically an easier way to burn large areas for a slight vignette look. Hope that helps!


As for the shoreline image, I love the minimalist look it has. I think you could play around with B/W & Sepia toning and saturation if you want to get more of a mood from it.

Ah, something a bit more subtle....gotcha. I'll play with the process. Thanks!

Love the last few posts! your composition is greatly improving. I think the sRGB is only in lightroom or photoshop Bridge. It is a color cast made for the web. Its how my colors seem really vibrant and not flat. If you can get a copy of Adobe Lightroom 2 it will be your best friend for everything!

Hmmmm....I have Adobe Bridge on CS3. I'll have to play a bit. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Hookswords]

Sepia redux per Purplerose's suggestion




Rural Decay

This is the fountain, and only remarkable piece at the Ranchos de las Flores. There are a number of asinine ghost stories about this place that are easily debunked by police logs and just plain common sense. It probably doesnt help that its at a dead end across the street from a graveyard



Salvatorian Seminary/ JFK Prep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F....ry_High_School

This site is awesome. I went up there in hopes that security wasnt so bad that I could get some external building shots and maybe a little ruralex action. The place is being restored and the owners were there and told me all about the place and let me into the church. If you want to read more check my blog (linked in my sig).





























the smoke stack of the boiler building through the stained glass window pictured above

[Hookswords]

Some more urban decay









And some clouds

[purplerose]

The Redux looks nice as well.

For JFK Set, I like the digger photo.

Love the textures and composition for the Winery Wall photo. Looks like a great candidate for playing around with a vignette.

Great angle for Church_inside_4w, maybe it could have used more space on the left?

Good update!

[Hookswords]

These were shot with a Canon Rebel (Not sure of the model or megapixels beyond that) which I admittedly didnt really know how to use. Just kinda fudged my way through it.

[purplerose]

Love the light and colors in the first one. Maybe a landscape format would have helped the left to right flow of the composition?