Photo of the Week 06/01/2008

[frygge]

O Shiva

 

Certainly looked like one, and I believe it's considered kitsch everywhere :-) Nothing wrong with good kitsch.

 

Fredrik

[hinman]

Todd,

 

I am glad you like the Picasa results. As Fredrik has mentioned, the neat image is a separate program and I use it to reduce noise in you iso 3200 shot. Once I ran the neat image on your photo. I usually don't use Neat Image but I use it for the need of ISO 3200 and I want to try a smoother tone on the kid's face. I roughly do the following:

 

1. Run through neat image on the original

 

2. Effect for Filtered B&W in Picasa

 

sometime I simply try out the B&W conversion. But I use the filtered B&W and pick on green and yellow in the color channel picker for a better skin tone. I use the green channel usually for coping with noise and better skin tone in b&w.

 

3. Adjust shadow and lighting

 

This is important in Picasa as I always go to the tunning section to adjust shadow, lighting, highlight to bring out the contrast in a b&w conversion

 

3. Weird step to add noise

 

As Fredrik has mentioned, Picasa is notorious in the Effect -> Sharpening feature but I sometime use it to my advantage in b&w conversion. I only use it occasionally when I want to add character to b&w picture. By sharpening with one click, the effect usually add noise to a picture, which is pleasant for b&w picture adding a film like grain. Two clicks will over-sharpen the picture with unpleasant artifacts For your picture, I don't do sharpening as your picture already has a good texture of noise on the background. Having noise in a b&w picture can be a pleasant surprise especially in b&w.

[lorenzo_perfecto]

@Haig, Fredrik - Thank you very much. I'm glad you liked them. Now if I can only figure out how to have my images show up in my posts. :)

 

Nols

[duane_mills]

Great shots everyone. Haig the "Boston" piano really caught my attention. That is my favorite this week. Here's a couple of photos from me folks:<div></div>

[duane_mills]

Meet Officer Townshend....<div></div>

[hagar]

Thanks Duane.. it was one of those spur of the moments while I was visiting some friends :-)

[mcmanamey]

Lorenzo/Nols... WOW. freaky cool looking. What city skyline is that? And for your

pics to show up: always give them a caption

[lorenzo_perfecto]

Thanks Maria. The first shot was taken along Manila Bay around sunset. I'll see if I can have my pic post right next time.

 

Nols