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Photo: A de-saturated look at one of my previous beach photos.

Of all places to find inspiration for creative work in Photoshop, would you believe this one came from Windows XP?

I had this photo as my desktop background on my office machine – which unfortunately is still running the ancient operating system.  For those of you that might remember it, the Shut Down sequence fades your desktop to black and white in the background. And there you have it.

I couldn’t help but keep some of the color in the blue skies and a touch in the water, but always open to feedback.

– Kris

Another subtle but (I think) effective touch up to an old favorite with a minor tweak in Adobe Camera Raw and Topaz Adjust.

The Before Image

Overall a good image to start with.  Unfortunately it was not shot as a RAW file, so my options in ACR for recovering details in the shadows was somewhat limited. Fear not, though, as Topaz Adjust was able to help out there.

The After Image

The first change I made was in ACR to adjust the White Balance, since this was taken indoors and before I really knew how to use the Custom WB feature on my Canon 20D. You can see that effect in the white sheet under our furry friend here. From there, I increased the exposure compensation just a tad, but not too much because this was not a RAW file.

Next up, Topaz Adjust had its turn using the Exposure Correction preset and tweaking the Detail tab just a bit. You can see from the detail around his eyes and nose where there’s more detail and texture from his fur.  In the resulting image, his fur does end up looking a little lighter than it was in real life, but I’m willing to except that for the additional detail it provides.

Missing Our Little Friend

The photo is more special now than ever because our furry little friend is no longer with us. He passed last summer while fighting with a few medical issues on and off. This is by far my favorite image of Sky, and seeing it makes me wish I could still take more.

Thoughts?

Just like all editions of the Before and After series, let me know what you think of these adjustments and any other suggestions you might have.

– Kris

Photo: Our bunny Star in the process of launching out of her cage.

“Bunny blur” almost sounds like a technical term, doesn’t it?

Since Star here is unofficially becoming the site mascot when changes are made or things go wrong, I figured it would be fair give her the spotlight every now and again.  I’m also in the process of touching a few of her and our other rabbit – who has since passed – to move over to my photonelly flickr account, so I’ll probably have a few more uploaded in the days/weeks to come.

For now, check out the bunny tag for more photos of our furry friends.

- Kris

My little friend here is back to tell you about the new Blog Photos page I’ve added to the site.

One of the tasks I follow before posting a new photo on the blog is obviously making sure that I haven’t posted it already. I have my own tagging convention on Flickr that helps me track that, even with switch to a new Flickr account last year. What that let’s me do is see all my photos (kinda) in one place when doing this initial check.

At first, it lead to me creating the Blogged photoset on my Flickr account, which is actually what’s driving this new page. Not liking the small square previews or the 18 photos per page approach viewing this on Flickr, I decided to move it here to the site. Now, whenever I add a new photo to that set after posting it on the blog, it will automatically pop up on this new page as well.

Not Everything Yet

At the moment, the new page is only pulling photos from my photonelly Flickr account and not my original one that still hosts photos from the posts previous to the move. I’ve been re-processing the old photos and moving them over a few at a time, but to give you an idea of the numbers, there are currently 198 photos in the Daily Photos category and only 76 photos in the Blogged photoset.

Still, it’s a good sampling of where my camera has been and a feel for the variety of things I enjoy shooting.

Where to Find It

I decided to put the new page in the Portfolio section, so click there and find Blog Photos on the menu to the left-hand side. It may take a moment to load all the images, but once they’re up, click on any of the photos to see a larger view.

Links to the blog posts and back to Flickr will be added eventually.

Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.

– Kris

Back with another edition in the Facebook photographer series. This edition features the surfing snapshots of Clark Little.

Clark Little was one of the many cool photographers and instructors that I met at the Maui Photo Festival last September. However, you’d be hard to compare Clark on the same level as many of the other professional photographers holding workshops. You see, Clark isn’t your photography professional. In fact, he’s a surfer who, according to his bio page, only started his photography career in 2007.

So what’s so special about Clark?  As his website puts it:

Clark had a unique talent for taking off on hopeless closeout shorebreak waves and surviving in one piece.

Put a camera in Clark’s hands and you have some amazing works of art.

If you haven’t clicked on any of the links above yet, then check out his gallery on clarklittlephotography.com and you’ll see what I mean.

More Photos on Facebook

One of the reasons I wanted to feature Clark in this Facebook series is that just about every week, he’s posting new photos right to his page’s wall, which means right into your news feed. If there were ever photos as of late that you could share online without captions and have them constantly speak for themselves, these would be it.

Plus, if you want to meet Clark in person, pack your bags and come join the fun at the ‘10 Maui Photo Festival in August.

Stay Tuned

Be sure to check back for more editions of the Facebook photographer series, and if you’d like to request a fan page to be featured next, head over to my page on Facebook and leave your recommendation there.

– Kris