Wednesday, October 28, 2009

DIGITAL CAMERA TRICKS AND TREATS


Hubby and I drove up to Mt. Lemmon yesterday to see the fall colors before the hard freeze, expected on the mountain last night, put a stop to the glorious display. I’m planning to ‘show and tell’ all about it tomorrow. I took a gazillion pictures and it’s going to take me all day today to figure out which ones to post on this here blog. It might just turn into a whole Mt. Lemmon series! I was reminded, once again, about how very wonderful it is to have a digital camera. Back in the day, it would have cost a small fortune to develop all those pictures only to find that at least half a gazillion went right into the trash can. Have I mentioned I love my digital camera?

I love my digital camera more than cowboys love their pickup trucks.
I love my digital camera more than songwriters love trains.
I love my digital camera more than Popeye loves spinach!

Now…let’s talk about one reason I love my digital camera.

In my first post, I showed you the little painting I was working on of De Grazia's Chapel.





In the second post, (I think), I told you how helpful it is to take photos of my paintings as I’m working on them. Here’s why.

I really thought I was done with this painting of De Grazia’s chapel. It looked pretty doggone good, I thought. So, I signed this puppy and took its picture. Here it is.



Whoops! It’s NOT quite as doggone good as I thought! See those lovely little sparkling highlights on the wall on right side of the chapel? See that complete lack of those same lovely little sparkling highlights on the left side? Yes..on that funny looking protrusion. That’s called a buttress, I think. It has a purpose besides just helping to make this little chapel look so round and soft and warm and inviting…rather like Mother Earth herself.

The photo just made that lack of lovely highlights jump right out and smack me up-side the head! So, I fixed it!


Doesn’t that look better? Be honest.

Here’s the same painting with some different photo editing applications which I find really helpful for painting….and some are just plain fun. They came with the program for my beloved little Kodak Easy Share C653. It’s getting kinda old…like me….but I’m hoping it still has lots of life in it….like me!

Making a picture in black and white is great to let you know how you're doing with your values. "Values"....that's the range of darks to lights in any visual design....like painting or photography. There's rules about values. But we won't get into all that right now.

Looking at it now, I'm thinking I don't really have enough difference in my darkest darks and my lightest lights. But one of my favorite tv art teachers use to say that every painting needs two people to paint it. One to put the paint on the canvas and another to yell 'STOP!" I'm stopping on this puppy!

I love this one! It's called 'cartoon.'

'Cartoon' helps you see if you got your lines/shapes right. There's rules about those, too. But it's mostly all about does the shape of the thing look like the thing you're trying to paint. Duh!

Next...when I'm feeling VERY dramatic, I play with this application, called 'spotlight.' I don't use it much for painting. But, some day, I'll show you some awesome ways I've used this on pictures of birds and flowers. Too cool!!!!


I am so grateful for my digital camera! What are you grateful for today?

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