The task on Wednesday of the Same September Challenge is to choose a setting on your camera and use the same "recipe" for each subsequent picture on Wednesday. However, my point and shoot camera does not give me the ability to adjust too many settings (although I can play with the exposure a bit). So I decided to use the alternative suggestion and picked a "processing recipe" instead. I hemmed and hawed about shooting only in black and white as my "recipe". However, as much as I like shooting in it, this option didn't seem to be much different than any other time I've taken black and white (i. e. it was not that challenging!). This led me to the conclusion that my Wednesday photographs could be black and white, but that the processing recipe would involve selective coloring. That adds to the challenge of finding an appropriate subject for the recipe on top of finding something that is conducive to a black and white photograph. Yes, that seems complicated enough for an OCD person like me. First subject up: the fruit bowl.
Good choice....selective coloring. A bright shiny apple for the teacher, maybe? I wonder if they still do that. The other day, I asked my 6 yr old granddaughter how she liked first grade and if she had a nice teacher. She happily replied positively; then I asked her if she brought her teacher an apple yet. Long silence....she had no idea what I was talking about and probably thought MeeMaw had gone looney ;-)
Great job! I like the pop of red. I really like the idea of same subject shots. I just saw Colleens and got all inspired and now yours. I need to get to shooting lol :-)
Thank you one and all. I am having a nice chuckle over your comments. However, I must point out to you that if Snow White ate this she wouldn't have needed the prince to kiss her awake. If you gave this to your teacher and told her you picked the best apple in the basket for her, she'd tell your mom you need glasses. So you do not need to watching out for the evil queen or worrying about whether this has been poisoned by her because it's not an apple! (o: Oh, yes, it's surrounded by a few apples, but this lovely fruit is a nectarine. Now, Karenann, it's true the Bible does not say specifically that the fruit the serpent tempted Eve with was an apple (the Hebrew just says "fruit"), so you may have an argument there. (o: But in all my studies of the Bible, I didn't read about or hear nectarines mentioned much- it was usually dates and pomegranates. So it might be a weak argument- but still one that could be considered.
Glad you all liked the processing. It was fun to see how you all picked up on the apple, but didn't see that the "selected" fruit was not an apple. Perhaps that's just the power of suggestion, or a case of seeing what you want to see, but it was fun to read all the reactions to one piece of highlighted fruit and the things it triggered in your minds. Those thoughts were the farthest thing from my mind, but I saw exactly what you were reacting to when I read your comments. Wow, maybe next week I'll pick something else you can guess around at! You are all great!!
I have always been a fan of selective coloring..yet i only have done one on my whole project! I need to do more of that also ! This is awesome Ann..I love your selection and your recipie of processing! This will be fun to watch what you do with this! :)
I thought it was not an apple. The skin and color just did not look right. I was going to say some sort of plum they have now (dinosaur eggs and the like) or nectarine. I love nectarines! I like your challenge for the SC and cannot wait to see what you do with it! This came out nice!
@kimmistephens thanks Kimmi! @ellimae thanks Ellen! I have no idea what I'm going to shoot next week- lots of planning to do! @alia_801 thanks Alia! The "reflection" was a bonus in not being able to shrink the radius of the coloring circle any smaller or it wouldn't cover the the nectarine the right way. @myautofocuslife thanks Livia! @sangwann thanks Dione! @dmariewms thanks Marie- yes you were definitely in the ballpark! @espyetta thanks MaryBeth! A gold star for you! I'm looking forward to seeing what I do with it too as I have no idea where I'm going to go from here! @bruni thanks Bruni! It's natural lighting. If I turn on the kitchen lights they make very ugly shadows. But it was later in the morning so the sun was not coming through the window directly. I don't have a lot of fancy gizmos to shoot with, but I like being challenged to work with what I have to get the drama of light you see here. @cdonohoue thanks Cathy! All my processing is done on-line either in Picmonkey, iPiccy, BeFunky or Ribbet. They all have free programs which is great. (Ribbet used to be Picnik but they offer the least free stuff of all of them) I'm pretty certain that I did this one in Picmonkey. I think the effect is called Focal Black and White- or something to that effect. It takes your color shot and puts it in a b/w format; then offers you a circle which you can move about the picture and adjust the size to feature whichever part of your picture you choose. It's fairly simple to use and when you choose the right picture and subject the results are quite nice as you can see above.
@wenbow Thanks Wendy! I think you'd do a great job with it. Give it a go sometime. I think the key is to choose a subject and shot that lend itself to the effect so that it doesn't look contrived.
@wenbow Most of the free on-line processing sites have this feature. Take the shot in color, then apply the effect. It converts the picture to black and white. You then have a circular area which you can move about the picture and shrink or enlarge on the spot you want to be in color. It's quite simple to process. This one was done in Picmonkey.
I absolutely ADORE the thought processes you've put behind this challenge, Ann - and your ready admission of OCD. . .that's SO healthy! And the shot is beautiful.
Great processing and a very challenging idea for you Ann. I am looking forward to seeing your b&w/selective colouring photos. They will be so different to my b&w/macro photos.
@wenbow Glad to share Wendy! @lyno lol Lyn- this is my second year and I'm more picky about not shooting the same thing twice than ever before! Not only am I OCD, I'm a perfectionist on top of that. A lethal combination should I decide on year 3. hehe @nicolecampbell thank you Nicole- yes it will be fun to compare approaches and their respective results. I did like your seagulls- they are a good choice for monochrome.
I'm pleased to say I immediately identified it as a nectarine because of the wonderful burnished coloring so different from the stripes of the apple. Using selective coloring really leads you to concentrate on that one item. Good "recipe" choice.
I think you did a great job with this. I can't do a black and white and add red or another color. I have tried and tried and tried only to fail every time. You did fantastic. Nice pic and nice job!
@daisy Thank you Kathryn! @prttblues Thanks Bev! Oh, I think you could do this if you tried it in Picmonkey. They really make it easy. I think the key is to pick the right subject matter. I find that since the effect is based on a circular guide, round things or things that lend themselves to that shape are the best subjects to choose. If you keep that in mind before you shoot, it'll be easier to apply the effect. Take some practice shots and dabble with it in Picmonkey awhile and see if that helps. Copy a picture like this one to get started. Oh- and take it in color. That also makes it easier.
Ann I should've said sunlight as I was thinking of natural light.. red your reply to @prttblues..are you talking about the color of the nectarine? did you change it in pigmonkey? is this called selective coloring.. I've never tried it.
@bruni Oh- yes, it was natural lighting- sunlight. Yes, this is selective coloring. I took this shot in color, then applied the "focal black and white" effect from Picmonkey to the shot. That turns the shot into a black and white shot, but a circle appears on the picture (like looking through a lens) which you can move about and choose a focal point. Whatever is inside the circle appears in color. You can enlarge it or shrink it depending on what you want to highlight. In this case, I decided just to highlight that one nectarine and there was just a little spill of color onto the other piece of fruit in the front. I liked the way that looked so I kept it, but I probably could have made only the nectarine appear in color by shrinking the circle a little more. Give it a try some time- copy this idea and shoot a bowl of fruit or maybe a bouquet of flowers- something fairly simple and circular and play around with it. As you know Picmonkey makes it really easy to work with. You can also reverse the effect- have everything in color and one spot black and white. I haven't tried that yet.
@httpgeffed Ha! You're spot-on!
Thank you one and all. I am having a nice chuckle over your comments. However, I must point out to you that if Snow White ate this she wouldn't have needed the prince to kiss her awake. If you gave this to your teacher and told her you picked the best apple in the basket for her, she'd tell your mom you need glasses. So you do not need to watching out for the evil queen or worrying about whether this has been poisoned by her because it's not an apple! (o: Oh, yes, it's surrounded by a few apples, but this lovely fruit is a nectarine. Now, Karenann, it's true the Bible does not say specifically that the fruit the serpent tempted Eve with was an apple (the Hebrew just says "fruit"), so you may have an argument there. (o: But in all my studies of the Bible, I didn't read about or hear nectarines mentioned much- it was usually dates and pomegranates. So it might be a weak argument- but still one that could be considered.
Glad you all liked the processing. It was fun to see how you all picked up on the apple, but didn't see that the "selected" fruit was not an apple. Perhaps that's just the power of suggestion, or a case of seeing what you want to see, but it was fun to read all the reactions to one piece of highlighted fruit and the things it triggered in your minds. Those thoughts were the farthest thing from my mind, but I saw exactly what you were reacting to when I read your comments. Wow, maybe next week I'll pick something else you can guess around at! You are all great!!
I have never used selective coloring and will have to check out how to do that. What program did you use?
@ellimae thanks Ellen! I have no idea what I'm going to shoot next week- lots of planning to do!
@alia_801 thanks Alia! The "reflection" was a bonus in not being able to shrink the radius of the coloring circle any smaller or it wouldn't cover the the nectarine the right way.
@myautofocuslife thanks Livia!
@sangwann thanks Dione!
@dmariewms thanks Marie- yes you were definitely in the ballpark!
@espyetta thanks MaryBeth! A gold star for you! I'm looking forward to seeing what I do with it too as I have no idea where I'm going to go from here!
@bruni thanks Bruni! It's natural lighting. If I turn on the kitchen lights they make very ugly shadows. But it was later in the morning so the sun was not coming through the window directly. I don't have a lot of fancy gizmos to shoot with, but I like being challenged to work with what I have to get the drama of light you see here.
@cdonohoue thanks Cathy! All my processing is done on-line either in Picmonkey, iPiccy, BeFunky or Ribbet. They all have free programs which is great. (Ribbet used to be Picnik but they offer the least free stuff of all of them) I'm pretty certain that I did this one in Picmonkey. I think the effect is called Focal Black and White- or something to that effect. It takes your color shot and puts it in a b/w format; then offers you a circle which you can move about the picture and adjust the size to feature whichever part of your picture you choose. It's fairly simple to use and when you choose the right picture and subject the results are quite nice as you can see above.
Thanks to all for your great comments!
@lyno lol Lyn- this is my second year and I'm more picky about not shooting the same thing twice than ever before! Not only am I OCD, I'm a perfectionist on top of that. A lethal combination should I decide on year 3. hehe
@nicolecampbell thank you Nicole- yes it will be fun to compare approaches and their respective results. I did like your seagulls- they are a good choice for monochrome.
@prttblues Thanks Bev! Oh, I think you could do this if you tried it in Picmonkey. They really make it easy. I think the key is to pick the right subject matter. I find that since the effect is based on a circular guide, round things or things that lend themselves to that shape are the best subjects to choose. If you keep that in mind before you shoot, it'll be easier to apply the effect. Take some practice shots and dabble with it in Picmonkey awhile and see if that helps. Copy a picture like this one to get started. Oh- and take it in color. That also makes it easier.
Thank you Laura!
Thank you Chris!
This was my favorite shot for the week!