The Eleventh

I would be remiss if I did not give full props to two magical sources of artistic enhancement:  Photoshop and The Pioneer Woman Photography, recommended to me by my friend Tiffany.  I have Photoshop, but didn’t know anything (and only now know scarcely more than nothing) about Photoshop actions. 

But I downloaded a set of them from Ree Drummond’s Pioneer Woman Photography  and applied one to the picture I posted yesterday of Rabbit. 

Full disclosure, here is the photo straight out of the camera.  You can see the texture of the sofa in the background; it was about 10:30 in the morning yesterday, the sofa right in front of a huge picture window streaming with eastern sunshine through white sheer panels. 

And here is the photo after I applied the Pioneer Woman’s Action set enttled “Lovely and Ethereal.”  I ran it once, but possibly twice (I think twice).

See how it darkened the background and made everything else more luminous?  I LOVE this action set.  Maybe it’s the lazy way to do things, but I plan to learn this stuff step by step someday.  For now, I’m using these and learning as I go.

Here’s another one original:

And then I applied an action I think called “colorize” that kind of desaturated all the color but a few tones, which may not be for everyone but which I LOVED:

Here is the photo after:

And this isn’t going to be a photography blog, beLIEVE me, because it’s just a hobby, but by God if there’s a good photo on my computer, you’re going to know about it.  Thank you for indulging me.

By the way, I know I probably mentioned it earlier but a couple of people asked.  The camera I got is a Canon EOS Rebel  XS digital SLR.  I only have the 18-55 lens, and I’m shooting mostly on auto.  Also, I have a UV filter for the lens, per advice from a friend.  I have two other filters, a fluorescent one and a polarizing one, but I haven’t even removed them from the packaging.  I also got LCD screen protection adhesive, to cover the screen on the back of the camera from the makeup that comes off my face and clings to the camera back.  I’m using the viewfinder only, not the livescreen (even though my friend Steve finally showed me how to use the live screen).

Any camera shopping you need to do, I would advise you do it online through B&H PhotoVideo.  And no, not one vendor or manufacturer has asked me to mention their products and I’m not receiving anything for recommending them.  Just better pictures.