Soft focus? Sharpen 'em and keep 'em small.

Fiona's mom painted the picture behind the little girl back when mom was but a little girl. I was holding the baby but managed to get off one quick shot. The painting was in focus but the baby was soft and the whole image was very yellow from the hallway lighting.

The original file was quite yellow and Fiona was soft.

I set white on Fiona's shoulder, then selected Fiona and sharpened just Fiona using Unsharp Mask. I admit to cranking it up quite high. Almost to the max.

Then I reduced the image for the Web and sharpened the whole image with just a small touch of USM.

Surrounded by art

We are surrounded with art. Patterns often result when our stuff is factory made. And with plastics everywhere, colours are everywhere.

A fun game, and one that teaches one to see photographically, is to look for a picture somewhere in the immediate vicinity. When I decided to play, I was in our kitchen.

I played the game recently and the result is today's picture: A lettuce washer/spinner. It has a translucent, blue plastic top with a white plastic shape inside. I noticed the top sitting in the dish rack, back lit by sunlight entering the room through the dining-nook window.

Now, look around and find a picture. You do have your camera handy, don't you? If not, for shame.

Sequencial shots can rival video

I like video. I like being able to not only see but to hear what's happening. I have shot some quick videos of my granddaughter that I simply love. It is wonderful to have captured her little laugh for eternity.

That said, often I do not have the time to watch (or show) a video but I want to see (or show) more than just one quick, shot. At times like this, one option is the photo sequence.

You can't always be showing your cornered friends and work cronies little videos of your daughter, or in my case granddaughter. Watching videos takes time, and time is often in short supply. But, few folk will balk at spending a moment checking out your latest little sequence.



Blogger technical note:

I have linked and embedded two videos in this post. Linking was done by simply clicking the link icon in Blogger. Embedding was just about as easy. It required nothing more than finding the video in YouTube, clicking "Share" and then selecting the "Blogger" tab. If you have more than one blog, make sure you are sending the video to the correct blog. The video will appear in a new post. To move the video to another post, simply copy and paste the HTML code into the new location.