I really enjoy playing around with the photo editing programs and as I experiment I learn something new.
The photo above taken on an overcast morning while on holiday at Port Edward last month. This is the view looking south. Only about 20 km further is the Umtamvuna river, the border between Natal and the Eastern Cape province. From the river further south for more than 200 km to the town of Port Alfred, the area is known as the Wild Coast, and that is what it is wild and totally undeveloped.
The same photo after some editing magic.
Another dull and uninteresting beach photo.
The same photo after editing.
On my way to work this morning I took a little detour to see if I could get an early morning photo of the sun shining on the Drakensberg. I took several photos then "stitched" them together to form panoramas. I didn't get the "stitching" absolutely right, but with practise I might just. After stitching them I manipulated them further.
Click to enlarge.
Looking westward, with the sun rising behind me.The two halves don't have exactly the same exposure, the photo on the left is lighter and one can see where they join in the middle.
The same photo , now a water colour painting.
In this panorama I zoomed in to show more of the Drakensberg, about 35km from where I was standing. The N3 highway can be see running north/south in the middle.
Here the photo has become an oil painting.
On Sunday this lily was on our communion table at church, and I photographed it with my BlackBerry phone camera.
Click to enlarge.
Then I started to manipulate the photo with my new editing program.
First a pastel.
Then a water colour.
Finally a van Cogh.
Changes to some photos I took just after I got my new camera.
Click to enlarge.
Wild flower, original photo.
After editing.
Bird in flight, original photo.
After editing.
Egyptian goose and egret.
After editing. Note how the eyes are more visible in the second photo and the colour's more vibrant.
My new photo editing program is full of interesting possibilities. Below are some photos that I've worked on today.
Click to enlarge.
This...
to this.
From this bleak under exposed photo, to...
..this almost "Impressionistic painting.
This under exposed photo, or...
this.
Amazing what can be done with a little digital editing of a photograph.
Click to enlarge.
This first photo is as it was taken, in very harsh light, and it looks very bland and washed out.
Above is the same photo. I adjusted the colour's and contrast in Picasa photo editing, saved the results as a separate photo, then I blended the two in Gimp photo editing, and the result is a photo with a more vibrant appearance.
The foreground of this photo was 2km from where I was standing, the ridge in the middle about 5km away, and the two hills in the background about 10km. In the valley just behind the yellow ridge with the two Acasia trees, lies the town of Estcourt.
Continuing with my photo editing experiments, I took two photos of a rather colourless sunset, (mostly white clouds) and blended them in Gimp photo editing programme.
Click to enlarge.
So who say's a photo can't lie?
Gimp is a free photo editing programme, and I have found it very easy to use.
Feeling as proud as Punch, blended my first two photos, (same scene, different exposures), successfully and made one reasonable picture. I have discovered that to simplify matters you need to take both originals using a tripod.
First photo.
Exposed for the sky, foreground washed out.
Second photo.
Exposed for the foreground, sky washed out with no detail.
Combination of the two.
Click to enlarge.
Both exposures combined, good foreground and much more detail in the sky, sky still too light though. To use some new photographic buzz words I've just learn't, "better dynamic range." The mountains in the background are very far away. In the middle distance in front of the dark hill one can see some electricity pylons, part of an electrical substation that is about 7km away from where I was standing. The telephoto effect of the cameras zoom lens compresses the distance and makes things look closer than they really are.
Once I learn how to do cloning I'll remove the pylons and have a pure landscape.
This old man keeps surprising himself with all the new tricks his learning.
