Spring - the Crocus Edition

I've been so lazy with my photography lately but I made myself do a couple things this week. 

First I ventured out to the Garden and Art Center because I knew the spring flowers should be blooming. (Although with our higher than normal temps, spring is 3 weeks early this year.)

Second, this morning I watch a video on how to use Topaz Texture Effects which I've owned since it came out and have never used it.

This is my first trial run. One thing fabulous about this software is that you can scroll over the textures and see what it will look like on your photo. You can also scroll over the blend modes for previews which makes it so much faster. (You can even access your own textures through it.) Tons of presets and oodles of tweaks to your hearts content.)

Products used, My Watercolor Brushes, Anna's Script Tease Nature, and my Sketchy Loops which will be in the store real soon.

I used Pretty Presets Lightroom Luminous on this shot. (Rose petals)

Another with that preset.

And another that I decide to mirror for my new header.

Dark and mysterious, edited with Kim Klassen's Chocolate.

All shots were taken with my Canon 100m Macro. I experimented with some focus stacking to see if I could get four flowers with four different focal lengths combined in one image to all be in focus.

Quite fun. Maybe not perfect, but it was a great exercise. 

If you want to try this out. Go shoot some images with focus variations. In Photoshop...

File> Scripts> Load Files Into Stacks

 Browse to find and select your files. Choose Open.

 Before selecting OK, check the box 'Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images'. It does a good job, but because of the blur from the macro lens I had to do a bit of my own adjusting. A tripod would  be advantage in most cases.

Now the masking begins on each layer. It's easiest to start at the bottom and work your way forward.

 Start with a black mask and 'paint in' the sharp areas. If you're not familiar with masking... ask Google.

Crop your image to clean up all the edges. Viola! Now if I want to I can load this back into Lightroom for further editing. I did do a touch of editing before I exported them to a folder on my desktop. (before the stacking)

I'm so glad spring is here. It's even raining a bit today. Ah... that fresh smell!

Adventure with the Velvet 56

This week I found a fun lens in my friend's camera bag! It is the new Lensbaby Velvet 56. (I must admit I love the name.) She loaned it to me for a few days and here is what I found through this lens in my garden.

The only thing that is an issue with me is that this is a manual focus lens. It's very hard for me to see that detail and I tend to get eye strain in the process.

All these photos are unedited except on a few I did a little exposure boost (noted). Otherwise, no crop or anything because I wanted you to see what the lens actually did.

I love that dreamy look but this shot was one of my favorites.

There are 7 aperture settings from 1.6 to 16. The three apertures 1.6, 2 and 2.8 give you the ethereal dreamy look. The distance settings range from 5" to infinity.

Here are my daisies beginning with 1.6 aperture.

Another of my favorites!

(slight exposure boost)

(slight exposure boost)

This morning was so windy I did a little experiment inside. The aperture on this dried flower was set at 2.8 and I just adjusted the distance setting and moved a bit to get the different looks.

It was cool to play with but my pocket book has another lens on it's priority list. I did manage a few shots of my grand daughter, even though she doesn't stand still, that I'll post this weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

Linking up with Kim for Friday Finds.

Texture Tuesday 4-22

It's Texture Tuesday time and the theme is simple. I couldn't help but pick the first three daisies as they were opening yesterday. How much simpler can you get?
kk_isobel Softlight 100%, kk_violet Softlight 42%. And a curves adjustment in the blue channel. Font, Sweetly Broken. Shot with my Lensbaby Double Optic f/5.6 with the +4 macro. I usually like to shoot with the sweet spot off center but liked this one the best.

Here is one with the focus up to the left on the petals with just a few edits in Camera Raw. I definitely prefer the added texture and the color shift.

Come over and check out all the amazing texture at Kim's.

Friday Finds 7-26

I had a bit of a break from cyber space this week. It actually felt good. Last night I was thinking that I haven't been very present in the 'real' world for awhile and need to do some re-evaluating. (We'll see how long that lasts.)
My Friday find this week is two-fold. Linking up with Kim's Friday Finds.
#1. The Olloclip App. I've had an Olloclip for a quite awhile and use it periodically, mostly for macro shots. It's slid over the camera lens on your phone and is able to do fisheye and wide angle also. The great thing about shooting through the app is that the macro has a loupe view that zooms in a bit closer. Mind you, you are already nearly touching what you are shooting. After the shot you have the choice to adjust your photo, like stretch out a fisheye, etc.
#2. The Olloclip camera case. (I ordered mine from B&H.) It came in the mail this week. LOVE it. It is nice and sleek, almost like not having a case, so I make sure I have a good grip on it while pulling it from my pocket. (Dropped my phone on the concrete this spring and to replace the glass on a 5 is close to $300. Give me a break!) It has a flip corner that opens so you can slide on the Olloclip without removing the case. Be sure to check out how it clicks the shutter too. Pretty snazzy.
Here are shots from this morning, unedited.

Fisheye..

Same photo 'adjusted'