Archives for February 2013

February 9, 2013 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: Artistic Blur, Part 2

Hey, it’s Exploring with a Camera time! This month we are continuing our discussion of Artistic Blur, talking about adding blurry effects in post-processing.

My little break from routine, ditching my planned schedule to take a hike with our new dog Zoey yesterday morning, paid off in more ways than one. It was an opportunity to get out of the house and get to know Zoey a bit more, but it was also a foggy morning — wonderful for photography! I didn’t take too many photos, as I was more focused on working with Zoey on the leash, but I did capture a couple. This morning I processed this lovely image of trees in the fog, and it’s serves as an example of creating blur in post-processing for artistic effect.

Post-processing is a great way to get artistic blur, either by enhancing blurry effects we created in-camera or transforming a perfectly focused image into something altogether different. Let’s look at the different possibilities…

Textures

Artistic Blur is, at some level, about imperfection. One way to add some imperfection is to blend a photograph with a texture. The photograph takes on variations in both color and texture from the image it is blended with. I think this may be the most common way to add artistic blur in post-processing for many of us.

The image of trees in the fog, above, was blended with a couple of different textures as well as an artistic filter, “Chalk” from the AutoPainter II app. Another foggy tree image, below, uses a texture to further obscure the trees in the background. There is also some edge blur and vignetting, adding to the blurry effects.

The blending mode and opacity you choose when you combine a texture will have a strong impact on the final image. Do you find you use the same blending modes all of the time? Experiment with different modes, trying them with different types of textures and images, to see how they work. You can get some fantastically interesting effects just by varying your blending mode.

To use textures, you will need a software program that allows you to blend multiple layers. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements when I’m working on the PC and the Image Blender app on my iPad. You will also need texture images, which you can create yourself or download from the web. Here is a great link to a list of places to find free textures. What’s your favorite source? Share in the comments.

Multiple Exposure

If you can’t create multiple exposure images in-camera, you can creating them through blending after the fact. You can use either disparate, unrelated images, or similar images. For the tree image below, I blended three slightly shifted images. The clouds behind the tree were moving quickly, so my goal at the time of capture was to keep the tree in a similar place but mainly catch the motion of the clouds relative to the tree. The shift of the location of the tree within the frame made for an interesting form of artistic blur, when blended.

Here is another example of blur created with multiple exposures, although in this case the different exposures were created in post-processing as well. The original image of the tree was processed through the decim8 app, creating different versions where the branches were shifted relative to each other. The different versions were blended back onto the original, to create a digitized, blurry effect.

Blur, Blur and more Blur

Of course, there are all different types of blurring effects you can do in post processing. The standard allover blur effect is typically achieved using gaussian blur filter. From there, you can find many variations on the “blur” theme.

Gaussian blur, blended back with the original image, is often called “diffused glow.” It creates a very soft, dreamy effect:

Radial Blur which mimics zoom blur captured in camera:

Motion Blur mimics the impact of a long shutter speed with movement:

Edge Blur mimics a foggy or plastic lens:

Combining Effects

In many cases, combining both in-camera and post-processing blur effects create a wonderful artistic image. They both add different types of imperfections. I often will combine soft, foggy images with a texture, as shown above in a couple of examples. Another combination I like to use is a slow shutter in-camera combined with textures and/or painterly filters, in as the tree image below.

Tree branches blurred with a long exposure, almost become blowing grasses after painterly effects are applied:

The combination of multiple types of blur creates something artistic and truly unique.

One advantage of blurring effects added in post-processing is the ability to control the blurry effects. You often have options to mask regions of your photo from the effect, change the strength of the effect or move the origination point of directional effects. That can be nice, serving your artistic vision. The disadvantage is the blur can look mechanical because it is applied so consistently. So much for the imperfection that makes artistic blur so great! That’s why you have to try both in-camera and post-processing to create blur, to see which you like best. A combination of the two may even be your favorite way to add artistic blur.

It’s time to experiment! This month I encourage you to try at least one new type of blur in your post-processing, along with reviewing your favorite types of blur already. Share with us the results of your exploration!

February 8, 2013 by Kat

Playing Hooky

Today was supposed to be Exploring with a Camera day, but I’m playing hooky. You see, I’m going to for a long walk in the forest instead.

A long walk with our newest family member, Zoey, a very sweet 4.5 year old golden retriever/Australian shepherd mix dog. We brought her home from the shelter last night.

Getting a dog again was a big decision for us. Our beloved golden retriever Tasha passed away at age 14 while we were in Italy. It left such a huge whole in our hearts, we didn’t think another dog would ever measure up. (I’m tearing up just writing this. You would think more than two years later, that would go away.)

But slowly, slowly the idea of a new dog was creeping up on us. As my husband said, “No dog could ever replace Tasha, but there are other good dogs out there.” Now that I’m out hiking more, I’d love a dog companion with me in the forest. My husband loves to play fetch and frisbee. Our son is almost 12 and is excited and responsible enough to help. We aren’t traveling nearly as much as we did in Italy. So we were ready.

The search began.

We didn’t want a puppy again. Been there, done that, more than once. It would be nice to get a dog already house trained. But we didn’t want a senior dog either. After losing Tasha we didn’t want to open that whole can of worms up too soon. I really wanted to adopt a dog from a shelter if at all possible, although that can have it’s own set of challenges. But there are so many animals that need homes, it made sense to start there.

Good luck, right?

Enter Zoey. My husband found her listing in the neighboring county’s humane society last Sunday. He emailed me the link, asking what I thought. “She sounds sweet,” I answered, “But when can we get over to meet her?” Their hours were 12-5 or 6 and that didn’t work for any of our work schedules. Until yesterday, when my husband had the day off. Zoey was still there, so he went over to meet her, and fell in love.

We all went back at the end of the day, hurrying over there before they closed, to meet this dog who was seemingly perfect for us. And we brought her home.

Here’s the amazing thing… Zoey fits all of our dream dog criteria. She’s 4.5 years old, sweet and well-trained. She is spayed, house trained (already whined at the door to go out), crate trained (went right in at bedtime), doesn’t jump (although does like to give kisses, if you get your face down close enough to hers), doesn’t bark (as of yet) and rode well in the car. She sits, waits and drops items on command. She loves to fetch and wants to play. She seems ok on the leash, but I’ll check that out further this morning. We’ll have to be careful with her around other dogs, it sounds like she can be over-excited/nervous, and keep her from small children. That’s why she was in the shelter: The couple who had raised her from a puppy had a baby and she never adjusted well. She likes adults (especially women) and older kids. She is great with Brandon.

She’d been there a little over a week, and we were amazed she was still there, after we met her and saw how sweet and well-behaved she was. The people at the shelter thought it was the issue with young children… A lot of the families who want to adopt dogs have young kids. We don’t have any very small children in our life, so that’s not an issue for us. Somehow, I get the feeling she was just waiting there for us to bring her home.

So I’m out of here… Off to go on a hike with Zoey. Exploring with a Camera can wait until tomorrow. I’ve more pressing matters to attend to.

February 7, 2013 by Kat

Liberate your Art 2013 & Watercolory Goodness

It’s time! It’s time! If you haven’t heard the news yet, it’s time to sign up for the Liberate Your Art 2013 postcard swap. The postcard receipt deadline is April 6 so you have plenty of time to create your postcards and get them mailed. Visit the swap page and sign up to get all of the details and helpful resources via email.

We are going to have a fantastic time this year! There are already 232 artists signed up. Yay! If the previous year’s participation rate holds true, I’m going to need more than 350 signed up to meet my goal of beating last year. I could use your help! Join us, and help me get the word out. Blog it, share the Facebook event, whatever the best way to contact your creative peeps.

For my Paint Party Friday post this week, I wanted to share a bit about a new app I’ve been playing with the last couple of weeks: Aquarella HD. This is a very cool watercolor app and I’m loving it!

First off, here’s a quick example of what the app can do… Original photo at left, painted version at right:

This app has lots of options. You can “paint” with the colors of your photo, or you can use two-tone effects as I’ve used for this one. It is amazingly customizable… you can change the colors used in the tones, the intensity of the color and the watercolor edge effects, the paper texture, the wash and background bloom. I love all of that control, as it allows me to create something I really love.

As always, I’ve been experimenting with combining it with other layers and apps to create an original piece. I’ve found I use the Aquarella HD app slightly differently than the other painting apps I have. For most other apps, I shift colors prior to adding the painterly effects. For this app, I’ve been creating the layers without worrying about color, because I’ll pick colors in the Aquarella HD app itself at the end.

Let me show you what I mean, with this finished piece, Moonrise:

I started with a photograph from several weeks ago, captured on a foggy morning:

I wanted the evergreen tree alone, so I used TouchRetouch to remove the tree and ground to the right:

I was also playing with the ArcMachines app last week, which is free app that creates circular geometric patterns. I had captured a couple of different images off of that:

Next, I played around with blending the circles with the tree image in Image Blender. When you are blending black and white images, the blending modes do interesting things. In this case, I think I was using either the Difference or Exclusion blending modes, which I don’t use with color. I moved the arrangement of the circle layer around until I liked where the circles were in relation to the tree:

The three circles weren’t packing the visual punch I wanted, so I added the large circle over the top one in Image Blender. I will note that for both of these steps, I needed to mask out the branches of the tree, so that the circles would appear to be behind the tree branches:

I played around with painting this version in Aquarella HD for a while, and while I got the colors and effect I liked painting-wise, the composition was not working out. So I went back to Image Blender and played with enlarging the layers. After several tries, I got a composition I liked:

Since I already had the painting effects set in Aquarella HD from my previous experimentation, I pulled this image in and processed it. As long as you don’t close out the app, your settings will stay the same when you pull in a new image. Very nice!

I named the piece “Moonrise” because my husband said it looked like the moon rising behind the tree with a couple of extra moons along for the ride.

Moonrise

My favorite thing about this painting is the light-in-dark effect happening within the circles. The watercolor edges really make that contrast pop. I’ve also discovered, or maybe rediscovered, that I really like combining geometric shapes with natural shapes like this, and this new app has created all sorts of possibilities. You can see a few more in my Flickr photostream.

It’s great to add one more painting app to my toolbox, and Aquarella HD is chock full of watercolory goodness. I just love creating art this way!

February 6, 2013 by Kat

Apologies: Continuing the Conversation

Today, I want to continue the conversation on “apologizing” we started on Monday. This seemed to touch a chord with many of you! It is clearly a topic many of us could explore further. I was especially struck by this comment from Sue Fox:

I try not to apologize for anything unless it hurts another person in some way, then my apologies are profuse. My art, however that may be expressed ~ photography, writing, dressing myself or my house are all extensions of my persona so to apologies for any of your artistic expression would be a rejections of self!

She touched on a couple of very important points I want to discuss further…

First, we should not hesitate to apologize when apologies are truly due. A true apology is a powerful thing. It is you going to someone else, humble, saying you were wrong. A true apology is a moment of extreme vulnerability. You offer yourself up to them and ask forgiveness. Whether or not they accept, an apology is a form of growth.

It is hard for us to give true apologies, isn’t it? You often hear, “I’m sorry, but…” Whatever follows the “but” is the explanation for the action. That’s not really an apology; it’s a justification. I’ve tried, more and more, to listen to how I’m apologizing. It’s amazing how much the “but” comes in there for me. True, sincere apologies are important and are something I’m continuing to work on personally. It’s hard work.

Now we come to the second point of Sue’s comment, on apologies for our art being apologies for our self. This is a powerful point, so let’s stop and read that again:

When we apologize for our art we apologize for our self.

Art is expression of self. When we create, it comes from some place deep inside us. When we follow our inspiration and our intuition, we are connecting with our truest selves. We are often expressing the part of our self we keep hidden from the world, maybe even hidden from ourselves. That’s why it’s often so hard to share our work, because it puts our true self out in the open. We are naked, vulnerable, and any comment or criticism can cut deeply. So we aim to protect our self, creating a tough, outer shell through any means possible. One of which is apologies.

When we apologize for what we create, we are apologizing for our expression and, by extension, apologizing for our truest self. Apologizing for our preferences or our beliefs does the same thing. It’s as if we are saying our opinions, our creations, our very self, is not worthy of expressing itself to the world.

That is So. Not. True.

We all have worth. Our creations have worth. For me, they bring me joy. They help me understand my place in this world. They give me a way to connect with others, when my introverted, shy self would otherwise hide in the house with a book. That is all worthwhile for me. And for you, too.

Whatever the reasons you create, your creations are worthy. YOU are worthy.

Now, I want you to sit up tall. Take a deep breath, and repeat after me:

I will stop apologizing for my art.
I will stop apologizing for who I am.
When I do apologize, I will really, truly mean it.

It’s a tough mantra to live up to, but I believe we all can do it. I believe we need to do it. Are you with me?

February 4, 2013 by Kat

What are you apologizing for?

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
— Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

If you’ve heard at all about Brené Brown’s latest book, Daring Greatly, you’ve probably heard this quote. Ever since reading the book it’s been swimming around in my head. We enter the arena in so many different ways, each day. When we share our truest selves with someone else, or when we put our art into the world, we are daring greatly.

It’s easy to get hurt, when you make yourself vulnerable in some way. We protect our hearts by pre-rejecting ourselves, not stepping up to participate at times. I almost did that this weekend, for an exhibition submission that was out of my comfort zone. I took a deep breath and submitted anyway. We protect ourselves by apologizing in advance. In order to avoid the hurt of someone else criticize us, we apologize for the things we fear.

I see this all of the time in online sharing. “So sorry,” someone will write, “Just one more shot of fill-in-the-blank. I promise.” I hear that as fear. Fear of bothering other people with something we love. Maybe fear of abandonment. As if everyone will completely desert the artist for sharing just one more image of something he or she is passionate about. Apologizing gives an out. So if someone says, “Yeah, I was getting tired of seeing fill-in-the-blank,” we are armored up and ready to hear it. It confirmed our fears. That may not be why they write those words, but I identify with them, and see my own fear reflected. I see myself in them, wanting to apologize for sharing just one more image of trees, or scooters, or whatever I’m really excited about at the time.

But here’s the deal… The passion someone has for what they do is usually what draws us to them in the first place. We resonate and reflect that passion back. It inspires us. It’s fun to see.

I don’t think we should ever apologize for sharing something we are passionate about. I think we need to take a deep breath and stand tall and say, “Here I am and this is what I love. When I share this, I am sharing part of who I am.” It’s time to dare greatly, and stop apologizing, stop pre-rejecting ourselves and stop all of the other little things we do to keep ourselves safe. If someone stomps on that, after you’ve nursed your hurt a little bit, I encourage you to look very closely at where it came from. Treat the person who stomped on you with compassion: It’s probably their own issue; their own fears talking.

So what is it you would do or share, if you wiped away your fear? What is it that makes you feel like you are daring greatly, putting yourself out there? For me, it’s submitting to an exhibition outside of my comfort zone. Or agreeing to do something that puts me in the public eye. Or maybe, just maybe, sharing a tree image for the hundredth time.

But one thing I’m not going to do anymore… I’m not going to apologize for what I love to create and share.

One of my activities this weekend was to create a gift for the folks who worked on my team on big project I talked about last week. We had an intense and stress-filled few months, right up to the deadline last Thursday, and they gave it their all. I had shared the “daring greatly” quote with them a couple of months ago, and decided to make these framed prints as a gift to give them at our celebration lunch today. I had no idea I that the art I’ve been creating these last couple of months that would look so good with a quote on them! I’m quite pleased with how they turned out. These 8x8inch frames are available in a 4-pack at Michaels and were perfect for simply finishing the prints. This is another great example of why I love to be able to print my own work.

February 1, 2013 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: January

Peace. Tranquility. Mystery.

That’s what I was drawn to this month.

And simplicity. The space and subtle texture in this image calls to me. I want to reside in that expanse of peaceful blue-green.

Sit a while, this says to me. Be still. Breathe deep. Watch the ripples, notice the beauty reflected. Let the busy-ness of life frame the edges but not touch the stillness of the center.

I can return to this place of peace and quiet, anytime I need to. It is always here for me.

Ah, what a beautiful message to receive as I end this crazy week! It was interesting to see the peace and simplicity I was so clearly drawn to in my images, as I sat down to find my Photo-Heart Connection this morning. This image reminds me that peace is always available to me. I’ve been trying to keep in touch with this place all week, but wasn’t quite where I wanted to be. I have room to grow, more to learn, on staying balanced and centered. But I have help, in my art, in images of peace like this one.

I think I will print this image out and keep it around to remind me of this message. Maybe even put some words on it, “Be still. Breathe deep.” I will give away a print of this image, with or without words, to one of the people who link in to the Photo-Heart Connection this month. It feels right, to share it. To spread the peace.

What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? What do you find when you open your eyes and your heart to the subtle messages in your photographs? I look forward to visiting you, to find out. Reading your discoveries always bring me back to this beautiful place of stillness and peace as well.

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