Fix Cut Off Feet Or Head 5 Jan 2025, 5:08 pm

The Great Quick Shot That Cuts Off Part Of The Body

With the current Photoshop Generative Fill, here is 1 quick way to fix cut off feet or head:

In Photoshop expand the the vertical Canvas, by 500 pixels
Drag the photo to the top, so you only have a blank canvas below the photo.
With the Rectangle Marquee Tool create a marquee of about 100 pixel or less.
Click on Generative Fill (Content Aware Fill will not work as well).
Click on Generate.
Repeat with a new marquee until you get the result you want.
Here is what I wound up with:

More on using Generative Fill to expand any part of an image.

Glenn

Change A Snapshot Into A Photo 28 Jul 2023, 7:57 pm

Assuming a snapshot is a quick point and shoot and a photo is a well laid out combination of scene, people and light, how do you

Change A Snapshot Into A Photo?

If you want to avoid post processing, try to remember some basic rules:

1. Try to get the the sun, or a bright sky behind you.  If you shoot into bright light, the darks will be washed out.  iT IS ALL ABOUT THE LIGHT.
2. Remember the rule of thirds, for most photos.  Think of a tic toc toe board.  Put your main subject anywhere but the center box.
3. If you are taking a photo of a person, do not cut off the feet (see below).  There is away to correct this after fact, that I will get in to.
4. Fill the frame with what you want the eye to see.
5. Shoot a different angles.

This is a glacial park in Iceland

Issues with this photo:

1 Feet are cut off.
2. Subject not in horizontal AND vertical center of photo, but should probably not be in horizontal center.
3. People on left side are a distraction.

This photo needs post processing work.

From almost any camera, including a cell phone OR from your favorite computer software,  you could crop out the people on the left and change the photo to an upper body shot.

With some phone software you can also adjust contrast, brightness and clarity.

Since I did NOT cut off the feet in my original photo, I did some cropping and adjusting in Lightroom, to get the photo below.

I moved the subject, my wife, a bit off center horizontally and vertically.  The cropped, upper body photo, above however, would work just as well.

A longer list, with examples, is here.

And here

Glenn

Mist, Haze & Fog Photography 9 Mar 2022, 10:37 pm

Ah, those clear blue skies with wild cloud patterns, or multi colored sunsets . . . such beautiful photos.

And there is also, 2 color, black and white, night shots . . . and

Mist, Haze & Fog

As with most posts of mine I start out with the reality that, if you cannot catch the photo in real time,  it can all be done in Photoshop or other photo editors.

However, it can now be done faster and easier with software from Topazlabs (Lens Effects and Studio 2) Skylum (all versions of Luminar), Autofx (GRFX Package) Landscape Pro  (Atmosphenre Tab) and. no doubt, others.

I caught this really nice woodland photo near S. Lake Tahoe California with my Nikon D700.  In this shot the fog is not encompassing the entire image.  I did enhance it bit in Photoshop. There was also a spot of sunlight coming through.  Nothing compares to nature.

Shanghai harbor below, was cloudy, but not hazy.  Landscape Pro Atmosphere gave me the look I wanted. HAZE

This is another original shot, from upstate NY.  I just cropped it and lightly modified in Lightroom.

Another modified photo of a Lighthouse in Cape Cod, MA.  Original was a sunset shot.

My small set of gallery photos is here.

Glenn

Close Up Photography Through Cropping 5 Aug 2021, 2:31 am

Decades ago,  in the days of film and prints,   I owned a macro lens.

Today, I practice Digital Close Up Photography

Or, close up photography through cropping.

While I still have a few legacy close up shots that I scanned from old prints,  and a few I still shoot in camera, I now create most my close ups from whatever other photos I have that may lend themselves to a different look.  i.e. I crop the photo.

Yes, with my telephoto lens, I could shot a distant object as a close up.  By taking the wide shot and then using post processing, however, I have flexibility on what part of the photo I wish to feature.

Since I do not print photos nearly as often as I used to,  I am not too concerned about a 6000×4000 pixel photo being reduced by 2/3.

With the plethora of paid and free photo resizers available, I can, if I want to, resize it for large printing.

The photo below is a pleasant late after noon shot of the pier at Ft. Meyers Beach, FL.
The photo below that is a cropped version.  Easy peasie.

Or a favorite tourist type photo of Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park,  followed by a cropped version of the same.

Or closer still.

Of course, cropped close ups can be photos other than landscapes.

Many of my people shots were, originally, a wider view that included the person featured in the closeup.

An example is a woman sweeping a street in India. I took the from a moving bus and did not have time to focus, telephoto, on the woman.

A quiet setting by the pond.

I generally crop the photo and then enhance Clarity, add texture, Dehaze and fine tune with shadows, whites, blacks and contrast.

Sometimes I will also tweak with color saturation or luminance. 

My close up gallery is here.

More tips on post process cropping.

4 Sports Photo Shoot Tips 31 May 2021, 5:19 pm

This website has  nice photo galleries of beaches and bicycling.   When I offered to create a gallery for one of my pickleball groups it quickly became apparent, that, unlike beaches and bicycling galleries, I would not have multiple locations,  different times of day, or a whole lot variety.  I needed a set of sports photo shoot tips.

For beaches, aside from locations and times of day, there was sitting, surfing, volleyball, board walk, etc.  For bicycling there was lone riders, small groups, causal, racing, pacelines, eating and resting.

For the pickleball shoot (or baseball, basketball, football, and other ball and net sports, there are limits.

I needed to think differently.  The full gallery is here.

Here are my Sports Photo Shoot Tips

These tips are not about the camera or shooting modes.  I assume you know how to use your camera to get effective shots.

#1 Angles With Action

Wide angle, vertical, horizontal,  diagonal,  looking down and looking up.
I took many of each type of shot, then selected the best for the presentation.

#2 Groupings With And Without Action

#3 Collages With Action

#4 Get Creative

If you have the ability a little creativity breaks up the sequence and keeps the gallery interesting.

Above all.  Have fun.  I took about 300 photos over 10 days and put about 35 into my final presentation.

Some more sports photo shooting tips are here.

My Pickleball Gallery

Glenn

Minimal Black Photography 5 Examples 27 Apr 2021, 8:20 pm

• Desaturate Green, Blue, Aqua and Purple
• Less saturate Red, Yellow and Orange
• Try to figure out what to do with Magenta
• Or reverse the above

This all  leads to my experimentations with

Minimal Black Photography

I actually discovered this by accident, just browsing photos on the internet.

I also saw an ad on Facebook for minimal black presets.   After looking at one tutorial, however,  I realized anyone could create these themselves.

To generate the above, I completely desaturated everything except red, yellow and orange. I then partially desaturated those colors and did whatever other adjustments to the photo I wished. In Lightroom I then created a new preset under the heading Glenn (my name) and called it Minimal Black RYO.

In Lightroom,  once the photo is adjusted click on the + next to the word Presets.

After you click on the + you can add a new Group by clicking on Group, or add a new preset to an existing group.

I did want to see what I could do with the blue, green and aqua sliders as well, although the cyclists do look weird.

However, the landscape below seems to work. 

I then tried yellow and blue, as there seems to be no real limit on how you can manipulate saturation.  This too, came out well.

One more in the red orange genre was just before the Sturgis bicycle rally in SD.

A good tutorial on this is here

More sample photos

My Not 4 Color Gallery

In my gallery, I also experiment with sepia, sepia and color 2 color and black & white.

Comments welcome

Glenn

9 High Photo Scores From Local Camera Club 20 Mar 2021, 4:57 pm

The Challenge To Get High Photo Scores Is Just What Is Needed To Improve Your Skill Set

For many years, most of what I shot was landscapes.   For the last seven years or so, I decided to broaden my horizons.  While I still place my feelings about a photo above anything else,  it is nice sometimes, to get acceptance from another source.   The camera club I was in, on Long Island, NY, had competitions every months.  Each club would hire someone from another club, for a nominal fee,  to judge submitted photos.

There were, of course, themes,  but generally there were three categories,  B&W (included 2 color),  Color and Creative.   Digital and print submissions were both accepted.

I did not, of course, always score well.   Our system was 1-9, with no one ever getting below a 6 (something for trying I guess).

Here are some of my 8 and 9 scores and what the judges saw.

Wildlife

1.  Roseate Spoonbill

I actually submitted this one, where I added the water effects in post processing. The shot was, like some of all our best shots, one of patience. I rested my camera on a fence (while still around my neck), set the auto focus to nine points, with tracking, and waiting. As soon as the Spoonbill started moving I took some bursts.  What the judges liked was the action and the color combinations.

2.  Bee

Landscape

Flowers

What The?

With judging,  you always need to be chill as the score is in the eyes of one (for local contests) to a few (for larger contests) human beings, who may not see the world as you do.

One judge at our club, flat out stated that he scored Creative Photo Submissions on the amount of time/work put into them,  rather than the result.

In one two submissions, also in the creative category, the judges failed to see what changes I had made,  because they were subtle.

Glenn

More of my high score photos

Tips for getting good scores.

Preparing Photos For Judging

My Photographic Endeavors 3 Mar 2021, 6:24 pm

My photographic endeavors do not rise to the level of professionals or self appointed photography pro.

• My car, and even my bicycle,  cost more than my camera and lenses.
• I am reasonably patient when taking photographs, but will rarely wait an hour for the perfect shot.
• I can use most of my camera’s functions, but do need to carry a cheat sheet for the ones I rarely use.

I was lucky in that the heron took off about 30 seconds after I focused on it while it was standing still. I would not have waited for than a few minutes, however.

I did eidt and crop the photo, however.

Neither are my photographic endeavors drifting along a the more simplistic levels of photography.

• I rarely use Automatic or Program.  That is not why I bought a DSLR.
• I WILL spend an inordinate amount of time post processing, to get the look I want.
• While snapshots have their place,  I try to avoid them for show and tell.
• I almost never ask people to pose or smile.  I prefer a natural look.

My Photographic Endeavors Are Somewhere Between The 2 Extremes

I don’t know if I will ever by a full frame camera.

• With my 6000 x 4000 pixel dslr I can print anything up to 20×24 inches without resizing.
• Since I only carry my camera on a walk or hike occasionally, I have a hard time justifying the expense of a “better” camera.
• I have, certainly, read and re-read the manual as well as various cheat sheets, and still cannot remember everything.
• I usually shoot Aperture or Speed.
• I do use autofocus,  but also read some interesting papers on how to use it effectively.  (Search “jared llyod autofocus” for more).

I never post photos that have not been processed, at least minimally.

• I do use Lightroom,  Photoshop and a host of add ons on a regular basis.
• I change photos to 2 Color, 3 Color, B&W, Sepia and other looks to see the effect.
• I fret over whether the photo is good enough,
• I submit photos for judging in local camera clubs, and thoroughly enjoy getting a high score.

I endeavor to make my photos interesting and worth looking at through all the actions above.

Glenn

Travel Photos Post

40 Tips For Taking Good Photos

More Tips Here

30 Second Photo Shoot Perfection 11 Feb 2021, 8:40 pm

A Blah Series Of Photos Until The End Of The Walk, Terminating,  In The Last 30 Seconds In

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After a lovely walk in the San Joaquin  Audubon in Irvine California, with a series of okay, but not so great photos, we encountered a Great Blue Heron standing on the road.   A somewhat better shot, to be sure,  but standing on the road is still not great.

I set my speed at 1,000 of second,  locked the focus and slowly walked towards the bird.   As I got closer,  he decided fly away.  Photo Shoot Perfection, achieved, making it all worthwhile.

If only we could achieve this every time . . .

The full photo essay follows:

It was a sunny, dry day, with a series of  great California Wines (whoops, wrong post),   with typically little foot traffic in the preserve.

We took a meandering loop of one to two miles,  which included walks along the water.

There were plenty of birds, but nothing to write home about.

The Audubon Preserve, however, is always peaceful and serene, so I was enjoying the walk and taking photos I never expected to use.

Aside from birds,  trees and skies seemed to be the best opportunities of the day.

Then, about 200 yards from the car, we saw the blue heron in the road.  My wife urged me to take some photos,  which I did, realizing that I would nothing with them.

What I did after that was to  just stand there.  I knew, from experience, that the bird would move sooner than later.

When the heron started to move,  I got the following shots, which made the whole day, not just the walk, worthwhile.

Sometimes, as photographers, we need to take things as they come.   If you do get that one perfect shot of the day, all the more enjoyable.

More Bird Photos Here

Some Accidental Perfect Photos

Glenn

Creative Beach Photos, 5 Examples 8 Jan 2021, 7:27 pm

I take a lot of photos at beaches.

Some a really great.

Most are just nice.

So, I wondered what would happen if I re worked a couple of dozen to get some more creative beach photos, post processing.

I came up with some interesting variations.

Creative Beach Photos

The full photo presentation is here.

I cropped the photo, added some motion blur behind the surfboard, a lens flare in the wave and some minor additional adjustments gave me the remake below.

I another crop, below, starts with two boys on a volleyball court, in Long Beach, NY.  Which, BTW has a brand new, post Sandy, 2 mile long boardwalk.

This one I cropped and put a ray of sunlight on the boys.  In Lightroom, I used the Adjustment Brush,  sized the diameter, placed it over the boys and clicked once.  I then adjusted Exposure and the other settings to suit.

 This crop was a fairly interesting photo unto itself.  For a beach gallery, however, I wondered if it would become just another photo.

See full presentation is here.  It was a fun project as I had to see how I could be just a little creative for each photo.

In camera creative beach photos.

Glenn Abelson