Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Something out of nothing

Was at my cousin’s place at Angamali (Cochin) and had some time to kill as there were a few more hours for my flight.   While sitting outside in her courtyard I could see some leaves shining against the oblique sunlight.   I fetched my camera and clicked some pictures by placing the leaves in between the camera and the sunlight. 



The results were something better than what I expected and it reminded me of what Ambrose Bierce said “Photograph is a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art”



At the editing table I did a little bit of tweaking with the colour tones which further enhanced the quality of the pictures. 




In Japanese this is known as Komorebi. 
While clicking these pictures, these two guys were having a quick bath. Later they perched on a tree and dried themselves. Captured that in the video.



It will be interesting to know that all these pictures were clicked in the noon sunlight, something like 11.30 am. Playing with the Curve option in Photoshop gives wonderful results.



Talking of Photoshop, there was this photograph that I clicked at a wedding which was a total wash out. Clicked in a hurry without changing the settings and this was the result.  


Later while processing from raw, I was about to delete the picture when I thought “let me see what I can do with this”
I played around with Photoshop and this is what I got :


I gave it a nice white background and enhanced it a little more.


Then I eliminated each character from the picture and got three more photographs. 




Selected a good music and gave it a punch by matching each picture with the beat of the music. The final result is appealing to the ear and the eye. (see video)

Talk of making something out of nothing. 


20 comments:

Lowell said...

Nice artsy work. It's great fun to play around in Photoshop!

Anonymous said...

Thats wonderful..Uncle Joe
Wish you a happy new year!!
Regards
Jalaja

Sandee said...

Love them all. Love what you did to that photograph. Wow.

Loved the video and the music.

Have a fabulous day. ☺

DeniseinVA said...

Very nice photos, love the lighting and the wedding photo is really well done. Enjoyed your video and music also. Thank you!

magiceye said...

Lovely work!!

Anonymous said...

Nice! You are getting close to being an expert! Loved how the leaves looked -
Jacinta Rao

Anonymous said...

Wow the pictures are so beautiful... Nature's colour is outstanding and you have captured it... an excellent photographer - Jean

Anonymous said...

Like the sequence in Photoshop - Sindhu George

George said...

I really like the work you did with Photoshop. I also like your photos of the leaves in the sunlight.

Holly said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog, you do wonderful photography. I finally got a camera to play with.

Red Rose Alley said...

Haddock, these pictures are wonderful, and they are all from nature, which I love best. The leaves are so pretty, and those pink flowers, wow. It's fun to play around with pictures sometimes. And I liked the washed out wedding picture the best because it looks like they have red ties and red flowers, and RED is fantastic color.

I hope the new year is being good to you, friend.

~Sheri

Elderberry-Rob said...

Well done with the photo editing. I really loved the little birds in your video, in such a beautiful setting. Happy New Year to you. Betty

Anonymous said...

Hi Joe, looks great, illuminating, how the light reflected off the leaves. There comes a time when you take pictures in a hasty way just so you don't lose that moment that is usually when something goes wrong, this is why I really admire the way you salvaged the picture.
All the best for future endeavors and looking forward to see more.
Regards,
Sushrut Tadwalkar

Betsy Brock said...

Beautiful photography!

Anonymous said...

Joe you have done a splendid job, I do like the video too, I have yet to see such rich green, the bird is shedding it's feathers and so having a bath. No doubt about the transformation of the picture, its is exquisite Q.E.D you are very talented - Ivan Joseph D'Souza, Chicago, Illinois

Splendid Market said...

Is there anything more beautiful than the contrast of green leaves and blue sky? You've captured them so well and the bathing birds just add to the adventure.

Anita said...

The plants are beautiful. I like your arrangement in the video; the music was perfect. And the bird stole the show!

Keep up the good work with your Photoshop experiments.

Happy New Year to you and your family!

favshireen said...

Nature is always beautiful.. One needs an eye like you.. awesome captures..

Shilpa said...

Lovely pics and nice finding your page
http://shilpachandrasekheran.blogspot.ae/?m=1

padmaja said...

The essence of the color green is brought out so well with the light play, I so much enjoyed these pictures!