Thursday, January 21, 2010

Friday Thoughts and Sky Photos






It's been cold, snowy, rainy, and pretty depressing around here this past month.  I thought it was time to drag out a photo of happier days.  This was taken in mid-August at one of my favorite places close to home.

In a recent Wordless Wednesday post I submitted a "solarized" photo.  Several people thought that it was pretty cool and a couple of you wondered how it was done.  I have posted a solarized photo as my blog banner photo this week as well. The truth is, it's extremely simple.  Here is how it works.
First of all, I am using Photoshop Elements 7.  It will do virtually anything that I need done without the expense of the full version of Photoshop, in fact,  it's about $500.00 cheaper.  I don't know if other photo editing programs have this solarizing feature or not, but it is built into PSE.

Now, pick a photo that you want to use this technique on.  I will use the one from my blog header.  It is a very brightly colored image to start with, so it will provide lots of fun colors when finished. This sea dragon can be found in the lagoon at Downtown Disney in Orlando, FL.  He's actually made out of Lego's!
Next I cropped him into a square in order to reduce the size of the image file.  Now comes the magic.
Click on the "Enhance" tab and go to "Adjust Color".  In that pull down menu, click on "Adjust Color Curves".  The photo will be displayed with several options.  The last option is solarize.  Click on it and here is what will happen.

Pretty cool, huh!  This is all there is to solarizing a photo.  Now, if you don't like these colors, you can take this another step further.  Click on Enhance/Adjust Color and go to "Hue and Saturation".  By sliding those bars to the left or right, you will change the photo dramatically.  Here is what happens when you set the Hue at +25 and the Saturation at -25.


Here is what happens when you set the Hue at -100 and the Saturation at +50.

I think that the settings for my banner photo were Hue -180 and Saturation +100.  Here is one last example.  As you can see, the possibilities are endless.  Once again, I will emphasize, If I can do this, anyone can do this.


So much for "Fun With PhotoShop Elements", it's time to wrap this up and play the inspirational song for this week. Unless the Lord returns first, there will come a day when each of us will leave this world and step into eternity.  For those who have heard the call of God, repented of their sin, sought the forgiveness of the Father, and invited Christ into their life, they will enter into a place prepared just for them.  When our work in done here, we will be able to "Go Rest High On That Mountain."  Enjoy.


9 comments:

  1. It's cold land rainy here, but I'm not going to complain. Living in a desert we always welcome the rain. This year we are getting plenty too.

    I love your lake too. You will get back there soon and enjoy the meditation.

    So that's how you did that. I haven't a clue where Photoshop is concerned. Not a clue.

    Have a terrific day. Big hug. :)

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  2. The sky has a wonderful golden glow on the quiet lake on a sleepy Summer day, Very nice! The sea critter takes on a wonderful cartoonish style in any of these colorful edits. A whimsical critter he remains!

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  3. I love the peachy colors in our shot.

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  4. beautiful golden lake..very serene.
    have a great day!


    Come on over and watch my piece of sky with me!

    xoxo
    fickle

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  5. And there is also a freeware program called GIMP where you can achieve the same things...but Elements is the BEST

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  6. That sky, heck the whole landscape is beyond exquisite, I just love the coloring you captured.

    Your solarized dragon photo is cool. We have Photoshop for work but I find that I use Elements or Paint Shop Pro for fun at home. Paint Shop does everything I could want it to and like Elements is way more affordable than the full Photoshop.

    ~ Calico Contemplations

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  7. The photo is simply amazing! I am tickled with the solarized effects you've shown here.

    Thanks for playing along. Happy Weekend!!!

    -Tisha

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  8. What a stunning golden sunset and reflection. I'm looking forward to warmer days for sure.
    Interesting effects with the sea monster photo. I think I like the last one the best.
    We don't have Photoshop so I dunno....


    Happy Sky Looking!

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  9. Your sky shot is incredible. It looks like it could be somewhere in the Amazon!

    Amazing what photo editing software can do...Thanks for your visit to my SWF.

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