Mary Bull
August 29th, 2006, 03:48 PM
After reading in several threads the various ways the professionals and gifted amateurs are using their technical tools to enhance their images, I decided to see what I could do about one of the things which bugs me in my snapshot of my cat, M&M.
I think you can see the photo at this link, if you want it for reference about what I tried.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59889251@N00/
In the top right corner there's a serape over a storage chest. It's barely visible in that black part of the picture. I put the image into Irfanview and cropped out that section.
Then in Images/Enhance Colors I decreased the contrast and the brightness slightly, and after that, put the slider in saturation over as far as it would go.
Then I sharpened the image once. Once only.
Wow--I could actually see the serape. I could get used to this kind of power.
Well, I don't have the tools to patch parts of the picture together to have that spot of color more visible, and anyway, the interest is the cat. The Forbidden Cat!
And it's only valuable as a "family memory." I like the diagonal I got with the edge of the bed in the frame. I don't like half the picture as an uninteresting black expanse.
I really like the color and detail which the data from the Canon G2 had waiting for me, when I looked for it.
The cold front that's come through has given a promise of cooler weather tomorrow. Perhaps I'll take the camera over to the local Canon dealer and find out why I can't get it to take a charge, even with a replacement battery.
Any comments on my account of how I've been playing with this photo would be very welcome.
I think you can see the photo at this link, if you want it for reference about what I tried.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59889251@N00/
In the top right corner there's a serape over a storage chest. It's barely visible in that black part of the picture. I put the image into Irfanview and cropped out that section.
Then in Images/Enhance Colors I decreased the contrast and the brightness slightly, and after that, put the slider in saturation over as far as it would go.
Then I sharpened the image once. Once only.
Wow--I could actually see the serape. I could get used to this kind of power.
Well, I don't have the tools to patch parts of the picture together to have that spot of color more visible, and anyway, the interest is the cat. The Forbidden Cat!
And it's only valuable as a "family memory." I like the diagonal I got with the edge of the bed in the frame. I don't like half the picture as an uninteresting black expanse.
I really like the color and detail which the data from the Canon G2 had waiting for me, when I looked for it.
The cold front that's come through has given a promise of cooler weather tomorrow. Perhaps I'll take the camera over to the local Canon dealer and find out why I can't get it to take a charge, even with a replacement battery.
Any comments on my account of how I've been playing with this photo would be very welcome.