After seeing this link via digg.com, I decided to try my hand at the technique with an archive photo that could use a little sprucing up. The original of course had full depth of field. This photo could obviously benefit from cropping but I chose to show the original size to highlight the DOF effect. I could increase the lens blur but it started to give a kind of Viewmaster effect I didn’t like.

Unfortunately all of the photos taken on our ‘02 Hit ‘n Run European Tour suffered from my lack of digital photo knowledge. I never set the resolution so the default web settings (72dpi, 1280×960) were used. Also, my plan to upload images to the web to free up room on my puny memory card were foiled by a lack of resources in Europe and my kit bag. I ended up being real stingy with the number of photos taken to save for the next city and the next city and so on. As a result our last city visited, Rome, had the most photos which was still far too few. I guess we’ll just have to go back.

I find when I’m on holidays and taking those precious holiday snaps, my habits can be divided quite simply: 1) This looks kind of interesting but I’m in a bit of a hurry so I’ll grab a quick snap and pray and 2) Oh my God I’ll be able to sell this as a limited edition print so let me shoot 5 or 10 or 20 different compositions and/or exposures to get this one right. When I get home or back to the hotel and download all of my photos I can usually see what I was trying to accomplish but it never is accomplished.

Enter Photoshop.

For the most part I find a can make something of just about every shot I’ve taken. I kid you not. Sadly I’ve yet to sell any limited edition prints but that’s another thing. This particular shot could easily have been a pass or a throw-away. For you it probably is. But I was there and it’s my holiday and I want to capture the mood and the memory. So yes, I spent a couple of hours on this silly little holiday snap. And I like it. Click the image below to go to a wide (1200 px) combined image of before, after and zoomed results of my efforts.

In a nutshell what I’ve done is used a lens blur filter to draw the eye down the alley to focus on the painting resting on an easel at the end and make you say, “oooooo, I wonder what’s down there”. Next, I grabbed the burn tool and darkened the midtones of the subject (the painting) and a few other areas that looked washed out. Finally I applied an unsharp mask to sharpen the details. The result for me is a throw-away I just may keep.

Sorry for all the picture posts. I can’t think of anything to write and I’m obsessed with photography right now. This is the view I have to endure each day crossing the Pitt River bridge on my way to and from work.

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago while visiting our new house. This field is right beside our development. We should have a partial view of that mountain range out the back of our house.

Joe says…
I’m obsessed with getting a photoblog to work on this site. I really like the look of Stop Design’s Photo Gallery Templates. I’ve got it up and running over here but I can’t post to the blog. There is some sort of template module issue that I believe has to do with the recent update to v3.2 of Movabletype. I’ve posted my errors and attempts to fix them on the author’s site but he’s busy having a fuckin’ life and hasn’t answered me yet. Do you have any idea how batty I go when I can’t get something to work? I won’t sleep properly tonight. I’ll be short fused with everyone I come into contact with. If I light up the local fast food joint with an AK-47 it’s not my fault.
Dave says…
It’ll be killer when it’s done, though. At work we’re about to start a CMS project for one of our clients (to be hosted at InMotion, of course) and we’ll be looking into things like that photo gallery. Not sure which way we’re going. InMotion has a ton of stuff pre-installed, so we’ll try all those solutions first. Joe and I will have to keep a running tally of our results here…
Dave says more…
Okay, I took a stab at using Coppermine, the gallery script available at InMotion. I couldn’t get it to accept any image uploads, so I deleted it and I’ll try again tomorrow night.
Joe quips…
I’ve tried all of the InMotion solutions and didn’t care for any of them. Your mileage may vary.
Update…
I’ve got it working. I blew out my MT installation, including the MySQL DB, deleted all the StopDesign files and directories, and then re-installed everything to the letter from the Mac binaries. The first installation was done on my PC using the windows .zip files (I use the PC because it’s hooked up to the big monitor) and has more processing power and RAM than my 15″ Powerbook. I hope to get a new iMac or G5 soon. Anyway, the gallery is up and at ‘em and I managed to figure out how to tweak the templates, CSS, and title images from the original .psd files Doug included with the download. I’m going to post a tutorial for customizing the .psd images for my own reference that anyone who decides to use these templates is obviously welcome to refer to.