Ideas for editing still shots

[goobersnuftda 0]

I'm looking for some ideas in trying to spice up the same old tandem still shots.

In about 60 seconds, here is a simple example of some radian blur, tilting the horizon and playing around with opacity brush levels. It's nothing great and composing the right shot sure does help but in this example, your eye goes directly to the students face as he looks like he is screamin right in at ya :)

Does anyone have any good examples of what else to do?

[maLUCo 0]

nice pic ! the 'rework ' is with Photoshop i guess ?

[Teigen 0]

Turning up curves and contrast i guess.. im not into altering the photo in any special way, but i might be biased since im a photographer. If the scenery is nice i would keep retouching to curves and contrast

[DSE 5]

Consider making the shot into a painting, or a negative with chroming, there are dozens of cool tutorials on the web.
If you get the chance to check out the Bent Prop, you can see quite a few examples of Mike McGowan's very creative works using photoshop.
He's a photographer too, but given the mix of "creative works" vs straight photos, he's used Photoshop to expand his palette of creative options.

[goobersnuftda 0]

Yes, this is just playing around with Photoshop. The levels and curves were played around with as the first step because the picture was taken in real poor lighting conditions on a very cloudy day. The best shot of course was right between flash firing cycles but oh well, that's why man invented photo editing software for computers right :)

Here are a few more with just trying things out but I still like the "motion blur" effect. The photo still looks like a real photo.

It's been a number of years since I was in the Bent Prop in Eloy. If anyone happens to come across some good photo examples, please post a link so I can get an idea of what looks good. Thanks.

[dragon2 2]

I did something like that a while ago to make some coloring drawings for kids:
tandem exit
wingsuit (guess who LOL)
tandem
our plane (Cars)
FS3 exit

This one was the most fun to do

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[pilotdave 0]

You might want to get a book on photoshop for photographers. There are zillions of them. You can learn how to use photoshop to really improve photos instead of just applying canned effects. Anyone that's used photoshop would look at those pictures and say "eh, 3 seconds in photoshop." Use the power of photoshop to make your pictures better, not gimmicky. Just my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, crazy special effects are fine every now and then, but applying built-in photoshop filters just doesn't do anything for me.

Dave

[ozzy13 0]

That last one looks really cool

Never give the gates up and always trust your rears!

[Icon134 0]

Quote

Don't get me wrong, crazy special effects are fine every now and then, but applying built-in photoshop filters just doesn't do anything for me.

The canned effects can actually create a useful effect if applied properly... for example when I was making a "business" card to give out to people so that the didn't have to write down my website... I found that the picture on the card stock turned out better if I used a "canvas" texture filter in photoshop...

Scott

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[Teigen 0]

Some textures actually have decent looks.. but still, they are just textures, which takes no effort what so ever to apply.. And in most cases it makes the photo look worse.

But look around on the net.. There are tons of tutorials on photo retouching..

www.good-tutorials.com has got a photo effect category!


again: check www.trondteigen.comfor some of mine! :D

[Icon134 0]

Quote

Some textures actually have decent looks.. but still, they are just textures, which takes no effort what so ever to apply.. And in most cases it makes the photo look worse.

I agree completely... I used this texture as a tool... on my cards I thought it looked better with the texture then it did without.

I generally use photoshop to do black and white photos...

I've also used it to some post processing to some of these 3d photos...

such as this one... http://www.scottgunstills.com/photos/465890274_zxNyP-M.jpg

Scott

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[DSE 5]

Photoshop can also be used for video. It's always fun to play with frames in Pshop because of speed. Lots of creative horsepower there, Try the presets and then make them your own.