One Four Challenge – NOV WK 4

Here is my final (WK 4) edit for 

Captivate Me One Four Challenge.

I edited my original in GIMP.

I kept my edits very basic as I'm still very much finding my way around the program!

My views around Week 3's edit is that the image looks flat and lifeless, so I wanted to add some light to this week's image.

Using curves I darkened the image a little and added more red and green.

Next was a filter of lighting effects and applying the canvas artistic filter.

I think the final result is much softer overall, with a touch of mystique and a drawing of the eye back to the floret.

I look forward to any comments 

I also managed to create, for the first time (!) a poll for you to vote a favourite if you so wish.

If you pop over to Robyn's blog, you can see all the other participants results (including Robyn's - of course!)

One Four Challenge WK 4

You can click on each image to enlarge it.

Original

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Vote For November Favourite

One Four Challenge – NOV WK 3

This week, I used the week 1 image and opened it in Fotosketcher and in drawing parameters I chose expressive brushstrokes.

Because I'm not feeling confident in Fotosketcher, and knowing what I could achieve in Picasa, I saved the image and re-opened it in Picasa where I converted it to black and white and then sharpened the image slightly, increased the shadows and added a bit of warmth to achieve the effect of an ink drawing.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

To visit more One Four Challenge images, hop over to Robyn at Captivate Me.

There you will find how the challenge works, how you can join,if you so wish, and other participants' work.

One Four Challenge – Nov WK 2

So many people have taken up Robyn Gosby's One Four Challenge and this week, Week 2  which was posted yesterday by Robyn, has already had a wonderful response.  It's making me feel very much like a small player way out of my field!  But it is a challenge after all and it has once more, forced me to look at the craft of photography and is now making me think more seriously at how I use the camera.

But since I have already chosen November's image, it's my photo editing skills that I have to concentrate on, and as I've only got Picasa to work with that is what I'm using.  I looked at Pic Monkey on the Internet today but decided that it's not too different from Picasa so will stick with that for now. But it has me now wanting to investigate other photo editing programs.

So, here is my week two photograph.

Using last week's image, I used the sepia process, increased the reds and then sharpened the image a little.

Here are the two images, side by side.

                                           

                                                         Week 1

Week 2

Now I'm off to look at everyone else's photographs and hopefully learn a little more about photo editing!

One Four Challenge-Nov Wk 2

One Four Challenge - Nov Wk 1

Over at Robyn Gosby's blog, Captivate Me, a challenge is taking place.

The One Four Challenge begins this week.

"This new challenge is about processing 1 image in 4 different ways over 4 weeks.  We will all  process / post edit (our own chosen image) and share a different version each week.

Process it however you like…and tell us a bit about it. You don’t even have to show the original image unless you’d like to.  Try new things, experiment.  Be as creative or subtle as you wish to be."

For more information about the challenge, go here.  Feel free to join in if you think you would like to.  Robyn has been an inspiration to me over the last few years and I have watched her as she hones her photography skills.

I have chosen this minute flower from the Ledebouria socialis plant I have fallen in love with over the years.

My Mum gave me a tiny pot of the bulbs many years ago and initially, it was very slow to take off.

Now, I find it in little pockets in other potted plants, even growing between the foliage.

When grown indoors, it tends to grow a little spindly which I believe, only adds to the lace like florets. This one has been indoors for about two weeks.

I, like Robyn, will save the original photo until last, but today, I have played a little with the original photo.

I don't have any whiz-bang photo-editing program and so I use Picasa.

I do use a DSLR camera, and for this photo I used a flash and then cropped the image to bring in the desired effect, since I don't have a macro lens.

In reality, this 'flower' is no more 2-3mm across.

To draw the eyes to the stamens and petals I added soft focus around the floret itself.

One Four Challenge - Nov Wk 1