I’m sure this is already out there somewhere on the www, but I figured I’d include it here anyway, because it’s a trick I use fairly often.

The High Pass Sharpen

I like details. Who doesn’t? I also happen to like shooting with a wide aperture. (Newer photographers, remember that means small numbers, like 1.4, 1.8, 2.0) Unfortunately, shooting at such a wide aperture means sometimes I lose sharpness in the details. (I use a 50mm 1.4 but sometimes it can get pretty soft.) So how do I fix this? I take two seconds in Photoshop and give my photo a little punch. Here’s how you can too.

First let’s take a close up look at what your photo might look like at it’s original size. Pretty good, but could be sharper. I want Pumpkin’s eyes to be the focus, and to really pop, so that’s what I’ll sharpen. Make sure all your other editing is done (if any) and flatten your image. Now duplicate that layer. (Or if you’re a keyboard junkie like me: Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V)

Next we’re going to use the high pass. Filter → Other → High Pass. Up pops a screen asking you to input the radius number. This is really up to you, because every image will be different. You don’t want it to be too much because this is really a subtle technique. For the sake of this example I used 8.8 so you could really tell the difference, which is more than double what I usually use. (I vary from 2.8 – 4.8 depending on the photograph.) Next we’ll want to overlay this layer. (In your layers bar, to the left of Opacity and Fill, located in the right sidebar. By default it’s set to “Normal”.)

Now your photograph looks something like this. But, in my humble opinion, this is too much. See the fur on the top of his head? The whole photo has now obviously been attacked with a sharpen tool. Why on earth would I do that? That would defeat the purpose of shooting with a lower aperture. If I wanted his whole head in super sharp focus I would have shot with an f/stop of 2.8 or higher! I still want the majority of the photo to be soft, but I want the focus to be sharp like it would be with a nicer (read: way more expensive) lens. So what do we do?

We duplicate the background layer (your original, unsharpened photo), and place it on top of the high pass layer. Now simply take the eraser tool and wave that sucker over the main focus in the photograph. I usually do the eyes, or sometimes the eyes and nose (for cats, anyway). But for this shot I just erased the eyes, leaving me with a soft photograph, with one sharp (but subtly so) focus.

I imagine you’re getting ready to scroll back up, and then back down again to try and see if you can spot the differences. I’ll spare you the trouble.

AHA. And you thought it looked good NOW, wait until you zoom out and take the whole photo in.

PURRFECT!

Soft with that little subtle punch. (As if punches could be subtle.)

It should be noted You don’t need Photoshop to use this technique. You just need a photo editing software that uses layers, and pretty much all of them do now, and the ability to sharpen. In Paint Shop Pro you simply copy the layer and instead of doing the high pass, you sharpen till your heart is content, and then follow the same steps above!

Enjoy!

Tom and I went out to breakfast at a greasy spoon with Jim yesterday, and it was surpringly pretty good. Ugh, I could totally go for some breakfast food right now.

   
   
   

Tom saying something about spit.

Growly faces.

Good morning! Are you hungry? I know I am! I’d say I pretty much have omelet making under control, especially when we compare it to my first omelet. Whew!

   

What You Need

2 eggs
a dollop of milk/soymilk/almond milk/etc
fresh spinach
tomatoes
faux ground beef ( Morning Star, Yyves, etc )

What You Do

I didn’t include measurements here because it’s really all to taste. What you’ll want to do is whip up the eggs and milk together in a small bowl and then put them into your medium sized pan and let it cook until it’s mostly solid.

While this is cooking, in a smaller pan put a small amount of margarine in there to just coat the bottom, and then add a small handful of faux meat (I use Yyves, but have used Morning Star in the past, both are good, but Yyves is sassier), along with your spinach, and then you can add your cheese/teese/daiya (or leave it out entirely!) sprinkled on top. And salt and pepper if you wish! Only let this cook for about 2-3 minutes (faux meat only needs to be warmed, not cooked), until the spinach is shriveled and dark green. You don’t want as much as I have picture here unless you’re making more than one omelet.

Put the ingredients on one side of the omelet once the egg has cooked and flip the other side on top of it. Transfer to plate and you’re done!

I like taking photos of every day objects. I think it keeps me “sharp”. I am very particular about my composition normally, but in a boring way. I like my subject in the middle, everything very symmetrical, and while for some shots that’s okay, it doesn’t leave much room for the imagination and it doesn’t really help me grow at all as a photographer.

Lately I’ve been trying to put things off center, tilt the camera even slightly, or to go against my nature and cut off part of the subject. Perhaps I shall dub it the “Off Center Experiment”. Yeah, I like that.

Tom and I have been shopping around for a set of “wedding china”, which as I understand it, is something some couples pick out together and either put it on their registry or purchase it together themselves. We found some sets we liked, and a lot we didn’t, but while we were visiting a quaint little town the other day, we stopped in to their Salvation Army on a whim. (I like to hunt for vintage cameras or mugs I don’t need and Tom is always on the look out for video games.) And there they were, sitting on the shelf. We bent down and I did my “ooh”s and he did the “ahh”s, and then we ended up taking home our first fine china set. I’m so thrilled and happy that we stopped in when we did to find it. But is it bad that I am the most excited about the future of my food photography? I mean, that’s okay, right?

This is a belated entry, since Tom’s birthday was on the 1st, but I figured it best to share these before it’s no longer even the same month. His vegetarian breakfast was a huge success (I still have to post the recipe for that!) and we spent the day doing his favorite things, before heading to his mum’s for a wonderfully scrumptious (as always) dinner. She makes this killer potato dish and was kind enough to make some tofu for me, marinated in delicious sauce. We took home Planet Earth on BluRay and popped it in the very next morning immediately upon waking. Because we’re nerdy like that and enjoy letting ourselves get excited about such things. PHOTO TIME.

   

   

   

THE GIVEAWAY GODS HAVE CHOSEN.

CONGRATULATIONS CHELSEA!

Chelsea wrote,

Oh how lovely! I currently run my own jewelry business on Etsy & I would love to feature my work on my business cards. I’ve been creating pieces while attending school full time & I’m hoping lovely business cards that are creative and eye catching will help propel my business onto another level. I’m proud of my work & I’d love to showcase it somehow! Thank you for the opportunity!

I’d like to thank everyone who commented and participated, I really enjoyed reading through your business kick start ideas. I wish I could give you each a business card set, really. Do check Moo out though, because they are quite wonderful and worth every penny to get your dreams started. And I like this whole giveaway thing, so I’m definitely going to be doing more.

I’m excited to work with Chelsea on her business cards and can’t wait to see what she comes up with!

Happy Monday everyone!

Goodbye Miss, Hello Mrs.
days three hundred four through three eleven

Honeymoon flights are booked.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I was feeling really awkward here. But I do like the background.

I tried making the vegan brownies that I had at Rosemary’s several months ago, but I failed miserably. I think I was missing a wet ingredient. I’ve already modified the recipe, so I’ll give it a go in a day or two. You know, get back on the horse and all that.

Keeping with my promise to try and not recycle photos for the 365 project, this was taken the day I announced the opening of my shop.

I have always hated the taste of lipstick, or the feel of it, even. Part of being pale means that without at least some color, your lips will look blue when compared to the rest of your face. Usually I use tinted lip gloss or chapstick, but I do have two tubes of lipstick just in case.

Chillin with Pumpkin after my run.

I didn’t realize this corner of my bathroom matched?

Annnnnd business card arrival day. Again, not using a recycled photo so I can pat myself on the back! (That means we’re all caught up! WOOHOO!)

I hope you ladies and gents have a fabulous weekend, enjoy the sun, and I’ll see you on Monday to announce the winner of the business card giveaway!

Goodbye Miss, Hello Mrs.
days two ninety six through three hundred three

There’s still a few days left to get your very own set of business cards, but for now we’ll continue with our regularly scheduled posts. And here’s another 365 update!

Birthday boy loved his breakfast.

YEAH. PLANET EARTH. It’s time to LEARN.

On day 298 Tom and I stopped by Coffee Culture to escape the heat and were mighty impressed by their muffins. Mine was chocolate chip and his was cranberry orange. Ooooh, yeah. (The drink was a Perfectly Peach Chiller!)

Making a mix.

Elevator rides.

My favorite summer stockings already have runs in them. Bummer.

Almost forgot to take a photo! Late night, getting ready for bed.

70 days to go!