Pentax Compact Camera Post Processing Contest #1

altopiet · 07-07-2012, 03:11 AM

Ok, I thought old stuff should look old, and as far as I know that thing is quite old. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I opened it in Ps , sharpened a bit, played around with the thingies in levels a bit. I then proceeded to this efex plugin thing, picked one of the presets , saw all the sliders there, started playing around with some, back to Ps and levels again (God, I do love all those thingies you slide around in Ps!!!)
In the end I got this, and I do apologize sincerely for @#$%^ up your photo

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Bart · 07-07-2012, 11:22 AM

You've succeeded at getting a great vintage look, Christo!

**chemtech** · 07-07-2012, 04:53 PM

I agree with Bart, Christo. It looks authentic to my eyes and the border is a nice touch.
Wow, Anton you have got a good challenge going on here! The creativity in this thread is a great boost.
Because of this challenge I found an old program called PIXO that I had completely forgotten I had. I am off to play while it is still 104 F out this evening.

ivoire · 07-07-2012, 05:53 PM

Christo, i didn't realize you were around when the sphinx was built! Are you the originator of the pinhole camera?

Anton Magus · 07-08-2012, 02:45 AM

Originally posted by altopiet

Ok, I thought old stuff should look old, and as far as I know that thing is quite old. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I opened it in Ps , sharpened a bit, played around with the thingies in levels a bit. I then proceeded to this efex plugin thing, picked one of the presets , saw all the sliders there, started playing around with some, back to Ps and levels again (God, I do love all those thingies you slide around in Ps!!!)
In the end I got this, and I do apologize sincerely for @#$%^ up your photo

I don't think your result is too bad at all. It does look like an old photo and I like the look. And you got the result by playing in Photoshop, not from smoking pappagaaitwak...

For interest there are two sphinxes facing an obelisk between them.

The obelisk dates back to Pharaoh Thothmes III, about 1500BC but the sphinxes are bronze copies of stone sphinxes which were erected alongside the obelisk when it was moved to Alexandria in 12BC.
The obelisk and the stone sphinxes were given to Queen Victoria in the 1800's, but the sphinxes were damaged, so bronze replacements were made. They bear the face of Rameses the Great (1300BC)

Anton Magus · 07-08-2012, 03:01 AM

Originally posted by chemtech

Wow, Anton you have got a good challenge going on here! The creativity in this thread is a great boost.
Because of this challenge I found an old program called PIXO that I had completely forgotten I had. I am off to play while it is still 104 F out this evening.

You are so right Chemtech. Its amazing how different people look at a photograph and pick out specific elements within the subject - maybe edges, maybe grain or texture, maybe shadow, maybe color. Whatever they pick out they then enhance which gives the picture a very artistic feel. This is also a learning exercise for me. I have spent too long trying to create perfectly realistic records of scenes I photograph, looking for sharp, noise-free images, but they often lack feeling or emotion. Changing to black and white seems to enhance mood. Introducing texture and hardening edges brings in emotions. Going really wild to the point of surreal can produce such a very interesting and very special artwork. I will certainly try out more adventurous changes in future.

I am looking forward to what you come up with using PIXO.

altopiet · 07-08-2012, 08:49 AM

Thanks Bart, Edith.
Michael, some days I feel that old, and I certainly do seem to have some weird dreams lately, some even during the day.

Anton, no pappagaaitwak for me, but I seem to recall having some Johnnie Walker Green Label at the time, but that could also be just one of those dreams I'm talking about

Anton Magus · 07-21-2012, 03:39 AM

Well here we are pulling onto the final stretch with a really good, highly creative, bunch of entries. Of course, there are still some entries to come. Edith was going to try out her Pixo program, so I am looking forward to seeing what she can do with it.

Maybe its just me, but I vividly remember shooting black and white film and spending time in the darkroom trying to get a good print from a mediocre negative. In those days we were pretty limited in what was possible. Cropping, resizing, and adjusting exposure were about the limits for mortals. Color film processing was something else again. Nowadays, with digital images and clever software, we can fix some awful images and make just about any changes we want. We can mess with colors. We can easily fix minor blemishes. We can make a perfect photographic reproduction of a scene into a wildly abstract work of art. In many cases this pixel manipulation can be as much fun as taking the photo itself. You can let your creativity go wild without any danger of spoiling the original image. All you need is a relatively inexpensive PC and some software.

On the topic of software I downloaded a free program called Photoscape. You can get it from www.photoscape.org and it installs easily and seems to work pretty well. If you try it and like it, you can make a donation to photoscape to help with future development of this software.

Photoscape has a very different user interface to most PP software, so there is a bit of a learning curve, but once you are reasonably familiar with it, it does whatever you want and it is quite fast. I particularly liked its ability to quickly crop to circles or ovals or even rectangles with rounded corners. I also found that it can brighten shadow areas and darken highlights quickly with one mouse-click. Even though I have Photoshop, I will definitely keep Photoscape on my PC for quickly cropping, resizing and basic brightness, contrast and other minor adjustments.

So, there you go. Have fun with your Post Processing whether you are just making minor enhancements or striving to be the Salvador Dali of the photographic world - and remember its all good. Its your image and you can do what you want with it!

**chemtech** · 07-23-2012, 05:14 AM

I ended up using FotoSketcher instead of Pixo. The Pixo program has so many nice plugins, but, it kept crashing with my new operating system

I liked Pixo because you could edit just one area of an image, if you wished, or the whole photo.

Anyway FotoSketcher as the name suggests is a nice little free program that is dedicated to adding artistic touches to digital images. There is a coffee cup icon on the task bar if you wish to donate.
I don't remember where I learned about it, but, tried it and kept it for the great effects to use someday. I did find a couple of threads about it here on the forum, so it has been around a while.

It is a slider run system and is set up with before and after windows. There is also a small cropped window to view changes before you commit to running the program. After you hit the "draw" button, the work is redrawn for you in the after window. It edits up to a medium/large sized jpeg rather quickly. There is a manual brush, but, had too much fun watching the magic happen to go there yet.

Okay, for this image I chose the Oil Paint option. There are six sliders to change things like strength of effect or brush stroke, saturation, detail, texture, brightness. You can add a frame, soften the edges or add text all at the same time. I don't believe I cropped this one, but had previously cleaned up some of the background. I did lighten a bit and desaturated a bit I think.

Anton, thanks for the Photoscape info! I've already downloaded it and when I get a chance will give it a good workout.

Anton Magus · 07-23-2012, 05:32 AM

Thanks for the entry Chemtech.
I like the oil painting effect which has worked very well on the sky and the stonework but maybe not so well on the leaves. Maybe you could have been more adventurous with it?
Nevertheless it does introduce texture which I really like.

Anton Magus · 07-23-2012, 05:35 AM

Thanks for telling us about FotoSketcher. I have never tried it, but it sounds interesting.
I think it is amazing that there is so much free post processing software around.

Bart · 07-23-2012, 09:38 AM

I like the painting effect as well. Interesting!

laughlady99 · 07-23-2012, 06:14 PM

My try!

Playing around with photoshop & lightroom.

Anton Magus · 07-23-2012, 10:46 PM

Very nice entry, Laughlady.

Can you tell us all what you did?

laughlady99 · 07-24-2012, 10:32 AM

I pulled all of the color out except for the blue using Lightroom, then I applied a couple Topaz filters through photoshop & tried to reduce the noise as much as I could.

07-23-2012, 05:14 AM	#39
chemtech Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Kansas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 509	Here is my resubmission try I ended up using FotoSketcher instead of Pixo. The Pixo program has so many nice plugins, but, it kept crashing with my new operating system I liked Pixo because you could edit just one area of an image, if you wished, or the whole photo. Anyway FotoSketcher as the name suggests is a nice little free program that is dedicated to adding artistic touches to digital images. There is a coffee cup icon on the task bar if you wish to donate. I don't remember where I learned about it, but, tried it and kept it for the great effects to use someday. I did find a couple of threads about it here on the forum, so it has been around a while. It is a slider run system and is set up with before and after windows. There is also a small cropped window to view changes before you commit to running the program. After you hit the "draw" button, the work is redrawn for you in the after window. It edits up to a medium/large sized jpeg rather quickly. There is a manual brush, but, had too much fun watching the magic happen to go there yet. Okay, for this image I chose the Oil Paint option. There are six sliders to change things like strength of effect or brush stroke, saturation, detail, texture, brightness. You can add a frame, soften the edges or add text all at the same time. I don't believe I cropped this one, but had previously cleaned up some of the background. I did lighten a bit and desaturated a bit I think. Anton, thanks for the Photoscape info! I've already downloaded it and when I get a chance will give it a good workout. Last edited by chemtech; 07-23-2012 at 05:26 AM. Reason: adding infor

07-23-2012, 06:14 PM	#43
laughlady99 Senior Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 161	My try! Playing around with photoshop & lightroom. Last edited by laughlady99; 03-02-2016 at 01:00 PM.

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07-07-2012, 11:22 AM	#32
Bart Pentaxian Join Date: May 2007 Location: WW community of Pentax users Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,646	You've succeeded at getting a great vintage look, Christo!

07-07-2012, 04:53 PM	#33
chemtech Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Kansas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 509	I agree with Bart, Christo. It looks authentic to my eyes and the border is a nice touch. Wow, Anton you have got a good challenge going on here! The creativity in this thread is a great boost. Because of this challenge I found an old program called PIXO that I had completely forgotten I had. I am off to play while it is still 104 F out this evening.

07-07-2012, 05:53 PM	#34
ivoire Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,381	Christo, i didn't realize you were around when the sphinx was built! Are you the originator of the pinhole camera?

07-08-2012, 02:45 AM	#35
Anton Magus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 410 Original Poster	Originally posted by altopiet Ok, I thought old stuff should look old, and as far as I know that thing is quite old. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I opened it in Ps , sharpened a bit, played around with the thingies in levels a bit. I then proceeded to this efex plugin thing, picked one of the presets , saw all the sliders there, started playing around with some, back to Ps and levels again (God, I do love all those thingies you slide around in Ps!!!) In the end I got this, and I do apologize sincerely for @#$%^ up your photo I don't think your result is too bad at all. It does look like an old photo and I like the look. And you got the result by playing in Photoshop, not from smoking pappagaaitwak... For interest there are two sphinxes facing an obelisk between them. The obelisk dates back to Pharaoh Thothmes III, about 1500BC but the sphinxes are bronze copies of stone sphinxes which were erected alongside the obelisk when it was moved to Alexandria in 12BC. The obelisk and the stone sphinxes were given to Queen Victoria in the 1800's, but the sphinxes were damaged, so bronze replacements were made. They bear the face of Rameses the Great (1300BC)

07-08-2012, 03:01 AM	#36
Anton Magus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 410 Original Poster	Originally posted by chemtech Wow, Anton you have got a good challenge going on here! The creativity in this thread is a great boost. Because of this challenge I found an old program called PIXO that I had completely forgotten I had. I am off to play while it is still 104 F out this evening. You are so right Chemtech. Its amazing how different people look at a photograph and pick out specific elements within the subject - maybe edges, maybe grain or texture, maybe shadow, maybe color. Whatever they pick out they then enhance which gives the picture a very artistic feel. This is also a learning exercise for me. I have spent too long trying to create perfectly realistic records of scenes I photograph, looking for sharp, noise-free images, but they often lack feeling or emotion. Changing to black and white seems to enhance mood. Introducing texture and hardening edges brings in emotions. Going really wild to the point of surreal can produce such a very interesting and very special artwork. I will certainly try out more adventurous changes in future. I am looking forward to what you come up with using PIXO.

07-08-2012, 08:49 AM	#37
altopiet Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: The Gem of the Karoo, South Africa Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,307	Thanks Bart, Edith. Michael, some days I feel that old, and I certainly do seem to have some weird dreams lately, some even during the day. Anton, no pappagaaitwak for me, but I seem to recall having some Johnnie Walker Green Label at the time, but that could also be just one of those dreams I'm talking about

07-21-2012, 03:39 AM	#38
Anton Magus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 410 Original Poster	Well here we are pulling onto the final stretch with a really good, highly creative, bunch of entries. Of course, there are still some entries to come. Edith was going to try out her Pixo program, so I am looking forward to seeing what she can do with it. Maybe its just me, but I vividly remember shooting black and white film and spending time in the darkroom trying to get a good print from a mediocre negative. In those days we were pretty limited in what was possible. Cropping, resizing, and adjusting exposure were about the limits for mortals. Color film processing was something else again. Nowadays, with digital images and clever software, we can fix some awful images and make just about any changes we want. We can mess with colors. We can easily fix minor blemishes. We can make a perfect photographic reproduction of a scene into a wildly abstract work of art. In many cases this pixel manipulation can be as much fun as taking the photo itself. You can let your creativity go wild without any danger of spoiling the original image. All you need is a relatively inexpensive PC and some software. On the topic of software I downloaded a free program called Photoscape. You can get it from www.photoscape.org and it installs easily and seems to work pretty well. If you try it and like it, you can make a donation to photoscape to help with future development of this software. Photoscape has a very different user interface to most PP software, so there is a bit of a learning curve, but once you are reasonably familiar with it, it does whatever you want and it is quite fast. I particularly liked its ability to quickly crop to circles or ovals or even rectangles with rounded corners. I also found that it can brighten shadow areas and darken highlights quickly with one mouse-click. Even though I have Photoshop, I will definitely keep Photoscape on my PC for quickly cropping, resizing and basic brightness, contrast and other minor adjustments. So, there you go. Have fun with your Post Processing whether you are just making minor enhancements or striving to be the Salvador Dali of the photographic world - and remember its all good. Its your image and you can do what you want with it!

07-23-2012, 05:32 AM	#40
Anton Magus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 410 Original Poster	Thanks for the entry Chemtech. I like the oil painting effect which has worked very well on the sky and the stonework but maybe not so well on the leaves. Maybe you could have been more adventurous with it? Nevertheless it does introduce texture which I really like.

07-23-2012, 05:35 AM	#41
Anton Magus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 410 Original Poster	Thanks for telling us about FotoSketcher. I have never tried it, but it sounds interesting. I think it is amazing that there is so much free post processing software around.

07-23-2012, 09:38 AM	#42
Bart Pentaxian Join Date: May 2007 Location: WW community of Pentax users Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,646	I like the painting effect as well. Interesting!

07-23-2012, 10:46 PM	#44
Anton Magus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 410 Original Poster	Very nice entry, Laughlady. Can you tell us all what you did?

07-24-2012, 10:32 AM	#45
laughlady99 Senior Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 161	I pulled all of the color out except for the blue using Lightroom, then I applied a couple Topaz filters through photoshop & tried to reduce the noise as much as I could.