fun with templates

because i spend a lot of time on the internet at my current rotation, i've been adding a lot of photography blogs to my google reader. sometimes i think i'd really like to get into doing some photography just on the side for fun, but other times i'm just so awed by some of the awesome work out there i wonder if its even worth bothering. after all, there are some really amazing photogs out there and its pretty intimidating.

but, while i was out stumbling around, i did find a few free photo templates to mess around with. this one is actually a little more cutesy than is really my style but its still nice. i guess i am just not into the color block sort of look, though it does work nicely with kids pictures. i really do think it would be a lot of fun to shoot little ones. (in the photography sense... not actually shoot them)



i just thought it was the perfect template for all these pictures of Halle making her model faces. That same photographer also had a border set, which i really like. i love the messy border look but am way too unphotoshop savy to figure out how to do it myself. i think the next picture would look awesome printed on the metallic paper that WHCC (the printing company i use) has.

anybody recognize that font??

both the collage template and the border set were some freebies from this gal here. she also has a lot of nice templates for sale as well. other favorite template providers are Swiss Miss Haus and NicoleV. maybe someday if i ever actually take pictures, i will have a reason to buy one of their gorgeous sets. even if its just to use for my own personal christmas cards.

fun with post processing

i'm not going to lie, i love post processing. i know there are realists out there who think doing any photoshop at all is cheating... that a good photographer doesn't have to edit. no disrespect, but what do you think ansel adams was doing in the dark room??? dicking around with his exposures, no doubt. just because the darkroom has also gone digital doesn't make it cheating. but whatever, to each their own.

in my humble opinion, i've never come across a picture that didn't benefit from just a little tweaking. now, don't get me wrong, its easy to go too far. sometimes you just need to bump up the contrast for a little more oomph. not every photo benefits from tons of processing.

but sometimes it is fun to mess around.


there's a photography "movement" (not really sure a movement is the right thing to call it, but it'll do) called "through the viewfinder" or TTV photography. its premise is that you use an SLR camera (generally digital, but not necessarily) and take a picture of an image as viewed through the viewfinder of a large format camera.

if i had a large format camera, i would show you the set up so that maybe it would make more sense. but here's an old photo from 2004, when the old photography bf had a large format camera and you can kind of get the idea. with TTV photos, however, you generally end up with just the picture of the entire viewfinder, while the rest is cropped out.

notice that the image as viewed through the large format camera is upside down.

i don't have a large format camera, nor do i particularly want one. though they do make impressive display pieces, they are a pain in the ass to dust. and costly to boot. personally, i'd rather have a lens.

so i cheated. i found a set of images on flickr here where someone had taken pictures of a large format viewfinder with nothing in the image, just a blank viewfinder. so i made it into a brush for photoshop and voila! TTV pictures. I messed around with a few shots i already had sitting around on my computer just to see what the effect would be, and i have to say i kind of like it. i could see myself using this in the future.


its funny how things don't always turn out how you expected. i thought the above image would work well with the ttv treatment, but its just ok (in my opinion at least)


i used the same ttv brush for all of these, but the flickr set contained several images that could be used to make more brushes. i just haven't gotten around to it yet.

i just thought i would share the sort of thing i like to do when i should be doing something more productive. makes me want to get out there and take some more pictures so i can bulk up my library of images to mess around with though. maybe it will be the encouragement i need...