Pencil Drawn Photos

We’re creating panels for a graphic novel using photographic backgrounds and hand drawn characters. Being comic-bookish, straight photographic backgrounds don’t cut it. There’s an easy way to make your photographs look like drawings that only takes a few seconds to do. We’re doing the panels using Pixelmator on a Mac, but you can do it with the same steps in Photoshop or GIMP.

Here’s the original image:

First, make a duplicate layer.

Second, in the Blending drop down menu in the Layers panel select Color Dodge.

Third, press command i to invert the image.

Fourth, from the effects panel, select Gaussian Blur and adjust the image to your preference.

Here’s the final image, which took less than 30 seconds to create.

This, along with half-toning is a decent effect to use for graphic novels or comics.

Popping Black and White

Much of the time when shooting digitally in black and white the depth and breath of tones isn’t what you envisioned. You might have a great shot, but the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows are muddy. Here’s one way to help make your black and white photos pop.

For this example I used Pixelmator. Pixelmator is image processing software created exclusively for Macs. It’s kind of a cross between Photoshop and Lightroom and only costs $29.99 US. You can download it from the  Apple App Store. If you don’t have a Mac, you can use GIMP, the free, open source Photoshop clone.

Here’s the original photograph taken in Downtown Detroit.

I like the Free Coffee sign, the hand pointing up, the two guys talking to each other and the beat up signs in the foreground. What bugged me about this shot were the dull highlights. So how can this be fixed?

Curves

One of the most powerful features of image processing software is the Curves adjustment. Curves allow you to adjust the tonal range of your image, which is just what we are looking for.

You simply move the curve or move the points to improve your image’s tonal range. There is an almost identical dialog box in GIMP.

Dodging and Burning

Dodging and burning are old darkroom techniques. Dodging decreases the exposure of an area, making the area lighter. Burning increased the exposure, making it darker. Just think as Dodging as lightening and burning and darkening.  In the film world, dodging and burning were difficult techniques to master. In the digital world it’s pretty simple.

 

The dodging tool looks like a feather duster. You can select the range of tones you want to dodge (lighten). These are Highlights, Midtones and Shadows. You can also vary the exposure with a slider bar.

Burn tool

The Burn tool looks like a flaming water drop and works like the Dodge tool with the same tone and exposure selections.

The photo below has curve adjustments and was burned and dodged. I made the white really stand out for this post. Normally they wouldn’t  be so pronounced.

As you can see, this photo ‘pops’ a lot more than the original.

If you work with a Mac, pick up Pixelmator. It’s a great program that’s dirt cheap. If not, check out GIMP. I’ve used GIMP extensively in the past and think it’s a great tool.

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Minimum Cost DSLR Photography

You don’t need to spend a ton of money to venture into the world of DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) photography. A while ago I bought a refurbished Canon 10D for around s hundred dollars.

It still has a few fine grains of sand on it from the sand dunes near Lake Michigan.

So what did I get for for less than the cost of a low-end point and shoot? A solid magnesium body with the exposure modes I need (apeture priority, shutter priority and manual), among other useful features. Plus, it’s compatible with E-TTL Canon speedlights which I use a lot. It also sports 17 custom functions that allow you to mix and match controls and features for 61 possible combinations. It also supports RAW mode.

The downside? The LCD screen is small and image rendering is slow. It’s not full frame and it has a 6.3 megapixel sensor. Is this a problem? Not really, unless the intent is to produce massive prints. For that I’d use a different camera with a higher resolution sensor.

Along with the camera body I bought a new Canon 50mm 1.8 lens for 110 dollars. For approximately 210 dollars I have a solid, respectable and durable DSLR outfit that I’m really growing to love.

The three shots below are of a restored locomotive in Grand Haven, Michigan. All were taken with the Canon 10D. The first shot was converted from color to black and white using GIMP, the open source Photoshop alternative.

I wanted a shiny, high contrast look on the reflecting surface of the locomotive and coal car. I could not have achieved this effect using GIMP’s Desaturation tool. I used the Decompose tool and will have a blog post on how to use this in the near future.

The next two images are in color that I enhanced by only using the Curves tool.

I wanted to bring out the richness of the dull silver paint, deepen the shadows and expose the subtle hints of rust around the bolts. A few simple adjustments using the Curves tool accomplished this. Like the Decompose tool, I’ll also have a blog post on this in the near future.

GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) is freely available on the Web and is a first rate application.

The bottom line is you can enter the world of DSLR photography and produce high quality images for very little money.

Grand Haven

We were lucky with the weather this week in Grand Haven, Michigan.  Spent a lot of time shooting, especially at the Silver Lake sand dunes. These dunes are much smaller than Sleeping Bear, but far less touristy and traveled.

As with most photographers, it’s a labor of love lugging camera bags and tripods up these steep sand hills that seem like mountains.

I decided to process the dunes shoot primarily in black and white. There’s an isolated, otherworldly feel to these dunes, and for me the only way to capture that was in black and white.

The shot above and below were taken with a nine stop neutral density filter. I really like these filters and long exposures. To me, they expose a hidden world of latent light that would otherwise be invisible. All of the photos were taken with a T2i.

I post-processed the images in GIMP. The original RAW files were in color. I usually shoot black and white in-camera but I wanted to keep the color option open. I shot everything at the dunes using a Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens (one of my favorites) and a 75-255mm Canon zoom. I used a polarizer on the Tokina and the ND filter on the Canon.

This is an HDR image processes with Luminance HDR, taken with the Tokina and the polarizer.

 

Here’s another straight shot with the Tokina 11-16 processed with GIMP.

On the way back from the dunes to Grand Haven we saw an apple orchard with these boxes stacked.

This was taken with a Canon 50mm fixed focal length, which is one of my other favorite lenses. I have a lot shots of the boxes to process.

 

I just used my iPhone around town. Here’s one taken on the Grand Haven pier.

 

 

I have a lot of images to process and will post an update soon.

 

 

GIMP Clone Stamp Issues

GIMP users, are you having trouble with the clone stamp tool? It seems to have a mind of its own and sometimes it works, sometimes not. Here’s a sure-fire way to have the clone stamp tool work consistently. Use the rectangle or ellipse select tool to bound the area where you want to use the tool. Take your sample and clone away. I have never had the clone tool fail using this method.