Photographics

I've always been keen to photograph things I want to remember, or subjects which grab my attention. I started to scan photos in when I started building this site - most can be found on the Guernsey pages.

Just recently I got myself some image manipulation software - and found a new hobby.

Well, image manipulation doesn't just mean swapping heads and bodies, superimposing people into places they have never been (although that is fun, too!) It can also be used to simply tidy up photographs which weren't quite perfect, or tweak colours which aren't as you remember them. Developed prints sometimes doesn't do a sunset justice, for example - so you improve the colours, reduce the glare, and hey-presto that's how you remembered it.

Below are a few examples of what can be done: a tweaked photo of my house, and a brand new image created from an otherwise plain old shot.


Nothing much wrong with the picture, but it can still be improved.	First I tweaked the colour mix on the picture over-all so the bricks are a bit redder. Then the neighbours' house was cut out, my MGB adjusted closer to it's true colour, and the sky made brighter and more interesting. Some tidying up has also been done on the tops of the gable walls, which in real-life could do with a lick of paint!

This was taken at Guernsey airport during Battle of Britain week, 1999. Luckily, I got the angle just right, crouching in front of the Hunter jet.	I won't say it's brilliant but I was quite pleased with this first "go for it" attempt. The jet was cut to a new layer and wheels, flaps, and other unwanted bits deleted. The intake cover was painted over. Once I was happy, some motion blur was added. I then copied, resized, flipped and rotated it to make the 2nd Hunter. On another layer the sky was cloned to hide the airport apron and vehicles. The final tweak was a bit of lens flare.