Below is the clock tower on the University of Louisville campus, and on the right, a beautiful church in the area.

Does that picture on the right not look exactly like a face?!

The guys I was meeting with for this photoshoot told me they were envisioning vintage imagery with little pops of color… kind of like the Pleasantville posters. I, however, was not a big fan of that idea. They were saying “Yeah, Jess, what is that called?” And I said– “Cheap photographic trick??” But, alas, I caved. I did a series of photos that all have a pop of green in them. These, to me, symbolize new life coming up from the old. We, as a part of The Louisville Project hope to bring revitalization to the neighborhood through the power of the gospel of Jesus.

Here’s one example of the amazing architecture down there. This is a famous mansion on St. James Court. Can you imagine living there back in the 1800’s??

So, the next time you are out shooting pics in an area, take time to see the interesting textures around you and take a pic of them to use in your image editing. I think it is especially neat to overlay a texture from that same area onto a pic. Its as if you are infusing a bit more of the spirit of the place onto the photo or something.  As I was shooting around Old Louisville I snapped this one:

You can click on the picture above and then save it to try on your own images! Or, another great source to find free texture files on the web is Grunge Textures. If you have some cash to drop, see Jesh de Rox’s incredible fine art textures, or these by my friend’s husband, an awesome photographer, Matt Nicolosi. Of course, there are also the Totally Rad textures from the Boutwells. You MUST get the Totally Rad actions if you’ve not… I process nearly every image on this blog using something they’ve made.

Basic Texture Layer Tutorial:

Here’s what you do in Photoshop–

1. Open your photo you want to apply texture to

2. Open the texture file

3. Go to the layers palette and drag the layer texture over onto your photo. Then you will see the texture on top of your photo. Make sure they are lined up so your texture covers the whole photo (this may involve changing the size of the texture layer–(hit Cmd- T to transform the layer size)

4. Set the layer type of the texture layer to Overlay (this is in the layers palette… it says “Normal” until you change in)

5. Change the opacity of the texture level until you like what you see!

6. Flatten and Save!

If you try this tutorial out– leave us a link in the comments so we can see your newly textured image!

]]> http://www.jgrace.net/adding-texture-to-your-photos/feed/ 0 http://www.jgrace.net/focusing-on-the-details/ http://www.jgrace.net/focusing-on-the-details/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:06:08 +0000 JGrace http://www.jgrace.net/?p=883 So, as my boyfriend was equipped with his newfound knowledge of the basics of photography, I would ask him little quiz questions as we were strolling along. I said- okay… so you are at f2.8 (the lowest that lens goes) and your shutter speed is 1/50*… and your photo is still underexposed– what do you do? He thought about it a minute and answered “Raise the ISO?” I said “Yes! You are so smart!” and beamed with pride at my new little student. (*I had told him that 1/60 was usually about the slowest shutter speed that is very safe when you are handholding, as a very general rule of thumb.)

So, it was on to his next assignment. I said… you see these leaves? I said I want you to focus on *these* leaves… and none of the others, but I don’t want them in the middle of the shot.

And he did it!

So, I was teaching him a couple of different, basic things.

1) The rule of thirds– For some reason, things are aesthetically pleasing to the eye when they sit at the intersection of a photo that is divided in thirds. So, when composing a photo, you should think of a grid like this in your head. One of the places where the arrows point should be the focal point of your photo

So, at least he didn’t put it smack in the middle of the frame. I told him that I’d recently heard that Hitler was a painter, but he was always criticized for putting his subject smack dab in the middle of the pictures. Let’s see if we can find an example, internets.

I found some. Interesting.

They are a bit middle-ish.

So, that was the first thing Lee (and not Hitler) learned– for an interesting composition, most of the time, it will be aesthetically pleasing if you remember the rule of thirds.

**feel free to skip the jibber jabber below if you are not a photographer. Otherwise, you might want to punch me in the eye and tell me to stop talking. And well… that’s just not pleasant for any of us… *

2) Focusing- I hope that somewhere, this helps just one photographer.

You have to realize, internets, that I’ve had nobody to teach me the fundamentals of photography. Just a bunch of blogs and a couple books, and of course, my camera manual. (Okay, let’s be honest. I didn’t actually *read* the manual…) So, when I got my Rebel xti I first began by putting the dial on the little green square (Automatic) and started snapping away… elated at the quality of photos it could produce. Once I graduated to shooting in Manual mode, I had to figure out this focusing thing. I first began in Automatic Focus with all 9 of the focus points selected. When your camera is set this way, your camera chooses what it thinks you want to focus on and picks those things. But sometimes (like in the above leaf picture) it would NOT have chosen the leaves I wanted.

And so, I moved onto phase three– I started adjusting my focal point. I would move the focal point to the one on the left (if I wanted the above shot) and then would switch it to the one on the right if I wanted to compose my shot with the subject on the right of the frame. Switching the focal point for every shot got real old real fast. But I didn’t know what else to do! Until I went to a photography workshop my buddy Stephen Seward had in St. Louis. He was incredibly generous to donate his time for a good cause, and answered a bunch of my amateur questions.

He rocked my world with this (totally duh!) trick. I leave my focal point on just the center dot. You focus on what you want focused on (if it is a person, it is the eyes) with your button only pressed down halfway. Then, without lifting up your finger you recompose your shot and then press the button the rest of the way! Genius!

Like I said, this is something that hopefully you are saying *duh* about… but it was such an eye opener for me that I thought maybe it might help somebody just starting out.

I processed the leaf pic, shot by my uber-cute boyfriend, a couple of different ways. Which do you prefer? I think I’m diggin the color one. Isn’t the bokeh from the twigs behind just so, so beautiful?

The lyrics begin like this:

Can you tell me how we got in this situation,
I can’t seem to get you off my mind,
all these ups and downs,
they trip up our good intentions,
nobody said this was easy ride.

And, well, the rest of the song is good, but a bit sadder than I’m feeling right now, so I’m not going to post them!

But the first two lines made me think of the love of my life, and how we had a fun experience yesterday. And then I was editing a pic from said experience, so I decided to actually post it instead of procrastinating posting to my poor little bloggie AGAIN. I really miss you, blog friends. I promise Ill get my act together here soon. I think that its just that I’ve got so many posts to catch up on that I get overwhelmed and don’t even want to touch it, you know? But no more, I say!

So, the man and I are officially going to be a part of a new church plant in Old Louisville. More news to come regarding all of this soon, but we are pretty stoked. The area includes the University of Louisville in its borders, and the houses are all ginormous and OLD. It’s the largest area of old Victorian houses just about anywhere, and it has so much character. So, he and I walked the streets yesterday, looking at houses and taking a few photos. On our drive down I taught him everything he needed to know about ISO, aperture and shutter speed. And then my little protege took some pics. He did so very well for his first time using a dSLR! I’ll have to post one of his pics soon. But, for now, here is a photo I’m digging. I totally held my camera above my head over the fence to snag this one. And it reminds me a bit of Heather Gilson’s photography for some reason. She is incredible, and I would never compare myself to her, but the mood of this pic just made me think of her And, she was kind enough to stop by this blog and comment once, so I need to give her a shout out, because her work is totally incredible.

Spendyourself has had a Haiti shirt in the works for months now. The design was completed and we were just finalizing a few things. It was not until my sister texted me yesterday and suggested that we do a limited time Haiti shirt that the lightbulb went off in my head: We need to pre-release the Haiti shirt NOW. People want to help. They want to give. They just need avenues to do so. So, I invite you, readers, to buy a shirt and make a real difference in Haiti now.

My extended family convened on the house for Thanksgiving this year, and mom decided, since we were all there, that a beach photoshoot was in order. We dressed in our blue jeans and white shirts, and headed down. Since I needed to be in some of the pictures, I would have to set up the shot for Lee, get everything set on the camera and then position myself among the group while he shot. More of those photos to come soon, but here is one of my favorites from the shoot. I think its just perfect.

So, what do I dip my french fries in? Mmmmm… my condiment of choice is nearly always honey mustard Yum.

How did this aversion of ketchup come to be, you ask? Well… I already disliked it in middle school… and then my wonderful friends preyed upon this fact. It was a slumber party in my basement, probably in about 8th grade. And no girly slumber party is complete without painting your nails, talking about boys, eating chocolate, and TRUTH OR DARE!  So, my wonderful friends dared me (and you can’t not do a dare!) to go up to the fridge, get a bottle of ketchup and dump it in my mouth. And… <shudder>… I did it. And they took a picture. And they kept that picture for several years, throwing it in my face unexpectedly from time to time. I have a grimace on my face right now just thinking about it.

Well, that story had absolutely nothing to do with the pics I’m about to post. Except that I’m trying to “ketchup” from the last few months. So, you’ll hopefully be seeing a lot of entries here soon to make up for my little hiatus.

Back in November Lee and I and some of my dear friends from college who also live here in Louisville made the drive back to Columbia, MO where I went to school (M-I-Z!!) Friends from all over flew in and convened on the city for the weekend and we had a reunion and caught an unseasonably warm football game. It was so great to have 20+ of my closest college friends back together. Many have spouses, several have kids… we’re adults now! Too weird!

My dear friends the Malloys let five us crash at their place for the weekend. I was pretty stoked because it meant a bit of time with their two babies: Asante and Alethea. These kids are near and dear to me… their parents were my roommates for awhile and I was even invited into the delivery room for Asante’s birth (but the booger came early and I couldn’t get back in time!) The next two pictures aren’t very good quality… but I just loved the motion and pictures of Lee and I snugglin these sweet babies.

This next one makes me laugh hard. I just love him so much I am smushing his little head… and look at his little face!!!!!!! HA

My photos reversed their order somehow, so we will begin with the end of the shoot. You might notice Ben looking a little *cold-ish* in some of these pictures. Well, it was like negative 100 degrees out there or something… but really… I couldn’t complain… I had a beautiful snow, a couple in love, and Cara sporting a black and white houndstooth coat with a bright red scarf. Sooo pretty!

Are these images not just so perfectly classic? Come on– street lamps with garland and red bows?! Could my job get any easier!!

I’m a bit notorious for making my models put on their “sassy faces.” Though they were grinning for most of the shoot, these two pretty much rocked it here with the serious looks!

Red door!!

We are actually in Davenport, IA for all of these outdoor images. We began in the Lagomarcino’s store in Davenport (images below) and all of these great outdoor spots were in a park and along the street near the store. Below they pose by the fire station

Cara, you are SO pretty. I’m pretty sure Ben thinks so too! Look at how he is looking at her!!

Pic below = HOTT.

We had to get some old fashioned soda shop pictures!!

Love their reflection in the backbar (but… let’s see how many other Lago’s we can find in this picture?? lol)

Thanks for being cute and in love, you two. I loved shooting your pics… hope you enjoy them!

We had a fun outing in a downtown alleyway full of lots of colorful walls, shipping containers, and these gorgeous vines.

Amy, on the left is one of the founders of the new Resc\You mission. Work it girl!

These next two are married. And cute.

Ben, pictured above, decided that he needed to shake a nearby tree and make all the leaves fall on Julie’s head for some pictures. Julie was a good sport (even when I made them do it more than once… and I think it turned into a fun little sequence!

The youngest (and I daresay, the cutest) Resc\You model! Amy’s niece Madelin

Okay, it is quite possible that no one else out there will like this next picture… but I can’t get enough of it. It is blurry, but her soft smile and the rainbow colors in the shirt just take me back somewhere… childhood I guess. Oh the 80’s! Anna, you are beautiful!

You probably recognize this next guy. He was prop man for the photoshoot, even when the props included a small child. I was in the middle of shooting the models, but I couldn’t resist turning my camera to snag a pic of this adorable scene. I’m pretty sure he was in the middle of saying “Hey! The action is over there!” to make me get my camera off him

Sara, you are just too cute. I absolutely love your smile and laugh!

Lana, please come back and model for me again. Girl you were WORK-IN-IT! She appeared and then disappeared again quickly, but I’m sure glad she came so I could snag some shots of her!

And, that’s the end! Go buy a tshirt here, won’t you?

And while you’re over there, register to win FREE SHIRTS for a YEAR! The drawing will be Nov 30th!