May 3, 2007
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Here are a few more pictures from the Yellow Springs spring Street Fair. There is always a range of characters and personalities in attendance. If you have never been to the Street Fair before, I highly recommend going.
The good witch of Yellow Springs???
For some reason I have a strong affinity to plants with bright green leaves and bright red berries. Otherwise there isn’t anything to special about this picture.
Finally, here is another picture from the Tibet series I presented earlier. Does anyone know what god this represents?
Cheers!
michael todd
Comments (8)
are you in columbus, OH??
Yes!–I send you a message as well.
Hi Michael, I saw your inquiry about Fred Miranda’s actions / plugins on Scott Robert’s blog. I’m not sure what Scott knows, but I’ve been aware of them ever since they were just an action that Fred sold; now they’re an actual plugin.
The basic test is this: Copy his two “before” images and see how easily you can arrive at his “after” images on your own, without using his plugin. If it’s super easy and all you have to do is bump up the contrast saturation, then that’s all you need to do- record some actions that do minor saturation / contrast / warmth boosts for you, and you’re good to go. You won’t have a nifty interface with the glorious name “Velvia” on it, of course….
HOWEVER, if it’s actually really tough to duplicate the look, and you realize that it’s a lot deeper than just tweaking the saturation and contrast, then it’s probably well worth the money!
I’ve recorded my own “saturation boost” actions that do more than just bump up the “hue/saturation” slider, and my biggest tip is to learn “selective color”… Basically to get you started, use Image > Adjustments > Selective Color or Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color. For each color that it lets you adjust, bump up THAT color and the similar colors, and drop down the opposite colors. (You’ll see what I mean. For red, bump up the red & yellow and drop the cyan & blue, and do the opposite for blue…)
-Matt-
Okay, I piqued my own curiosity, and as a landscape photographer (who really knows his photoshop) I HAD to try what I just told you to try. …And the verdict is, well, I’m trying to find out if it’s compatible with CS3 so I can buy it!!! After I copied both of his “before” images and could NOT replicate the “after” images, no matter how hard I tried using all my tricks, I went back to FM’s page and saw that the plugin was ONLY $25… Take it from me, that is a steal for what it does, if you are a nature photographer of any kind.
I have yet to guess at what it would do to a portrait, but from the SWEET warm tones that Velvia Vision produces, I’m going to hazard a guess that this will be my new favorite tool for outdoor daylight portraits!
…If it works with CS3, that is.
Oh and I found someone on the FM forums who says they use the program on “every single image”, and they have a gallery THIS good:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realkuhl/sets/72157600074974100/
…So yeah, I’m sold. Thanks for re-kindling my interest! I saw it for the first time years ago when I was poor and $25 was a lot of money to me, but now it’s (almost) spare change and I look forward to using it!
-Matt-
Hi Michael. Your photos are fun. I enjoyed your series from Japan. BTW, the statue from your Tibet series is Lord Shiva.
Nice capture indeed ^^
I enjoy your pictures so much!
I love the picture with the striped socks
Very nice! I love to attend stuff like this. There is such a wide variety of people and things. Beautiful work.