childs play - photoshop actions
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Second Version with another workflow.
Now only one Picture, postprocessing in Photoshop with Astropanel.
A 4X5 crop that includes 3 pillars and creates the perspective that leads the eye to the distant bathers. A slight rotation was made to correct the horizon.
Someone asked me how I processed my photos which led me to write my workflow out on my "About" page. After some confusion, I decided to do a visual as you see in the attached image.
During the pandemic, I've been using my cell phone for almost all my pictures. I just wanted to pass along my workflow for others who haven't tried their phones yet. Just remember that a RAW file gives you much more room to adjust contrast.
Do you have a photo-taking workflow?
Before I pull out the “big camera,” I sometimes snap a quick iPhone pic to check composition and lighting. Sometimes it tells me everything I need to know, like whether to shift left, crouch down, or just give up and go get some eggs benedict for brekky at a cafe. And when my wide-angle lens isn’t quite wide enough, it's iPhone panorama to the rescue! It’s quicker than taking multiple shots with the OM-1 and stitching later. Lazy or efficient? You decide.
Fun Fact Time - The Goldfish Edition!
Have you ever wondered how long goldfish live? Most pet goldfish clock in around 5–10 years. But some have gone the distance......
The oldest was Goldie (45 yrs). A very solid name choice in my opinion. He never made it into the Guinness Book of Records due to a lack of official paperwork. While he was alive, Goldie garnered international media attention, and his family the Evans family donated any money earned by Goldie’s appearances to charity to help children with physical disabilities. How cool is that, a philanthropist goldfish!
Other notable characters in the geriatric goldfish club include:
Tish (1956-1999) – the official Guinness title holder at 43 years old. In 1988 Tish had a brush with death when he leapt out of his bowl and landed on the carpet. His mum Tilda wasn't home but luckily, when she found him & placed him back into the water, he resumed swimming as if nothing had happened. I wonder if he remembered or if every trip around the goldfish bowl was new to him! Over the years, as he aged, Tish’s scales turned from bright orange to silver, matching the colour of Hilda’s hair. That's kinda sweet.
Fred (42) and George (44). Keith & Mary Allies from Worcester UK won the pair of fish at a fair in 1974, when they were only dating. Since then, the married couple kept the goldfish, who outlived two of their dogs. They passed in 2017 & 2019. Fred & George that is, not Keith & Mary! My takeaway - a couple who raise goldfish together, stay together!
Splash (38) and Splish (36) - Haley and Matthew Wright never did anything particularly special to care for Splash. He swam around his tank all day, ate regular fish food, and fed on live plants in his tank. Splish and Splash were funfair prizes won by the Wrights in 1977 (bit of a common theme there). Mr. Wright believes that Splash mourned for Splish when he was no longer around. PS If it is annoying I listed splash before splish you may be OCD ;)
Sharkey (24) – I reckon best name, hands down! Another goldfish who survived a near death experience. His owner Paul's mother found him belly up in his bowl. She thought he was dead and flushed him down the toilet. However, Sharky was still alive and swam back up the pipe and was saved in time. I guess he felt a bit shitty about that ;)
Bob (20) from the UK – well, it's a solid name for sure. I wonder if it is because he "Bobbed" up and down in his bowl? Bob experienced his 15 minutes of fame in 2017 when his family noticed that he was struggling to swim and developed a lump on his fin. They decided to spend $250 on an operation to save his life. I'm pleased to report the operation was successful and Bob fully recovered. The doc said that his family was very pleased with the outcome as Bob was older than their children and considered part of their family.
I hope these goldfish ramblings brighten your day. Thanks kindly for any likes/comments, they are always appreciated.
Waterscape 34/100 in 2025
In addition to usual post-processing workflow, I ran this image through Nik HDR Pro 2 for some tone mapping.
June 2013 Special Administrator's Award by Amazing Nature group
(www.flickr.com/groups/-amazing-nature-/)
June 2013 Art of Nature Administrator's Award by Best of Nature's Prime group
- Thanks to everyone who looked at my picture, favors and have commented. Please press "L" or "Z" for a large view - an absolute must to fully enjoy this picture!
Said Bear has had a word with me about improving my workflow - whatever that means - and we published this picture directly from within Shotwell (a photo manager for Linux).
Said Bear has definitely settled into his new home, and I think he is actually taking over. No bad thing tbh.
When I begun to process this exposure bracketing, I thought that I knew what I wanted to attain. I was perfectly wrong. Indeed, these RAW files kept a few secret bits of beauty which I was not aware of when I selected them for processing – and they changed the course of the journey I had foreordained.
I was in a gloomy mood, for both personal and general concerns, and the RAWs looked rather duller than the average – taken: they appeared to accurately mirror the state of my soul. At worst, I would have wasted some hours of pointless procesing work before deciding to look for something better. Nobody would have known. However things were to contradict my expectations. I got some good news (a rarity in those tough days) about the health conditions of my brother and my “adopted brother-in-law” (i.e. my brother’s brother-in-law); on the other hand, Darktable – that wonderful software – gifted me with a few unanticipated treasures. My thoughts were growing more and more positive and the processing of this bracketing were proceeding accordingly: a hidden beauty was unfolding before me, my own persisting unawareness of it notwithstanding. At last I found myself with a picture that had apparently self-processed itself*, while I was busy exploring uncharted thoughts that kept emerging along the way
* Admittedly a bizarre phenomenon, which Maurits Cornelius Escher would have loved – think of his Drawing hands.
I would avoid to nag you about this incredibly wonderful location: you can take a look at my album Silent banks, the complete collection of the photos I have taken there; the attached narratives are rich in information about the place, if you are curious enough.
This location is especially renowned for its legendary morning mists, but only a thin layer of milky mist floated above the water that morning. On top of the hill in the distance, beyond the river, lays the sanctuary of the Madonna della Rocca ( = Madonna of the Rock), already brushed by the first light pouring from the Eastern horizon.
I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-1.7/0/+1.7 EV] by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then, as usual, I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I tried the inverted RGB blue channel technique described by Boris Hajdukovic as a possible final contribution to the processing. While this technique (which, its imposing name notwithstanding, is pretty simple to implement) often holds interesting results in full daylight landscapes, its effects on a low-light capture (e.g. a sunrise) are utterly unpredictable, so at the end of my workflow I often give it a try to ascertain its possibilities. In this picture I have exploited this technique in a very frugal, yet effective, way – just some touches where needed.
RAW files has been processed with Darktable. Denoising with DFine 2 and the Gimp (denoised and original images blended by lightness).
hybrid workflow Mint SLR670S/instant Lab, Polaroid bw 600 film film, Bonn Germany, day one 1/2
Happy PolaroidWeek to you all! so looking forward to see your great polas this week. this community is so inspiring, glad to be a part of it.
don't forget to join the polaroidweek 2025 group:
and please follow Polaroid Week on Bluesky:
- bsky.app/profile/polaroidweek.bsky.social
you can find me or my work here:
My new BW post processing video tutorial is now ready for download, for a limited time get all 9 videos for the price of 1
Video 1 My Complete BW Workflow
Video 2 Mastering BW Conversions
Video 3 Fine Art Architecture
Video 4 Fine Art Landscape
Video 5 Fine Art Seascape
Video 6 Fine Art Cityscape
Video 7 Fine Art Long Exposure
Video 8 Fine Art Street
Video 9 Minimal Photography
also included are my photoshop files and post processing notes!
An extremely comprehensive post processing tutorial for fine art BW photography
www.vulturelabs.photography/product-page/b-w-post-process...
Sometimes I wish I had recorded my workflow especially when the results are like this. I tried very hard to replicate it with another similar image but got nowhere near.
Selati Game Reserve
Gravelotte
Limpopo
South Africa