childs play - photoshop actions
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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.
I already posted my everyday workflow post processed image of those flowers. For Sliders Sunday I converted it in monochrome and played a lot with vignetting ,contrast and light to get the affect I wanted.
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
The Great Photographic Gear Myth (and the Rise of Tog-Lite)
Modern photography has a terrible secret: most of the gear is a waste of time, money, and spinal health. It doesn’t improve your photos—it improves your anxiety. While you’re standing at the door wondering which lens, bag, backup bag, and emergency bag to take, the light has changed, the moment has passed, and your dog has fallen asleep.
When I go out to take photos, I take my camera. Also a coat, a hat, boots, and the dog. That’s it. I’ve heard of photographers so mentally stressed about gear choices that they forget to take the actual camera. This is not a workflow; this is a cry for help.
Enter Tog-Lite: a revolutionary concept for taking half good photos some of the time, with no preparation and absolutely no unnecessary expense.
Lesson One: The Tripod
Tripods are confidence crutches for people who don’t trust their legs. For the Tog-Lite initiation, imagine yourself carrying it to a cliff and throwing it heroically into the sea. (Metaphorically, of course. Please don’t litter.) Feel the freedom. Use your body. Or a rock. Or just accept a bit of blur and call it “mood.”
Lesson Two: Filters
Filters are shiny discs of regret. The true Tog-Lite practitioner symbolically tramples them into a muddy hole. Diehards will retrieve them, wipe them clean, and proudly announce they’ve created a “natural brown grad,” faintly scented with cow-based authenticity.
Lesson Three: Flash Guns
External flash: a bulky invention designed to frighten wildlife and strangers. The flash built into your camera is already in the right place, perfectly paired, and just as capable of ruining photos—without extra batteries.
Lesson Four: Remote Triggers
No. The battery is always flat, the signal never works, and by the time it fires, the moment is gone. Also, you have arms.
Lesson Five: Camera Bags
Empty it into a ditch (again, symbolically), eat any emergency snacks, then discard the bag. If your camera needs a suitcase, it doesn’t want to go outside with you.
So get your Tog-Lite today.
Save weight. Save effort. Save money.
Deliver half good photos some of the time—and enjoy yourself the rest of it.
The upper wild part of river Isar, just before it flows in Sylvenstein reservoir. A magical sunset in autumn.
I have another version of this shot devloped with Fujifilm Valia. Then I tried a new workflow starting with Adobe Color, still with the objective to create high contrasts and intense colors with a fairly neutral balance.
- 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!
Holga 120N, Tri-X in Tanol
Ilford MGIV in ECOMOL
0.6 f-stops overexposed, Copper bleach 1+2 2 minutes, redeveloped with Easy Lith.
Der mittlere Print zeigt ein normales Ergebnis mit tiefem Schwarz und gelblichen Lichtern. Schon kleinere Abweichungen im Workflow (gewollt oder durch Unaufmerksamkeit) bei Entwicklerverdünnung, Temperatur oder Entwicklungszeit können abweichende Resultate bringen.
The middle print shows a normal result with deep blacks and yellowish highlights. Even minor deviations in the workflow (whether intentional or due to lack of attention) in terms of developer dilution, temperature or development time can lead to different results (right print).
hybrid workflow Mint SLR670S/instant Lab, Polaroid bw 600 film film, dried flowers, Bonn Germany, day two 1/2
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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.
• A winter's sunset paints the landscape with ethereal beauty, as the snow glistens under a soft amber glow. The sky transitions from fiery orange to cool lavender, blending seamlessly with frost-kissed treetops. Silhouettes of bare branches frame the horizon, where the fading sun casts long, golden shadows. Crisp air carries a serene stillness, while the sparkling frost underfoot echoes nature’s quiet elegance, evoking both wonder and peace.
Thanks for your faves and comment 👍
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:
Part of my "workflow" is, after I've hacked and sawed on a picture for a while, I look at the original to see if I've gone...too far. In this case, I may have overdone it just a smidge. See the previous picture.
I enjoy hacking and sawing, so I really do have to check to see that I have not lost the plot.
Usually, when I make a different version of a picture, I wait a while before posting it. In this case, I thought it would be interesting to show the pictures next to each other.
After thoroughly creepyfying the picture I looked at the original and thought, "dang, it was pretty creepy to start with."
So I present the original to you so you can compare. Creepyfied versus just going with flow. Other than the crop, this is SOOC. This is one of the reasons I like to hunt for murder shacks on overcast days...they already have some atmosphere.
Northwest Indiana
February 26, 2026
*In no way do we imply that a felony was actually committed here, or that a felon occupies this space. We jest. But you have to admit…kinda creepy.
More of my murder shack pictures
COPYRIGHT 2026 by Jim Frazier All Rights Reserved. This may NOT be used for ANY reason without written consent from Jim Frazier. This is a real photograph taken with a real camera, and not created by AI.
20260226cz7-2655-1000short-2
The camels sit in rapt attention as they listen to the golden whispers of the invisible camel sooth sayer.
The camel merchants do not hear him. ;-)
The camel fair is held in a vast open plain or depression with two commanding hill top temples overlooking the sandy plains. On the other side of this hill top temple is the Pushkar lake.
Workflow - DSC_0309 copy crop le cu sh raw presharp and exp adj. Sky streaked with fungus on CCD...cleaned on PS
This image was created using my most current post processing workflow. I just finished producing an instructional video which I illustrate how I use the powerful tools and techniques available in Lightroom and Photoshop along with the TKActions V4 Panel to achieve an incredible level of control throughout my workflow. You can learn more on my site: www.zschnepf.com
This is the image I use in my new Tonality Control 2.0 video. It was created using 3 exposures. It was taken while hiking in the Canadian Rockies with some of my fellow Photo Cascadia buddies this past fall. The Lake O'hara Wilderness is one of most incredible areas I've ever photographed.
Thanks for commenting!
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let's just breathe…
hybrid workflow Polaroid bw 600 film film, dried flowers Bonn Germany, day five 1/2
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:
Lately I have been re-examining some of my post-processing workflow and trying to master new techniques such as exposure blending, luminosity masks and LAB color. I've re-examined some earlier pictures and decided that in my effort to widen the dynamic range I sometimes went too far and created an unnatural appearance. This old picture of Mount Moran is one that I reworked to better convey my current aesthetic vision.
Chapter 12
It was another late night pouring over images; deleting, cataloging, organizing, choosing submissions - 'the workflow'. I hate the workflow. It was 3 am and I'd been fighting to stay awake for a while now. I was about to call it quits for the night, when I heard a soft melody drifting, somewhere in the background. From the flat next-door? And a faint yet pugnent smell of... what was that?... incense? massage oil and sweat?? Perfume?
Then... over my shoulder, the sound of a whisper I couldn't make out. I turned. "Sally! What... how did... what happened to you? Where were you..."
"You know", she said. It was her voice, but with an eerie, far away tone I'd never heard before. "I've been here" she continued, "right here".
"What... what do you mean? I... I don't understand" I stammered.
"Silly, silly, boy" she giggled. "I'm not real" she said. "You know that, right?"
"But... but I... we... our photos... our sessions..." my head began to spin.
"Il-eona!" she replied.
"What? I... "
"Il-eona... iliwa. Weikeu... weiku. Dangis-i gaya" I heard her say, her voice changing to a slightly higher pitch, and taking on a hypnotic, melodic twang"
"I don't und..." I said, as the music grew louder and louder - drowning out my voice... my thoughts. The music. An oddly familiar tune. Where had I heard it before??
Chapter 13
My head still spinning, I closed my eyes tightly. The music... the sounds and smells... so familiar. But how?
And where was I? I was in my flat, looking through shots from earlier in the week... wasn’t I?? I felt a hand on my upper arm... a gentle shake and “Weikeueob! Wake up!” in that same musical, hypnotic, woman’s voice. And in a short, curt but sweet broken English “time to go now.”
I opened my eyes and tried to focus them in the smokey, dimly lit room. There - my clothes, lying crumpled in the corner. A snuffed out candle, burnt low. A tattered, heavy, velvety-red curtain covering a small window, hazy wisps of light peaking around the edges to bathe the dusty air. A table cluttered with incense, an empty absinthe bottle, oils, small drinking glasses one of them stained with lip stick, some scattered powders and substances I didn’t recognize, a thin red veil covering jars of some mysterious, exotic substances. A ledge with a small lamp, a crystal vase and some ornaments and knickknacks... a few Halloween decorations scattered throughout. I looked up, into the beautifully large, dark eyes or the oriental-looking girl standing over me. “S... Sally?” I said, in my confusion. “Yes, me Sally” she said, showing her smile. “We have fun, but you... too much. Too much fun - no good. Too much no good. You understand? Only little fun.” she said, gesturing with her thumb and forefinger. “Umm... I...” was all I managed, grasping to make sense of something that, at least to me, made none at all. Remember, I told myself. Remember. I closed my eyes again trying to remember and relive, to make sense of the past days.
When I opened my eyes again I was someplace different. A bed. Crisp white sheets. Everything is so white. There’s something...in my arm. An I.V. A hospital. I’m in a hospital bed. There’s a voice “Doctor - come quick. He’s conscious”. A tall, thin man rushed into the room, dressed all in white. “I... where am I?” I ask. “You’re at College Hospital” he said. “Can you tell us what happened to you? Some passer-byes found you, in the streets, delirious, wearing clothes obviously not yours. They brought you here. Do you remember anything? Anything at all??”
Remember. “Sally” I said softly. “Sally” I whispered, as I closed my eyes... for the last time.
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First - apologies. I started this as a 365. But when I added the story, it began to write itself... including the ending. Thanks to those who took the time to view the images and read the text.
The story is a tribute to 2 great creative artists: Tim Burton and Edgar Allan Poe.
In the spirit of Halloween, and if you have time, I hope you’ll watch a Tim Burton movie and get lost in his magical world of crazy but relate-able characters. Or that you’ll read a story from the genius imagination of Poe, or read about his mysterious death (of which the ending of this series is based).
Edgar Allen Poe died this month (October 7th) in 1849. He was found delirious in the streets of Baltimore, taken to hospital, and never regained coherency (or perhaps only briefly) before his death. How he spent his last five days, how he came to be in such a state, why he wasn’t wearing his own clothes, his cryptic calling out for “Reynolds” during the night, and even the cause of his death, remains a mystery and source of much speculation and theory, even to this day.
******* Happy Halloween everyone! *********
P.S. - sorry for running behind (it’s been a busy time, and a challenge just to get the daily image posted). I will catch up viewing everyone photos and comments soon!
The start of a new project, re-visiting old favourites that are just sat on the hard drive and re-processing with my current workflow and detachment from the original trip
Instructional Post Processing Videos
Captured last Fall on a trip the Canadian Rockies with some of my Photo Cascadia buddies.
I created this image using the techniques covered in my latest instructional video. In the video I illustrate how I use the powerful tools and techniques available in Lightroom and Photoshop along with the TKActions V4 Panel to achieve an incredible level of control throughout my workflow. You can learn more on my site: www.zschnepf.com
Thanks for commenting!
Proud team member of Photo Cascadia
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for those interested in iphonography, the itemization of the workflow used for the images in this series might prove helpful.
oh, and i've created a group for black and white images. you might wanna join.