Look and Feel

Sometimes you see an image that has a certain look or feel to it that evokes a memory of something you have seen or somewhere you have been in the past.


Or maybe it just conveys a depth or warmth that you may equate with. Interpreting images is a very subjective thing not unlike how two people may view the same painting done by a well known artist.
How we feel about the image is very much personalized depending upon your own life experiences. No two of us see something in exactly they same way.


The world of digital photography allows us to change the expression or feel & representation of one basic image in a number of ways. In an earlier entry in the blog I did a preliminary introduction to Photoscape 3.5. 
http://akiwiretrospective.blogspot.com/2010/10/using-photoscape-35.html 



While it may not be as all powerful as Photoshop it does have an array of nice and useful features. And what it does have works well. As well as all the usual functions such as Contrast/brightness &  noise/sharpness controls It has a good array of specialized transforms and filters. See this page for a quick look at some of what you can do. http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/screenshot.php

For this particular exercise I used a couple of photos taken approximately 40 minutes after sunset of the wind farm to the west of us. The distance in a direct line is approx 25kms. The light was changing rapidly. All photos taken with the Fuji HS10.

I have used various feature of Photoscape to create several different styles of image from the basic images. Included is the two originals for comparison.

Out on the horizon

The first  image is the distance shot showing the overall look of the area.

This is straight from the camera and has a little sharpness and noise reduction applied. At ISO 800 with such low light shots the noise of the higher ISO is becoming apparent

This is the same image as above but has been cropped and the whole image has been warmed with color and contrast being changed to give the image the look of a more dusty orange colored dusk setting.

The next image is the closeup and comes in for more work with Photoscape. The idea here being to create several differing versions of the same image. The original is first. And it is noticeably different in hue than the wider shot. This is the telephoto lens that is doing this as it automatically stops down the image at extreme focus.

Original telephoto shot

The next image is a simple window transform to give the illusion of looking through a frame. Its an image we can all equate with.

Still others enjoy seeing things represented in a disjointed way, such as fractalisation, or a broken mirror scene.

This next image is all about changing perspective and using a frame to highlight the image. Background color can be varied here depending upon the look that is required.

Creating a reflective theme is also possible with Photoscape. This image takes on a completely different aspect when this transform filter is applied. This is a variable filter with a wide latitude for adjusting the image.

In this next image a gradient was applied over the upper portion of the image to create a desert feel. The suggestion here is of being on sand dunes looking west after sunset, with the onset of a dust-storm. The warmer colors than in the original help with the feeling of dying 

heat and aridness at the end of the day.

Changing the area of focus so as to introduce a little more depth to the distance in the image is also possible as in this photo where the furtherest windmill becomes the point of focus. This can be done to highlight a certain part of a image or just to change the perspective. This filter is movable to any point in the image and size is variable. A nice tool for hight lighting a subject in an otherwise busy photo.

These filters and transform filters are only a part of what Photoscape can do. There is a large variety of tools that can be called upon to help be more creative with your photos. The program is downloaded from Photoscape's website and is completely free.I recommend giving it a try.