One of our local weather guys commented awhile back that droughts often end with floods. Boy – he wasn’t kidding! Seems like every time I venture out to take photos and learn more about my new Canon EOS 7D, it rains or is so cold, I can’t stand to be without gloves. I’m not talented enough to work all the little gizmos and dials on my camera with gloves on.
Other days, it has been so dark and gloomy that to get the right exposure, I’ve had to bump up the ISO very high. Problem is the shutter speed then needs to be very slow to allow in enough light, which doesn’t work well for stopping the action. All in all, not a good combination for capturing Schutzhund dogs doing what they do best – moving very fast!
The weather today in the Atlanta area (Saturday, January 30th) didn’t disappoint (I say facetiously) – rain and 34 degrees. Good grief!! Okay, okay – we could have received snow and ice like the Carolinas and Virginia, but still! So, what’s a person to do when the weather refuses to cooperate on weekend training days? Conquer Photoshop, of course!!
I’ve been fiddling around with Photoshop for several years, and even have taken a few of Scott Kelby’s (Kelby Training and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals) trainings – very helpful – but haven’t had the time to really master even the basics of the program. I am pleased to report that today I mastered the clone stamp tool. Yippee!!
As many of you know, this tool is very handy for getting rid of unwanted things in a photograph. At the end of this post is a before and after picture of two puppies wrestling that I’m particularly proud of. I must admit, I’ve gone a little wild and spent the day doing away with all sorts of annoying things, such as people, power lines, dumpsters, leashes, collars – you name it – it if was in the way of the action – zap! Gone! What power! What excitement!
I also learned out how to copy an eye from one photo and paste it into another photo (see below). I took a series of pictures of Fila doing a hold and bark. At one point, her eyes rolled back into her head (yuk!). In the series, though, was another photo with her eye and head at the same angle as the “just the whites of her eyes” photo. Using the selection tool, I was able to copy and paste her eye from one photo to the next. And, yes, I used to clone stamp tool to do some fine tuning. Pretty cool!
For all of you buried in the snow and ice, stay warm, stay safe! Thank you for visiting, and may the weather clear soon for all of us, so we can get back to what we enjoy most – snapping pictures of our fearless, furry friends.
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