The Frying Pan

Nope, I have an idea for a very nice shot in my grandma's big cast iron skillet. To give it all it needs, I need some red potatoes and a couple of sprigs of thyme. So next time I shop.

Jefromi

Cool!

Fanciest thing on my end is possibly doing sous vide ribs this weekend.

Jolenealaska

I just baked off a couple of croissants I froze during that adventure a few weeks ago. My project tonight is to compose a shot with those, some artistically messy flour and a rolling pin on a wooden cutting board.

Jefromi

goodness, I would just eat the croissants!

Jolenealaska

I'll actually probably end up spraying them with lacquer to use as props in later shots.

rumtscho

I don't know if you can keep a real croissant for long, even lacquered

Jolenealaska

7:37 AM

When I shop next I am going to buy 1 wine glass, 1 water goblet and 1 pretty plate.

That was something I had planned to ask you.

Jefromi

Having real wine glasses is super nice!

Jolenealaska

It would be nice to have the croissants, a couple of dinner rolls, a baguette and maybe a rustic loaf all preserved to use as props, but I don't the best way to do it.

Funny things is that I don't drink wine - at all. Bourbon yes, but not wine or beer.

rumtscho

You can probably save the normal bread as props

dry it out in a low oven, and it won't go moldy.

but I'm afraid the croissants will dampen and squish with time

Jolenealaska

I'll buy a cheap bottle of wine and keep it in the fridge, I'll funnel it back in when I'm done with it.

Jefromi

I tried to drink bourbon, the first few sips were pretty awesome and then it was a little much.

I love the flavor, though, I have it for baking and ice cream.

Jolenealaska

7:42 AM

I'll get a white wine glass and a bottle of white wine for now.

rumtscho

you probably don't have to pay for real wine

Jolenealaska

When I was a kid, I would go with friends to the mall and buy a "Big Gulp" Mountain Dew on the way and spike it with my dad's Jim Beam.

rumtscho

you can use an empty bottle and apple juice

Jolenealaska

Yeah, but cheap wine is really cheap.

rumtscho

And it comes in bottles?

Jolenealaska

7:44 AM

Dad never noticed how fast he would go through bourbon.

rumtscho

Here, you may get a 2 Euro bottle at Aldi, anything below is in a tetra pack.

Jefromi

Well if you want to show the bottle you probably don't want to show a $2 bottle, but...

Jolenealaska

Yeah, like that $5, but it'll last forever.

rumtscho

If it's in the background, the label may not even be readable

Jefromi

Charles Shaw wine

Charles Shaw is a brand of "extreme value", bargain-priced wine. Largely made from California grapes, Charles Shaw wines currently include Cabernet Sauvignon, White Zinfandel, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Valdiguié in the style of Beaujolais nouveau, and limited quantities of Pinot Grigio. These wines were introduced exclusively at Trader Joe's grocery stores in California at a price of $1.99 per bottle, earning the wines the nickname Two Buck Chuck. In 2009, an international version of Chardonnay from Australia was introduced in limited stores. Prices in states other than California...

rumtscho

7:45 AM

also, I don't have the feeling that cheap wine producers save on labels

Jefromi

People might recognize that label here, I'm not sure, it can be a little infamous.

rumtscho

OK, if it's always the same wine which is sold cheap, that's a problem

the problem is that glass is so heavy, else I'd send you a good looking bottle from French wine

Jolenealaska

I want a traditional bottle of Chianti, other than that, I'll think that I'll just pick a bottle of white (for now) and red (sometime later) with pretty labels.

Jefromi

There's plenty of nice-looking California wines!

rumtscho

heck, I'd send you a real bottle of wine, but 1) it's heavy and 2) it's forbidden to mail alcohol to the USA

Jolenealaska

7:49 AM

There are plenty of pretty bottles of red and white at my local store that'll work just fine for very little money.

I accomplished one neat thing with my camera today...

The little tripod that came with the camera is pretty useless and it really was annoying me earlier. I started looking on Amazon at good tripods....And then I had a thought. I have a very nice, infinitely adjustable (height and tilt) microphone stand. That, the useless tripod, 3 old earplugs and wicked Alaskan duct taping skills have led to no need for an expensive tripod.

Jefromi

Cool!

Jolenealaska

It's perfect. :)

39/45 so far for that silly orange peeling thing.

and 11 "favorites" and 4000 views in 2 days. <shrug>

Next up...Apple coring!

Somehow @Jefromi's new starred message looks dirty.

@rumtscho both you and tall have commented that I need to diffuse my light sources. I only have 2 sources that aren't pretty well diffused by the fixtures. Is there any reason I shouldn't just tape up some wax paper? The bulbs are fluorescent, so I'm not going to burn the joint down.

Jolenealaska

8:39 AM

Jolenealaska

8:49 AM

rumtscho

I think wax paper lets less light through than a piece of cheap white fabric

thin fabric, I mean

a translucent piece of plastic (a shopping bag?) will also work

if you can rig up some kind of frame and put on it something diffusing (fabric, wax paper, plastic, whatever) you can maybe find a way to hang it before the fixture when photographing and remove it when not

it will rid you of glaring highlights like the one on the top container in the second picture

Jolenealaska

I can probably do that, even with a couple of coat hangers (and duct tape, of course)

It was exactly that glare that made me think of it.

rumtscho

I'd find it more elegant to use hooks and string

you know these small screws which end up not with a head but with a hook?

you can screw them into the ceiling close to the fixture

Jolenealaska

Duct tape has a certain Alaskan panache. It's hard to explain, but it makes me smile.

rumtscho

put a string on your frame and suspend it from the hooks.

@Jolenealaska well, if that's what you'd like to use, go for it

Jolenealaska

9:03 AM

The duct tape on the frame, not holding it in place.

For that, probably the hook part of the coat hanger.

Jeez...where did that big ass finger hole come from??

rumtscho

croissants are finicky

Jolenealaska

I thought I was improving it, but not with that damn finger hole!

ElendilTheTall

morning ladies

Jolenealaska

getting there though. That's just a screen snip. I adjusted the color level a bit in the first one.

Hi sweetie.

ElendilTheTall

white balance looks a bit warm

and damn those shadows

Jolenealaska

9:11 AM

One nice bit of progress today:

1 hour ago, by Jolenealaska

The little tripod that came with the camera is pretty useless and it really was annoying me earlier. I started looking on Amazon at good tripods....And then I had a thought. I have a very nice, infinitely adjustable (height and tilt) microphone stand. That, the useless tripod, 3 old earplugs and wicked Alaskan duct taping skills have led to no need for an expensive tripod.

ElendilTheTall

>.<

Jolenealaska

That and the wifi software is installed (causing my computer to crash, it took me 2 hours to get it to boot)

ElendilTheTall

good grief

you don't believe in doing things easy do ya?

Jolenealaska

apparently not!

And once again I can't remember the wifi password. What's the website again? The string of numbers?

ElendilTheTall

192.168.1.1?

possibly 0.1

Jolenealaska

9:17 AM

once I type in 192, it'll remember the rest.

I want to use the sauerkraut shot in a question on main. Can we get rid of that glare in gimp?

ElendilTheTall

what glare?

Jolenealaska

Above the croissants is a picture of fermenting sauerkraut.

ElendilTheTall

we can certainly do something about the main blob of glare

Jolenealaska

Just for fun, I'd like to try to even out the background too. How the right side is darker.

ElendilTheTall

ok

open it up in gimp, get a cup of coffee, strip off, and let's start

Jolenealaska

9:22 AM

OK!

it's up

ElendilTheTall

teehee

ok

Jolenealaska

ha!

ElendilTheTall

In GIMP and programs like it, we can work with Layers

these work just like sheets of paper

we can stack them, rearrange the stack, cut bits out so you can see the sheet underneath, all sorts

we can also use them to make changes that we can easily undo later simply by deleting or 'turning off the layer'

the layers palette is over on the right at the top

you will see a little thumbnail of the image next to an eye icon

got it?

Jolenealaska

no....no eyeball

I see "layer" on the top menu

ElendilTheTall

Jolenealaska

9:29 AM

Oh...that whole panel is gone!

ElendilTheTall

press Ctrl+L

ok?

Jolenealaska

there it is :)

ElendilTheTall

sweet

ok

now we want to duplicate the (only) layer so we can work on a copy

Click and drag the layer down to this icon

If we just clicked this icon, it would make a new, blank layer

when you drag an existing layer to it, it duplicates it for you

Jolenealaska

so I grab the thumbnail?

and drag it?

ElendilTheTall

yup, anything from the thumbnail rightwards

Jolenealaska

9:32 AM

apparently...OK

ElendilTheTall

so now you have <whateveryourlayeriscalled> copy

Jolenealaska

so now I have 2 thumbnails

ElendilTheTall

you have 2 layers

Jolenealaska

ok

gotcha

ElendilTheTall

we'll work on the top layer, leaving the bottom layer intact

it's always worth working 'non-destructively' so you can make changes easily later if you wish

this might not be highly important now, but i'm trying to teach you good habits

(apart from editing naked, that's just a perk for the tutor) :D

ok

head over to the Tools palette on the left hand side

Jolenealaska

9:34 AM

And always a good rule :)

ElendilTheTall

penultimate row, last column is an icon that looks like two crossed Band-Aids

Jolenealaska

got it

ElendilTheTall

That's the Healing tool

it takes the texture from one part of the image and blends it with another

this is the kind of tool they use to give models flawless skin

Jolenealaska

I'm thinking this will be how to fix the finger hole

ElendilTheTall

Maybe!

Jolenealaska

9:37 AM

(later)

ElendilTheTall

Before you start, seeing as we're working on a small part of the image, let's zoom in

Press Shift and + a couple of times

3 works well

actually, just +

ok

centre up the area you're working on by holding the spacebar down and moving the mouse

happy?

Jolenealaska

9:40 AM

Yep, the glare is centered and zoom =100%

ElendilTheTall

ok - you can zoom in a little more if you want - see how you go

now, the first thing to do with the Healing brush is choose your source, ie where the texture is going to be taken from

Jolenealaska

ok...i think i see where

ElendilTheTall

you want to take it from just off to the left

the source will move with the brush

hold CTRL and click

Jolenealaska

that's where I was looking...what woud be about 1.5 inches IRL

ElendilTheTall

I've placed it here

you want a reasonably large brush (as shown by the size of the circle)

you can adjust the size with [ and ]

Jolenealaska

9:43 AM

That is exactly where I went before you showed me :)

ElendilTheTall

S@B

now, the glare lies just over two different bands of wood in the backdrop

Jolenealaska

oops...I did something...

ElendilTheTall

so I suggest brushing over the left half of the glare with this source, then choosing a new source from the other side

Ctrl + Z to undo

it might take a bit of experimentation to get a good look

Jolenealaska

Lol...first I undid my last message

hold up...I'm lost somehow...

ElendilTheTall

ok

Jolenealaska

9:46 AM

Lost me at [ and ]

for the size

ElendilTheTall

that changes the brush size

Jolenealaska

and what??

ElendilTheTall

a bigger, softer brush is more subtle

if you were trying to paint out a spot on a wall, would you use a big decorator's brush or a tiny miniaturist's one?

Jolenealaska

I get that, I want to make it bigger, I dont understand the instruction of [ and ]

ElendilTheTall

press those keys

[ makes the brush smaller

] makes it bigger

Jolenealaska

9:48 AM

OOOH

ElendilTheTall

in increments

Jolenealaska

gotcha

ElendilTheTall

oh, I see what happened

:)

lol

Jolenealaska

ok

ElendilTheTall

ok, this is where practice comes in

I just did it at this end and my process is: do a bit of healing, re-set the source somewhere else, heal a bit more, reset the source somewhere else, 'pulling in' different bits of the image to achieve a subtle blend

the vertical bands of color in the wood are your guide

set your source so you are blending from the same band

brush in a bit, assess, and change your source if necessary

Jolenealaska

9:52 AM

wow...ok, great exercise

ElendilTheTall

remember you can always use Ctrl Z to undo a change you don't like

Jolenealaska

how do i say "pick up" and "drop here"?

ElendilTheTall

Ctrl click to set the source, then click and drag to brush

Jolenealaska

OK

ElendilTheTall

sorry, I should have made that clear :)

I forget you're a total noob at this - I've been doing this for over 15 years

Jolenealaska

9:55 AM

You're doing great....just a quick aside on that...

The manual is of soooo little help with actual problems...who writes this shit??

ElendilTheTall

nerds

Jolenealaska

It carefully told me that the big connector on the cord goes into the computer, the little connector goes into the camera....Well thank you soooo much for that.

And then it goes into three paragraphs of acronyms that only look vaguely familiar.

ElendilTheTall

lol

have you finished Healing yet?!

Jolenealaska

OK, I'll mess with this a minute and then come up for air.

ElendilTheTall

lots of small brushings are better than one big one

better results, easier to undo

Jolenealaska

10:05 AM

ElendilTheTall

EXCELLENT

you're a natural

Jolenealaska

:)

ElendilTheTall

The only thing I can see is that you've duplicated a couple of bits from the edge of the reflected box

heal those puppies out

gotcha

jojo, I am impressed

10:09 AM

fantastic

Ok, well seeing as you are some kind of wunderkind, I will show you a similar but different tool to fix that eye-catching blob just beneath the lid, top left

SPACEBAR over to it

Jolenealaska

         got it

ElendilTheTall

sweet

ok, this time we'll use the Clone tool. Heal does some fancy blending by looking at the source, looking at the destination, and blending the two. It's great for areas with fairly even tones, like before

but here we have two very different tones - the wood, and the red of the lid

they are sharply delineated

if we Healed it, we'd get a weird blurry edge that wouldn't look right

The Clone tool doesn't do any fancy blending, it just takes pixels from one area and dumps them in another

The Clone tool is just to the left of the Healing tool, the icon is a rubber stamp

You select a source in the same way, Ctrl Click

Jolenealaska

hold on...

ElendilTheTall

ok

Jolenealaska

10:15 AM

To read, then see, I have to bounce back and forth between seeing it, and seeing you

ElendilTheTall

sure

You always want to clone from the nearest clean area, so what you need to is set your source to the left of the spot, set the brush size so it's just a little smaller than the lid we're cloning from, then brush in from the left

then, reset your source to the right of the spot, where the lid is darker, and brush in from the right

Try and maintain the hard edge of the lid where it 'meets' the wood

Jolenealaska

I got it...almost there..

ElendilTheTall

Then do the same with the bit of blob that's over the wood, rather than the lid

Jolenealaska

Hold on...

ElendilTheTall

Take your time

it's not quite as forgiving as the healing tool

Jolenealaska

10:19 AM

I 've got to go to the restroom, but I've almost got it...brb

ElendilTheTall

ok

peeing yourself with excitement evidently

10:33 AM

lovely

Struggling a bit more with this

ElendilTheTall

yes, it's trickier

but it's easy to pixel-peep

if you zoom back out, it will become less noticeable

remember the viewer's attention will probably be elsewhere anyway

Jolenealaska

Which I want to do now

I wanna see where we're at

ElendilTheTall

10:35 AM

- (minus) to zoom out

If you then click the eye icon next to the top layer, you can see the before and after

impressive, no?

Jolenealaska

ElendilTheTall

I'd call that a win!

Jolenealaska

Much better...I see one more thing I want to address, but that looks fine :)

Without that big glare, what I want to be seen, can actually be seen.

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska good line of thinking

when you work with visuals, getting to understand your tools (camera, GIMP, whatever) is only a small part of it

Jolenealaska

This isn't intended to be pretty, but the glare was a distraction.

rumtscho

10:40 AM

a good designer or photographer understands how the viewer's eyes see the picture, how they jump from element to element

ElendilTheTall

@rumtscho hasn't jojo done well for her first ever photo retouching?

Jolenealaska

And now your eye is drawn where I want it, at the top of the cabbage

ElendilTheTall

I'm so proud <sniff>

rumtscho

@ElendilTheTall Yes, you are a good teacher, and @Jolenealaska is a good pupil

Jolenealaska

You are a very good tutor.

ElendilTheTall

10:42 AM

pffaw, I just type some words, you're doing the work

rumtscho

her pictures are starting to look really good

especially considering that a week ago, she was just relying on the camera to do the best it can, it's very, very good progress

Jolenealaska

You were right in that I could have have made myself nuts trying to get that smudge at the lid perfect, but you don't even see it once you zoom out.

ElendilTheTall

yah. We're not editing the front cover of Vogue here

I think it could do with some color correction, the white balance is somewhat warm

and a bit of a contrast boost

we can do all that in the Levels tool which you use yesterday, if you so wish

Jolenealaska

the sauerkraut shot?

rumtscho

yes, contrast boost and I'd rise the midpoint too a little bit

ElendilTheTall

10:45 AM

ya

rumtscho

it's shot in the shadow, nothing will change that, but giving a light boost in the midtones tends to make pictures friendlier

ElendilTheTall

want to do that jojo?

Jolenealaska

yep

ElendilTheTall

Ok - Colors Menu > Levels

Jolenealaska

another layer?

ElendilTheTall

10:48 AM

no, this one

you could do another layer though of course

Jolenealaska

that's what I thought

ElendilTheTall

in fact, do it

good habits and all that

Jolenealaska

ok

rumtscho

the rule of thumb for another layer is "whenever I have reached a state I might not want to destroy"

they do take up disk space in the GIMP format, but once you export to jpg, it doesn't matter. jpg disregards layers.

Jolenealaska

Why is my thumbnail a checkerboard?

rumtscho

10:50 AM

You created a new transparent layer instead of duplicating the existing one

ElendilTheTall

because you've made a new blank layer

you can right click the layer and click Duplicate Layer

Jolenealaska

do I want that?

ElendilTheTall

saves moving the mouse too much :)

no, you want a fresh copy of your retouched layer

Jolenealaska

ok

ElendilTheTall

ok, so once you've done that, Colors menu > Levels

Jolenealaska

10:52 AM

since they're the same, does it matter if I'm at copy, or copy #1?

ElendilTheTall

you can and should rename layers

Jolenealaska

OK

ElendilTheTall

double click the layer name

call the first duplicate 'retouch', then the second one 'levels adjustment'

or whatever you like, but make it something logical, natch :)

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska they shouldn't be the same

The idea is not to have two copies of the original, but a version of the original, then a version without the glare, and a third version with the colors changed

ElendilTheTall

@rumtscho they should if she's duplicated one

i think that's what jojo's done

rumtscho

10:54 AM

so you should be copying the glareless layer, not the original layer

Jolenealaska

I've got the original, 1 that has been retouched, one that is about to be edited

ElendilTheTall

and the one that's about to be edited is a duplicate of the retouched layer?

not the base layer

Jolenealaska