Ansel Adams: The Mural Project 1941-1942

The lost photographs of Ansel Adams.

In early 1941, Ansel Adams was commissioned by Harold Ickes, secretary of the Department of Interior, and asked to produce images and large-format murals of landscapes managed by the department.The project was cut short by the start of World War II, and Adams' 200-plus photographs were stored and forgotten.

The Department of Interior website, more about the exhibit.

View the Grand Canyon in full screen. For best viewing go to NPR.

Levels

I almost feel as if I am beating this subject to death. This original image was taken at Pawnee Prairie Park on the west side of Wichita. The time is late evening on a spring day, the sun has just set below the horizon.

The second image uses Fireworks filters, adjust colors, automatic adjust color. The third image adjusts the levels to heighten the blues and reds.

Blue lake

This image was taken last night just after sunset. This is the pond next to the BMX track in Wichita.

Again, the settings were automatic. The only changes were in filters, adjust levels and add some contrast. The level adjustment heightens the blue color. The contrast sharpens the image.

The sum of the parts

When you think about it, an image is really just the sum of the parts, the parts being the bits that combine to give us an image. So, when working with a poor image that has high and low tones, you can crop small portions of the image and adjust the color independently of the rest of the image.

The above image was taken at night with automatic settings. The result is an obviously inferior image. Below the image color is adjusted using levels and contrast. But to achieve a better result with the marquee and billboard it is necessary to crop these areas and work on them separately.

Both ways

A cold Sunday morning in Kansas - Toby, my daughter's hyperactive pet, went home to Lawrence. So I was left with just Sammy and Lizzie, and we decided to go for a walk in the country.

Blue skies are not always a given. With either Photoshop or Fireworks, you can add a blue sky with the magic wand and the paint bucket. First, highlight the sky with the magic wand setting the tolerance to 30 or whatever works. Then select the paint bucket, use a gradient, and with the press of a button, you have a nice blue sky. I also added a sharpen as a filter to let the dogs stand out.

Compare the original image.

An Irish Prayer

We are all looking for a little wisdom in a chaotic world.
Irish Blessing set to images and sound

Composing shots

The center of the picture frame is dead space.

Thirds : Imagine the camera monitor crisscrossed by lines that divide it into thirds vertical and horizontally. These lines represent the best location of the significant elements in the picture.



Diagonal : Pictures with diagonal compositions make for strong images with lots of energy, but diagonals are harder to find.

The S curve : The S is a sinuous, sensual letter; composing a picture around an S gives the picture interest.

love times four

simple color changes

With fireworks and photoshop you can make a simple change of color to a shirt. With your image selected use the crop tool to isolate the shirt. Save the shirt to your desktop and then apply filters to the shirt. Change the color to something that pleases you, for instance - pink. Now save the shirt with the color change. Open up the original photo, use import and now layer the pink shirt on top of the original image.

The lovely model is Lucia.

Here is the shirt png with the color change applied.

best Olympic shots

Hi-res images from Los Angeles Times photographers Robert Gauthier and Wally Skalij.

I still can't get over the quality of these images by Los Angeles Times photographers Robert Gauthier and Wally Skalij. Everyone should check them out for composition and editing.

Cool Olympic Images

The New York Times assembled some great high resolution shots of the Olympics. This is my favorite.