Aaron and Brick wall (Photoshop)

Going trough my photos found this one with Aaron (from High Key lesson). Wanted to add some character for this photography otherwise it reminded me passport type ones. I used Magic Wand tool again, then Select - Inverse I moved Aaaron to Brick wall photography. Then I used Eraser tool with minimal % to delete line between Aaron and Brick photography. I used it on minimal brush size, the hardest part was hair.
Then I used Spot Heeling Brush Tool for face skin part, then I used Smudge tool on 3% to make skin look more healthy and photogenic. I used brush tool with Soft Light option to make eyes look brighter and just for fun added some Blue-ish color for eyes (used Brush Tool with color option on 2-5%). And done!

Vintage Rose

Trying to improve my skills again.

Unfortunately I can not find my original photography with roses (lesson for myself - save not only jpg format but photoshap format with named layers). Im want to improve my skills with Photoshop, so trying all kind of different tactics and ways of using masks etc. After I opened original photography with roses and using Magic Wand Tool selected background area, after used Select - Inverse I moved (using Move Tool) to Vintage background photo. Then this time not wanting to blur 2 photos together (that what I used with Baby Photography (love changes everything), I learned and used Eraser Tool on minimal % and minimal size brush. Then I added some lighter parts for Roses (using Brush Tool on 5 % - soft light) wanting to look them main object in photography. `

Still Life & Flowers - Irving Penn (research)

Irving Penn (June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009) was an American photographer most known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. 

Personally I love this photo. I love how harsh it is. It makes me think that this women is brutal and reminds me of old films full of guns.

It shows how much story can close-up tell. 

While perhaps best known for his fashion photography, Irving Penn's repertoire also includes portraits of creative greats; ethnographic photographs from around the world; Modernist still lifes of food, bones, bottles, metal, found objects, etc.; and stunning scenes from photographic travel essays.

Opposite previous one I find this photo very pure and clean, love the form. This blossom seems very strong and feminine. The way blossom is ''posed'' makes this photography very powerful. 

I find something mysterious about this photography. These three  cigarette butts seems telling a story, and for me they even seem like small cigarette family. 

"A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it; it is in one word, effective."

Irving Penn photographed his first cover for Vogue magazine in 1943 and continued to work at the magazine throughout his career, shooting covers, portraits, still lifes, fashion, and photographic essays. 

Photography on left is Irving's first photo for Vogue. For me its more like a painting than photography. 

'' Photographing a cake can be art'' 

Resourses used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Penn 

Google.com for photography's 

love changes everything

As i need to improve my Photoshop skills, Im trying to have as much practice I can.

So Iv used one of my photos I took ages ago.

My main plan was to change background to something more fun and positive. First I cropped photo in portrait format. Then I change I photo to black & white. Moving blues in B&W, it gave eyes nice and sparkly white colour, so I didnt do anything else with eyes (doing small research for photos with baby photography, in most of them baby's had overly white and sparkly eyes). As I was done with my editing for baby object, I wanted to move it to another background. Using Magic Wand Tool i selected backrgound, then - Selecte-Inverse so I can move object with baby, then opened backrgound and then just using Moove Tool moved it to my chose of background (bellow).

First I changed baby object in right size. Than as there was very noticeable line between baby and background, I used Smudge Tool to blend them together. But than part of baby's head looked very annatural, as while blending line and head together, it touched too much of baby's head.  So using Clone Tool I copied parts of head where not touched and moved them to blur'ed part.
Then I wanted to add some sweet text. Using Text Tool (for each word separate as I wanted different fonts) I typed text and Vollah - its done!

Few months ago I knew nothing about Photoshop, I still dont know loads, but proud of myself that Im starting to get better and finally I can enjoy it and find as something fun and helpful rather then pain and nightmare. Again - Practice makes it better - right?

Riga, Latvia

My hometown!
As Riga was found in 1201, its full of gorgeous old buildings. Mostly of them are in  Art Nouveau and Jugendstil style.
Pretty city with loads of character!

Riga in 1650

Riga between 1890-1900

Shooting photos Iv tried to leave as much soul as possible, tried do show more details than city landscapes. 

Enjoy ;)

ballade for Riga

Bastejkalns, Riga, Latvia

Presetion for the "Specialist Location"