Katie Kapow Dot Com

Konnichiwa friends! Photo Blog #7 features the Applegate Series.  This group of photos was my first experiment in Photoshop.  I shot the original picture on November 3rd, 2007, while I was doing senior portraits for one of my friend’s little sister.  The sisters had a friend who owns a farm out by the Applegate River in Southern Oregon.  I couldn’t help but snap a landscape while I was working her portraits.

Here’s the original.

It really was a beautiful fall morning.  There was a bit of fog in the falley, and leaves were just starting to fall from the trees.  I like the original, but it’s a little flat to me.  You know me, I love my colors punched.  So the same day I got my own copy of Photoshop Elements I played around with this photo to make a four part series.  (I had been learning on Photoshop version 8.0 and husband and I decided that maybe it would be easier for me to learn on Elements instead.)  The “Applegate as Crystalsong Forrest” version has received a lot of attention since I first uploaded it…yay for my fellow World of Warcraft geeks, but the other versions were not as highly received…until recently.

Suddenly the whole series has become popular, I’ve even been approached with requests from people to purchase original prints, something that hasn’t happened to me before.  Because of it’s recent popularity, I thought I better honor it with a photo blog.

“Applegate, Spring”

It’s quite simple really, I just adjusted the hues and saturation.

“Applegate, Fall”

Same thing for this one.

“Applegate, Summer”

This is just a slide film effect.

“Applegate as Crystalsong”

This version is all about temperature.

All together, a nice little first series.  I never expected people to actually like it though.  Hahaha.  =)

Thanks guys!

- Katie

Kon Bon Wa!

I thought for my fourth photo blog I’d give you an example of how a dreadful photo can be made into something unique and superb!  Case in point: “Caveman Bridge”.

I took this photo in 2007 when I was out on a portrait shoot with my pal Spencer.  We wanted to get a frame of her standing on the 7th street Grants Pass Bridge, with the Caveman bridge and Rogue River in the background.  I accidentally snapped this photo (while testing my light meter) when a passerby bumped into me.  The bump fired my trigger finger and this is what I ended up with; an in focus but skewed and far too dark landscape of the Caveman Bridge.

Honestly, I’m not sure why I still have this photo in my retention catalog.  I found it today when I was digging around for something to edit.  I thought, “Hey, I like a challenge.  Let’s see what I can do with this one.”
Here’s the result….

Postcard picture perfect, if I do say so myself!  Thank you Photoshop!

So, what the hell did I do to go from ghastly to gorgeous?

1 )  Straighten the photo and correct any keystone distortion.

It’s not worth diving in and going editing crazy if you don’t even know how much of the photo you are going to be able to salvage.

2 ) Crop it to fill the frame.

Duh!

3 ) Work the sky.

Bleh, it was exceedingly drab.  I used the magic wand in layers, selecting and adjusting the hues in the sky (aligning with the clouds) to give it the perception of a sunset.

4 ) Work the water.

It wasn’t necessary to layer the water in different hues, for me at least.  I just selected the entire river with the quick selection tool and turned down the temperature.  That bolstered the color of the water perfectly.

5 ) Work the shrubbery.

YES!  The shrubbery!  Do the same thing here as with the sky; work the pieces in layers with the magic wand, adjusting the hues of greens and yellows until you have the variety you like.

6 ) Work your subject.

The bridge was far too dark.  I selected it with the quick selection tool and lightened the shadows.  After that, I cranked up the saturation, posterized the edges, and also added some flair with the accented edges filter.  (I did the same thing to the mountains in the horizon, but also tinted them pink.)  I didn’t want to do too much to my subject here, because the rest of the photo’s composition was so bright and loverly.

7 ) Make it look like it all belongs.

I used the paint daubs filter over the full image, adjusting until everything flowed together.

8 ) Add flair…

… Lens flare that is.  =)   (Oy, I’m a geek.)

9 ) Make it yours.

As always, I added my signature.

10 ) Frame it.

I like to frame EVERYTHING.  Dunno why, it just makes it feel finished for me.  I use a variety of preset and original frames.  This one is in the gallery of the Essentials 2 for Photoshop software.

So, there you have it.  =)

Enjoy!

- Kate

My second photo blog features “Full Tilt”.  I took this photo earlier this month while spending some time with Susanne.  My little skater friend recently turned skater mommy is as beautiful and spunky as she ever was!  This photo raw wasn’t fantastic.  I contemplated taking everyone’s trash cans and recycle bins back to their driveways to get them out of the way lol.  I opted for some Photoshop action instead.

I selected a portion of the photo and Gaussian Blurred it which made the presence of the trash cans tolerable.  Once again, I turned up the color saturation (this is my now religious personal style and preference).  I added the lens flare in the bottom right corner and used the foreground to transparent gradient to make it kinda look like the sun was setting over the mountains.  I also changed the temperature a bit to make it look more “summer”.  It was actually freezing cold out and I felt so bad for Susanne in that sleeveless dress!  But seriously, girl is damn hawt.

The tilt to the photo is not photoshopped, that’s just me laying stomach down in the middle of the road using my natural perspective instincts.  Lastly, I added the camera style border, it just felt right.  I feel like this photo should be a Volcom girl or Roxy magazine add.  I love it.  100%.

Thanks Sus!

Enjoy!