"Basic Photography with Bake along #8"

Time flies! And these eight weeks passed faster than I imagined. I learnt a lot during these formal sessions with you and enjoyed it thoroughly. I loved to watch myself grow with you people as I noticed step by step improvements in your photographs as well as mine. During these sessions I noticed various new aspects of photography which I will explore now and I’m sure same is the case with you.

We will close this eight week formal session with this last post but the real journey begins from here as we have just learnt to walk in this world of photography and we can now explore it. We will continue the journey together and we all will share new experiences during the journey with one another. Believe me with every improvement in your photographs I will be happier than you so please do share your clicks. I will be happy to help with any aspect if you need as I am just a ping away J Nevertheless I heartfully thank all of you and especially Subhasini for such a great opportunity.

Let’s now start the eighth post on ‘Post Processing of photographs’ which I’m continuing from the last session. Remember again; before editing, make a copy of the photo so that if the editing is not according to you then you can start afresh or use the original photo as it is. For better effects of post processing, powerful softwares such as Photoshop and Lightroom are there on internet but I am discussing the steps with common softwares like Microsoft’s Paintbrush and Google’s Picasa which are available on almost all the computers.

Placing your mark/logo on photos - Have you seen a small logo on all the photographs people post? Even I've one for my photos :). Internet world is good as well as bad too. Anyone can use your photographs anywhere so it is always better that you should put small mark on your photograph. The easiest way to do that is in Microsoft Paint. I will tell you step by step.

a) In paintbrush open the image in which you want to put your logo.

b) Now click on text option and put the text box wherever you want the logo.

c) Then write the name, name of your company or your blog or even the name of the dish. Write whatever you want. Like I wrote ©chillies ‘n’cherries.

d) Adjust size and type of font you want, bold, italics etc.

e) Save it and use it. Yes, it’s that simple.

Now the last topic is about the Aperture effect in photos clicked by simple cameras or mobile phones. This effect is helpful in distinguishing the main object from background and gives a feel of distance between them. Question arises how to blur the background without Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom or any other complicated software. I will explain it with Google’s Picasa. For that you have to do a small exercise.

Please click on all the following photographs, then only you can see them clearly as for describing it properly I took the screenshots due to which they are not normally clear. So click on pictures to understand better.

1. Click on this link http://picasa.google.co.in/ and download the latest picasa software developed and provided free of cost by Google.

2. Once the software is downloaded, install it.

3. When you open the software it will automatically import all your photographs to its library. So don’t panic. 

4. After it completes transfer, click on the picture you want to blur. Make sure you select a picture in which there is a scope to blur the background or other object likes props.

I have selected the following photo.

After selecting the picture, you will see a whole new world is open in front of. You can change the brightness, contrast; feel lucky tool will make your picture bright and many more options. You can add light to the dark areas of the photo. Just open your hands and play on with settings :). Choose the best for you.

5. After playing with the other options click on the icon as specified with red arrow(1).

6. After you clicked the first arrow, click the option FOCAL ZOOM as shown with green arrow (2) as shown in above picture.

Pane 1- ZOOMINESS - With the yellow zoom sign on photo you can select which tomato should be in focus. As shown with tomato 1, 2 or 3.

Pane 2- FOCAL SIZE – with this the size of the blurness can be increased or decreased. You have to decide how much area of the picture should be clearly visible and how much to be blurred.

Pane 3- EDGE HARDNESS- with this you can harden or soften the hardness of your edges. Which means to control how clearly the edges are visible.

Pane 4 – FADE – with this tool you can increase and decrease the fading effect as per your choice.

After all the changes you made to the photo, save it. And post it to your blog or any networking site :). Now compare the first and the last photo.

I selected the photograph with many objects to show that in Picasa, object can be selected at your will and I gave exaggerated effects to make the changes visible. You have to choose the right settings to give desired effect to your photograph.

With this the formal session ends here and I promise I will be back with new aspects as I further explore the world of photography.

So here is today's exercise.

Exercise #4 

1. Try to put a logo on your bake along pictures.

2. Try to use Picasa and make the background blur.

Thanks again and Take Care J