My ancestors continue to get younger, it seems. My mother found a portrait of herself as a baby and sent it my way. I like both general and family history, plus I was happy to have another chance to practice my photo restoration skills:
Posts Tagged ‘photos’
Younger Every Day
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, Affinity Photo, creativity, family, photos on August 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Portrait of a Mandalorian Primcess
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, Affinity Photo, creativity, fun, photos, sff, star wars adjacent on July 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Editor’s Note: That isn’t a typo in the title. Well, it was a typo when I named the original file, but it was funny and my brain is mostly off at this point so I kept it.
I tried a new photo-to-oil-paint method today. The technique is straightforward, if time-consuming, but I can tell I’m not an actual painter. The arm and face are a little weird but my eyes have gone wonky and I’ve started thinking seriously about adult beverages, so this is what we’re going with today!
With apologies to whoever made the fine costume I blurred out, I give you “Portrait of a Mandalorian Primcess.”
Original Photo by Alexander Jawfox on Unsplash
The Color of Cool
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, Affinity Photo, inspiration, learning, photos, Thoughts, tools on July 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I’m feeling a lot better today, less exhausted ouchies and more “It’s cool, I’m good.” No naps today, no wishing I had a sling for my mostly incapacitated arm, just chilling and learning things.
Like using words to generate color palettes. Let’s see what we can do with that, shall we?
Using the Unsplash photo database, this site retrieves images related to your search term, combines them into a single image, then extracts a color palette. One nice thing is that you can deselect some of the component images, darken or brighten the palette, or zoom in to highlight just some of the colors in an image. I do find that the results tend to be a little muddy (“summer” is a lot duller grey and brown than I expected) but the tweaking helps.
* * *
Then what? I decided to learn how to color grade an image. Essentially, grading is a technique that lets you take the palette from one visual and apply it to another, often changing the tone and emotion of the image. A photo can go from warm summer afternoon to dark and stormy without a lot of fuss.
There are a lot of ways to do this but here’s a handy tutorial explaining the process in Affinity:
Steal the Color Grading from Any Image with Affinity Photo!
PhotoChrome has a link to download the composite image but it didn’t work for me. Instead, I used the “copy HEX” option for the color palette, then copied the darkest, lightest and middle colors into the Affinity photo Gradient Map / RGB Hex Sliders window.
What’s the color of cool? In my version of this exercise, this:
#4b5c74, #656778, #767482, #718694, #80949d
Here’s what that looks like when transferred onto an image.
Then I had to try a couple of others for fun.
It’s probably no surprise that I’m liking Mars best.
Grandma as a Whippersnapper
Posted in Food and..., Other, tagged #365Ways, Affinity Photo, family, photos, recipes on June 13, 2021| 6 Comments »
More history, today. And photography. This is my grandmother on the Swedish-ish side. She was ten or twelve* at the time, and much more agile than when I knew her.
This is also me experimenting with photo restoration techniques.
Grandma Dorothea was sweet, literally and figuratively. She did many things well (gardening, bridge, surviving the Great Depression with her sense of humor intact, making grandchildren happy), but above all, she baked. I can still recall the flash of joy on seeing pound cake in her kitchen. Her chocolate mint squares are decadent, melt-in-your-mouth bites of chocolate cake, creamy mint, and dark chocolate glaze.
She wasn’t much of a cook, but (despite the very cryptic notes left on her 3″x5″ recipe cards) she was one hell of a baker.
* * *
Grandma’s Chocolate Mint Squares
Cake Layer
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup melted butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 can chocolate syrup (16 oz)
- 4 eggs beaten
- 1 cup flour
- ½ tsp. salt
1. Mix and bake in 9”x13” greased and floured pan for 30-35 minutes at 350°F.
Mint Layer
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tbs. Crème de Menthe
- ½ cup melted butter
2. Mix and spread on the cool cake. Chill briefly to set.
Glaze
- 6 oz. chocolate chips
- 6 Tbs. butter
3. Melt over low heat. Cool a bit and spread over mint layer.
4. Chill until chocolate sets and cut into small(ish) squares.
* * *
* Inquiring minds want to know: at what age does one stop being a whippersnapper?
Ooh, Pretty!
Posted in Likes, tagged awesome, brains, chipmunks, inspiration, photos, pretty, US Interior, work on July 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
For reasons involving transnational calls, scheduling conflicts, and one very pissed off chipmunk, my brain is taking the rest of the day off. Here’s a pretty picture:)
Happy Wednesday
Posted in Likes, tagged cats, home, Neko, photos, sleepy cat on February 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
J.R. Johnson 
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