Painting by colour, posting by numbers...

Adding colour to black and white
Final Edit

This is post 100.
I had never really thought about such a milestone before. I began my blog on 10th August 2009, a few months after my dream of photography had been conceived, feeling fresh and inspired as an enthusiastic, yet curious new born child. At that time, the memory and awareness of the future is simply unknown and I suppose I felt this way about my blog. I took each post in its stride and helped it grow and age and develop. I have developed by writing it and showing my pictures and expressing my thoughts. But now reaching such a milestone, I can reflect on my progress so far and what I have learned and what I want to continue to learn. This post will be the many of hundreds in years to come, but for now, I am celebrating my passion and determination through photography.

At the beginning I mentioned a lot about collecting photography magazines and entering competitions and about six months ago I had a look through the years-worth that I had collected and cut out some photoshop tutorials and inspiring photographs for me to go back one day and perhaps have a go at developing my editing skills. I would say I am quite confident with photoshop, with some bells and whistles yet to be discovered. I purchased another photography magazine today Digital SLR Photography and noticed some tutorials that I took interest in. I got home and had a go.

The writer of the tutorial explains how many of us and transform a colour photograph into black and white, almost instantly, but how many of us can turn a monochrome image into colour? This was the task and this was the challenge.

I began with a colour image that I transformed to black and white, then removed the original colour image from photoshop, as not to cheat. I then followed the step-by-steps and created some of my own. The final image is above, but how did I do it?

Let's take a look.

Original Image

Converted to black and white

Paint brush tool with a skin colour
covering the whole face

Go to the Blend Mode in the Layers palette and
change to colour

Lasso Tool and erase the skin colour
unwanted around the eyes

Select suitable hair colour
and repeat Blend Mode
(step 4)

This Blend Mode and colour selection is then repeated, for the eyes, lips, clothes and background until you are happy with your result. 

Simples.

I completed this tutorial using Photoshop CS4.

Want to visit my Flickr photostream with the featured photos in my blog and more then click the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brown_eyed_dreamer/

Photography and the recipe of life...

It's amazing to think that I just completed my first year at University, my 'Freshman' year. I didn't quite feel like a freshman, simply because there is such a range of people, whether that be age, race, sexuality and beyond who were first years' too. It wasn't like at school when you could pretty much define each year, particularly by their maturity. University has a much more mature approach and you can barely tell which year is which, and there is no need to, because there is such a blend and an acceptance.

I remember last year and how I was, nervous but excited about going to University to study Photography. I never imagined in just one year that I would have learned so much already. I never imagined I would have bought a film camera or be able to make prints in the darkroom. I have been introduced to the studio equipment and learned about what pictures really communicate and how the confusion of f-stops and aperture is dissolving into thin air.

Before I know it, I will be out there in the industry. The excitement of work with photographers and re-touchers sparks me with such enthusiasm. And even though it can be a chocolatly rich indulgence and dream, it doesn't mean to say there will be a few crunchy areas that will be hard to get your teeth around, however there will always be the soft pink fluffy marshmallows to catch you when you fall. Life in the real world is simply the recipe of a Rocky Road. It will taste right if you approach it that way.

2011 - My year in Flickr photos...

I write my most philosophical and reflective posts at this time of year. A lot can happen in twelve months. You meet new people and build new friendships and if you are lucky, ones that last a lifetime. You can begin a career, or take the baby steps towards that big goal that you know will make you and everyone who knows you, proud.

I have come some way over this year with my photography and though I have mentioned some of my achievements in some of my recent posts; I can't help but relive them in my mind and the influence that those achievements will have when the bigger picture comes in to sight. 

In the last few days of the year, I look over what I have done. I like to keep journals and blogs as such, as a reminder or what I have done, what I have thought and what I have felt, but not only that. I like to see what I have done on certain days that I may have done differently in other years or write about new experiences or even life-changing ones like starting University and really knowing what it is like to grow up. 

I don't always write about Photography in a direct way but you will know that I gift-wrap it in somewhere. You can record many memories in many ways. This can be through writing, through song, through video but sometimes it can be the pictures that we take, whether they are captured with our minds eye, or through a camera. I'm an owner of a few cameras now and each one that I look through; I get a different experience. We can look at the same thing but our minds place a different significance on it, no matter how similar we could argue against it, but it is the same world, and that is what I find interesting. 

Since 2008, I have been a Flickr member. Each year, I create a Set and fill all my pictures I have uploaded from that year and review them at the end. I would like to share with you my photos of 2011. 

I wish you a very happy new year. 

Reflections through a Christmas bauble...

I always seem reflective when the end if the year comes. Each new year, we try to better ourselves and I particularly reflect on how far I have come and what I have achieved. I have achieved a lot in Photography for 2011. I feel more confident with myself and have excelled from just taking Landscapes and Still Life and taking on board some extra tasks during my photographers assistant job at Weddings. His clients have apparently chosen some of my photos that I have taken. Im hoping for 2012 that I will be able to use my own camera this time. I don't have quite as an expensive lens as he does and that probably makes a difference. Some copies to show off, could be nice. I also begun my work in portraiture, with evidence of improvements just over 12 weeks. I have a lot to be proud of.

I am beginning to think of my aims for next year. A mixture of personal project and set assignments for University. My motivation is soaring right now but it is not good just to think and dream about what you want to do. You actually have to do it.

So before wrapping up this post, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, if I don't post again before. I would also like to share an early Christmas I got.



Seasons Greetings everyone!

Commuting through pictures and video...

Beautiful Sun (morning commute) a video by brown_eyed_dreamer on Flickr.

Did a bit of videography on my commute, one beautiful morning this week. ( You will have to mute the audio from this post to watch this one if you watch this from the homepage)

The song is called Gravity Happens, by American singer and (One Tree Hill) actress, Kate Voegele.

My theme of commuting continues in my first print of my Digital Photography portfolio.

Photography by Zoe Bull 

First semester of University - Over. It seems very surreal and so grown up and sophisticated. I have definitely felt that I have grown up over 2011, but only in the work side. I think I will always be a child inside. 

I will always have the story to tell of how I fell in love with photography. It was yesterday when I was presenting my Digital and Film prints to my course, that I actually fell in love with Photography. Before, it was most likely a Lust or Infatuation - certainly an obsession that I couldn't do much with. It was the day after I left school that I felt this overwhelming lust for it. I had no knowledge of where to go or let alone use a Digital SLR or a 35mm camera. The fact that I have learned so much about Photography in just a few months has made me get to know it and therefore fall deeply and head-over-heels in love with it. They say you can not love a person unless you really know them. I definitely go by that but we are all infatuated to begin with. I feel now that I can start building my skills on a higher level. I am ready to progress and feel so determined to get a career out of this because this is what I want. Photography is what makes me happy. I have never really thought of it as a hobby, but I guess it is. I have always seen it as a little more than that, and now more than ever, I feel like I can work hard and eventually get to being a true professional. 

I shall end this post with a few words of wisdom from Kate, that I find more than inspiring. 

"..I have gathered that the moments that shaped me
Were the ones that have tested my faith
And all that matters is the courage they gave me
I fell down and my fears were erased

'Cause in the wreckage of heartache and hindsight
A new beginning starts to unfold
And if you let it, it just might save your life..."

                                                                -- Kate Voegele, Gravity Happens