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TrailGators

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I remember that spot! Interesting to see what it looks like if you don't merge down the layers....

 

Well it was that way a second ago!  :laughing:

Actually, I just changed the angle of the shadow. Here is the original image. I kind of like it.

 

7c6194f1-d2cc-4910-b192-97e5420808a4.jpg

Yes, that way gives more of a 3D effect! I merged mine all together and then did the drop shadow to simulate them resting on top of each other in a pile! I like them both ways! :laughing:

I did the drop shadow on each individual layer.

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I remember that spot! Interesting to see what it looks like if you don't merge down the layers....

 

Well it was that way a second ago!  :laughing:

Actually, I just changed the angle of the shadow. Here is the original image. I kind of like it.

 

7c6194f1-d2cc-4910-b192-97e5420808a4.jpg

Yes, that way gives more of a 3D effect! I merged mine all together and then did the drop shadow to simulate them resting on top of each other in a pile! I like them both ways! :laughing:

I did the drop shadow on each individual layer.

Yea I know that.....

 

I think Harmon was right. Shadowing is pretty cool because you can do it many different ways to create many different effects! :laughing:

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I think Harmon was right. Shadowing is pretty cool because you can do it many different ways to create many different effects!  :laughing:

Here's how I did it for the Bear Valley collage - rotated them slightly and random order with slight shadows which don't obscure the photos much - also the curvature matches the earth nicely! Here's the same effect with the Double Peak photos:

 

04996986-f502-4500-9c60-9bfa04b188bd.jpg

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I think Harmon was right. Shadowing is pretty cool because you can do it many different ways to create many different effects!  :laughing:

Here's how I did it for the Bear Valley collage - rotated them slightly and random order with slight shadows which don't obscure the photos much - also the curvature matches the earth nicely! Here's the same effect with the Double Peak photos:

 

[snip]

That's neat too! :laughing:

Edited by TrailGators
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You guys are really good at this . . .

 

My crude attempt . . .

 

ee8e1e7e-70c8-4284-8f0b-c9031c774795.jpg

 

I have Corel PhotoPaint Version 7 and couldn't figure out how to do the black and white backgrounds . . . but I got the drop shadow on there. :laughing:

 

That was the view today from my "Stop and Reflect on the View" cache.

Looks good Miragee! :laughing: I'm not sure what you mean by "black and white backgrounds"! I just used a screen capture program (Screenhunter) to grab a small piece of the background in this forum. Then I opened that piece in Photoshop and resized it. Finally, I pasted in my photos on top of that background! It is actually pretty easy to do!

Edited by TrailGators
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It was the Step 4 and the Step 5 of ahimsa's instructions I couldn't figure out. I could have done it the hard way . . . but that would have taken a really long time with less-than-optimum results. :laughing:

OIC! He just added a one pixel wide white border and a one pixel wide black border to each of the photos before pasting them into the final collage. I'm not sure how you do it with your software....

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I have Corel PhotoPaint Version 7 and couldn't figure out how to do the black and white backgrounds . . . but I got the drop shadow on there. :laughing:

Since I have Corel Photo Paint 11, I might be able to help you more than others that don't! For example, here's how I added the forum background color to my palette:

 

4d72b1ec-50e0-43ed-8b2b-db3e2523532e.jpg

 

Step 1 - do a screen capture of the forum, open it as a new document in your paint program, then click the dropper toolbar button

 

Step 2 - click on the background in your screen capture - but not in a quote! (in Corel, right-click does the background color, I think)

 

Step 3 - if you did the correct click, then the little box here should be the forum background color - now doubleclick the box to open up the Select Fill dialog box

 

Step 4 - click the Edit button to get the Uniform Fill dialog box

 

Step 5 - select the Add To Palette dropdown and select RGB Palette (that's the only thing there on mine)

 

Now you'll have the forum background color as one of the colors in your palette to choose from. When you resize images or create new ones, you can select that color as the background color.

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What a treat, we were away for the weekend attending the Magellan Adventure Rally and returned to find your great new Banter topic.

 

Nice work everyone. Those multi-frame panoramas are terrific. Shadowing them really makes a marvelous effect. Gosh it's great to see a contribution posted.

 

I've been a panorama devotee for years. Learned the basics from instructions I received from a fellow that was stationed at the south pole and could do the distortion math. No foolin'.

 

I use PhotoVista Panorama Version 3.0 for stitching single frame panoramas from multiple frames. Many of the digital cameras have a panorama mode that's locks exposure to the first frame of the set so that frame-to-frame lighting is compatible. When using a camera in panorama mode always shoot the first frame with the camera aimed right-angle to the light source such as the sun.

 

The advantage of stitching software is that it handles the edge-distortion problem of bringing multiple images into agreement where the frames meet.

 

There are other stitching software packages and some will handle a multiple-row array of shots for tall objects such as large buildings. Otherwise one can turn the camera ninety degrees and shoot a set from top to bottom of an object and it will stitch together properly once rotated back to horizontal.

 

The real deal on panoramas is that the camera should be rotated about the CCD-plane axis and held completely level during the multi-frame shooting sequence, especially for close-up objects. Overlap the shots about 20 percent and try to include some distinct feature near the edges of each frame. It's important to memorize the steps to put your digital camera into panorama mode because mostly you can't read the camera menu-screen in outside lighting.

 

There are special tripod mounts for serious panorama work that assure that the camera pivots about the CCD-plane. Swinging one's head or body around to capture a panorama is likely to introduce unresolvable framing errors that the stitching software can't handle. Try to think of walking about the camera as though it was stuck to the top of a pole instead of panning your head and body around.

 

Worth mentioning for fundamentalists is that one can even stitch a multi-frame panorama together by using the individual Transform/Warp and exposure-correction features of Photoshop CS2 but it's a real pain.

 

By the way, I have the cast-reflections lessons half done but interrupted the preparation to attend the Magellan Adventure Rally that started last Friday in Laughlin, Nevada. We had a half-dozen cars from San Diego Geocachers you know and love and we swept all three of the Magellan rally prizes.

 

Harmon

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By the way, I have the cast-reflections lessons half done but interrupted the preparation to attend the Magellan Adventure Rally that started last Friday in Laughlin, Nevada. We had a half-dozen cars from San Diego Geocachers you know and love and we swept all three of the Magellan rally prizes.

 

Harmon

Looking forward to seeing the photos and/or GPS tracks! :P

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We had a half-dozen cars from San Diego Geocachers you know and love and we swept all three of the Magellan rally prizes.

 

Harmon

Way to go SD gang. Sorry I had to miss it!

 

Please give us the details. Who won what?

Since you asked............

Vulture & $kimmer won first place (only because he could shoot a 30-30 better than I could) haha, we had a three way tie for second place.....all San Diego.

Harmon & Sandy, Kickbackjack & Barbara, and the Splashes. We did some flagpole height guessing, and the Magellans were sprinkled accordingly. The Magellan Roadmate was 1st place award, Magellan 700 and Magellan 500 were second place. Instead of a regularity section in the middle of the race, they had a triathalon. You had to use a lasso to rope a haybale steer, shoot an arrow into a target (we 'accidently' hit a bush somewhere in the south 40 instead) - Vulture, of coarse, hit the target, and shoot a 30-30 rifle at a 'steel wheel' target 10 miles away. (o.k., it looked like ten miles to me) I managed to shoot the hill, and of coarse, Mr The Vulture showed off again, and hit the dang thing. It really was too much fun, kind of like the Amazing Race! San Diego cachers swept the awards, and have for the last 3 years. The rally was about 260 miles long, mostlly on dirt roads, following a list of waypoints and coarse descriptions. Check out rallyusa.com and go to the Adventure Rally section for more details. We just can't tell you how much fun this is, however, don't think about doing it next year, we don't need any more competition!!!! HA

San Diego was represented by: Team Reid, Kickbackjack, Team Gypsies, Harmon & Sandy-SD Rowdies, Pedroz & Cindyz, Vulture & $kimmer, & The Splashes.

We had a great lunch at Luchias, and a great awards dinner at the Laughlin Bay & Marina. (except for that rice, yow). We all did some caching, played the slots and ate alot!! The weather was chilly and windy, but we were tough!

Pictures should be floating around soon on some of the SD forums. Guess who had their camera going full blast????

Thanks for asking!!

-ette :rolleyes::lol:

'

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We had a half-dozen cars from San Diego Geocachers you know and love and we swept all three of the Magellan rally prizes.

 

Harmon

Way to go SD gang. Sorry I had to miss it!

 

Please give us the details. Who won what?

O sure, give 'em a chance to rub it in why don't you?

 

4906216d-66f4-4d29-ace6-a005d0be8939.jpg

Edited by SD Rowdies
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I have a question ? Sunday going to Mission Trail Park from North park, turn on my GPS (explorist 210) and put it on the dash. Up the 805 , 8 , north on the 15 it was dead on, but once I got on the 52 it started to drift off. At the mission gouge exit I was a good 500 ft off from the freeway. The gps worked great finding caches during the day, even on the way back home it show the same thing. Has anyone experience that before. I thought maybe because that section is new.

Edited by SandyEggoGuy
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I have a question ? Sunday going to Mission Trail Park from North park, turn on my GPS (explorist 210) and put it on the dash. Up the 805 , 8 , north on the 15 it was dead on, but once I got on the 52 it started to drift off. At the mission gouge exit I was a good 500 ft off from the freeway. The gps worked great finding caches during the day, even on the way back home it show the same thing. Has anyone experience that before. I thought maybe because that section is new.

It's that danged Miramar land fill. Highway 52 has been sinking and drifting for years now.

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I have a question ?  Sunday going to Mission Trail Park from North park, turn on my GPS (explorist 210)  and put it on the dash.  Up the 805 , 8 , north on the 15 it was dead on, but once I got on the 52 it started to drift off.  At the mission gouge exit I was a good 500 ft off from the freeway.  The gps worked great finding caches during the day, even on the way back home it show the same thing.  Has anyone experience that before.  I thought maybe because that section is new.

It's that danged Miramar land fill. Highway 52 has been sinking and drifting for years now.

Another subterranean cavern of lost spirits ?

a31ca81d-6021-4eca-9b9f-aac6eee02682.jpg

The Reverend Henry Kane

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I have a question ?  Sunday going to Mission Trail Park from North park, turn on my GPS (explorist 210)  and put it on the dash.  Up the 805 , 8 , north on the 15 it was dead on, but once I got on the 52 it started to drift off.  At the mission gouge exit I was a good 500 ft off from the freeway.  The gps worked great finding caches during the day, even on the way back home it show the same thing.  Has anyone experience that before.  I thought maybe because that section is new.

It's that danged Miramar land fill. Highway 52 has been sinking and drifting for years now.

I had been wondering that myself. Thanks for asking and answering the queston.

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I have a question ?  Sunday going to Mission Trail Park from North park, turn on my GPS (explorist 210)  and put it on the dash.  Up the 805 , 8 , north on the 15 it was dead on, but once I got on the 52 it started to drift off.  At the mission gouge exit I was a good 500 ft off from the freeway.  The gps worked great finding caches during the day, even on the way back home it show the same thing.  Has anyone experience that before.  I thought maybe because that section is new.

It's that danged Miramar land fill. Highway 52 has been sinking and drifting for years now.

Another subterranean cavern of lost spirits ?

a31ca81d-6021-4eca-9b9f-aac6eee02682.jpg

The Reverend Henry Kane

This looks GRAND........can hardly wait to get back to San Diego and have a free Saturday to go find this one!!!!!!

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Hey, I noticed that there's a new macro for the latest GSAK that seems to take all the hard work out of getting your caches into Google Earth:

 

ge.txt (last one in the list)

 

I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know how well it works!

 

On edit: It crashed when I tried it! :mad:

 

On second edit: It worked when I didn't try to load all 2500 caches! <_<

Edited by ahimsa
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Hey, I noticed that there's a new macro for the latest GSAK that seems to take all the hard work out of getting your caches into Google Earth:

 

ge.txt (last one in the list)

 

I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know how well it works!

 

On edit: It crashed when I tried it! :mad:

 

On second edit: It worked when I didn't try to load all 2500 caches! <_<

Thanks for pointing this out. It's very easy to use.

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Lesson 10. Cast Reflections

 

Preparing a composite image is one of the great pleasures of photo editing. In spite of the pleasure it is also true that taking elements from one image and integrating them into another image in a natural way is one of the great challenges of photo editing.

 

Difficulties are encountered when selected elements differ substantially in terms of resolution, lighting, brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, sharpness, shadows, reflections, and more. One may have to make several changes to bring the compositional elements into harmony.

 

Of course the easy way out is to develop composites only from images that are predisposed to harmonious characteristics but then one will miss out on a lot of the photographic pranks that make friendships what they are, delightful chances to pick on your pals.

 

This lesson concentrates on just one of the many aspects of a good composite. In this lesson we deal with the difficult process of fabricating realistic reflections that seem to be natural in the final image. Consider that when a photographic element is selected, copied, and pasted into a new setting associated reflections and shadows are almost always left behind. The result is that a new reflection and/or shadow is needed and it must appear in harmony with the shadows and reflections of the new setting. Shadows have been discussed in a previous lesson so now we consider procedures for fabricating decent reflections.

 

This lesson will be presented in two parts. The first part will explore a method for casting reflections for image objects that appear to lie along a single horizontal viewing plane.

This part will offer a basic method for producing a simple cast reflection to complement the cast shadows that we covered in a previous lesson. The notable difference between a cast reflection and a cast shadow is that reflections are usually more colorful than cast shadows. As a lead-in to the second part of the lesson we will consider a subject that presents just a hint of the problem that part two will encounter.

 

The second part will deal with the more difficult problem of casting reflections for objects that appear along converging lines of vanishing-point perspective. Toward the end of part two the editing steps will necessarily involve some of the advance features of Adobe Photoshop CS2. Fortunately much will be covered that can be accomplished using other editing suites. Also note that keyboard commands in this lesson pertain to Windows operating systems.

 

Vanishing-point perspective introduces the geometric problem of producing cast reflections for objects seen from an oblique angle or that have features that recede away from or advance into the viewed depth of field. These situations are burdened with the problem of having complicated reflections that emanate from different points along the converging lines of a vanishing-point visual perspective. Yes, of course, by now you have wrinkled your brow and reread this paragraph haven’t you? Along the way you can bet that we will encounter a few unrelated but useful insights about Photoshop editing.

 

Part 1. Basic Cast Reflections

 

Our model for Part 1 of this lesson is an image of none other than the lovely, the talented, the leading lady of San Diego Geocaching, our very own Splashette of Splashman fame. The photo in question was taken at the now famous Compromising Positions Geocache of Rox_Red/Red_Rox fame. Give it up for Splashette folks.

 

df997d28-eaa0-4598-bc56-813c14724f2b.jpg

 

Hi Janie. :blink:

 

Step 1. Open the Lesson 10 image in Adobe Photoshop and then click the title bar of the Background image and select “Duplicate Layer.” Click OK on the Duplicate-Layer dialog box and verify that a “Background copy” layer appears. Click the eyeball-icon of the “Background Layer” to turn that layer off.

 

Step 2. Select the “Magnetic Lasso Tool” or any other of your favorite selection tools and carefully draw a selection marquee completely around Splashette. Take care to include Splashette’s flaxen hair and both of her hands including fingers. Use the “Edit in Quick Mask Mode” feature and the “Brush” tool to refine your selection. Zoom in close and take your time. As you draw around the outline press and hold the keyboard “Space Bar” to reposition the image as needed to follow Splashette’s outline. Also use the keyboard “Del” key to backtrack and eliminate anchor points that go astray in ambiguous parts of the outline. Seriously now, take your time and get to know Splashette as you make a precise selection.

 

Step 3. Once your selection marquee is complete just press the keyboard combination “Ctrl-J” and note that a new “Layer 1” has appeared on the Layer Pallet above the background Copy layer. Verify that your Splashette selection appears alone on Layer 1. At this point use the Eraser Tool to tidy up the selection by removing extraneous background pixels you didn’t eliminate or to tidy up or smooth out any of Splashette’s, let’s just say, boundary features.

 

Comment: Well, there we have her, Splashette sans shadow and sans reflection. What we need now is a setting for Splashette that will allow us to fabricate a simple cast reflection to compliment our subject. What say we place our lovely subject into a spotlighted background and then fabricate a reflection that seems to come from a highly-reflective showroom floor? Wow, that’s actually better than a twofer isn’t it?

 

Step 4. Click the inactive “Background copy” layer. At the very bottom of the layer pallet click the tiny “Create new fill or adjustment layer” button and then select “Solid Color” from the pop-up selection window. On the “Pick a solid color” pane just click or click-and-drag to the lower-left corner and verify that the “R, G, and B” value are zero (0) for solid black and then click OK. Verify that your Splashette selection appears against a solid-black “Background copy” layer. Yes, of course, there are other ways to produce a black background layer but we are exploring here, yes? Settle down for goodness sakes.

 

Step 5. We will now add the first of two new layers for the spotlight effect. First of all at the very bottom of the Layer Pallet click the tiny “Add a new layer” button and verify that Layer 2 has appeared. From the Toolbar select the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and use it to draw a large horizontal oval that centers across the layer both vertically and horizontally

 

Comment: It will be useful to place centered guides temporarily over the image. From the Menu Bar choose “View/New guide” and set Position to read “50%” and Orientation to “Vertical”. Repeat the last step for “Horizontal” Orientation. That should give you guides that intersect at the exact center of the image.

 

Now activate the “Swatches Pallet” and choose the fourth purple swatch from the bottom as Foreground color. Fill the elliptical selection marquee with the light-purple Foreground color by pressing “Alt-Backspace.” Now press “Ctrl-D” to Deselect the purple ellipse.

 

Step 6. Add another blank layer just above the purple-ellipse layer by clicking that tiny “Add new layer” button and note that Layer 3 appears. With the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” draw another ellipse over the existing purple ellipse, but keep it centered within and make it smaller than the purple ellipse. Now press keyboard keys ‘D’ and then ’X’ to set the Foreground color to White and then press “Alt-Backspace” to fill the new ellipse with White. There you go it’s a white ellipse within a light-purple ellipse. Press “Ctrl-D” to deselect the white ellipse. From the Menu Bar select “View/Clear Guides.”

 

Step 7. Make the purple-ellipse layer active by clicking the “Layer 2” title. On the Menu Bar choose “Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur” and then set the Gaussian Blur “Radius” to “75.0.” That should produce a nicely blurred elliptical area behind the white ellipse.

 

Step 8. Guess what? Select the white-ellipse layer and repeat the Gaussian Blur procedure exactly as in Step 7.

 

Comment: Note the white-spot effect centered behind our model, the lovely Splashette. Nice huh? Not really because there should be a reflection on a highly reflective showroom floor, right? With stray light from a bright spotlight one might expect a fairly strong reflection with a fair amount of color from the subject. As it is the poor dear is hanging in the air with no grounding reference at all. Besides, where’s the polished floor?

 

Step 9. Click the “Layer 1” title to select the Splashette layer. Now press “Ctrl-J” two times to duplicate the Splashette layer twice, and verify that two new layers named “Layer 1 copy” and “Layer 1 copy 2” appear on the Layer Pallet. Woohoo, is this cool or what?

 

Step 10. Note that you have the original Splashette layer and two duplicates of that layer. Select the topmost layer, “Layer 1 copy 2.” Press keyboard key ‘D’ to set the foreground color to black. Press “Shift-Alt-Backspace” to fill the topmost Splashette layer with black. Of course the only thing on that layer is the selected image of Splashette. Of course the black fill hides the Splashette layers below. On the Layer Pallet click the “Opacity” slider and move the slider to “60%.” Note that the underlying “Layer 1 copy” image now shows through the black-layer image somewhat. Finally press “Ctrl-E” on the keyboard to merge the two top layers. Observe that “Layer 1 copy” still exists as a low-opacity merged layer.

 

Comment: Finally we have a context for a realistic reflection so here comes the fun part. Let’s get Splashette planted on that shiny floor rather than just floating in midair.

 

Step 11. Press “Ctrl-T” to bring up the “Free Transform” dialog and then Right-Click within the “Free Transform” bounding-lines to access a pop-up Transformation menu. Choose “Flip vertical” and note that the “Layer 1 copy” image flips completely upside down. Press the “Enter” key to commit the vertical-flip transformation.

 

Step 12. Click and drag the “Layer 1 copy” layer down below “Layer 1.” From the Toolbar select the “Move Tool.” Hold the “Shift” key down while clicking the darkened image by the hand and dragging it straight down until it is just below and touches the underside of Splashette’s lighted hand as a true reflection should.

 

Comment: Aha, here’s our first encounter with the geometric issues of vanishing-point perspective. Even though Splashette’s hand is properly reflected just look what happened to her reflection at the shoes. From her stance it should be clear that Splashette’s left hand was actually a bit closer to the camera than her left foot. Worse than that her right hand was well back from the camera. Just look where the reflection of her right hand wound up. Result is that this simple reflection doesn’t match up with Splashette’s spatial geometry. Gosh I never thought I would get to use that phrase in a sentence … “Splashette’s spatial geometry.” So this introduces the difficult issues for Part 2 of this lesson. For Part 1 we shall make do with some crude editing.

 

Step 13. For the shoe reflection press “Ctrl-T” to bring up the “Free Transform” bounding box once again. Hover the cursor just outside the top-right corner of the bounding box until a small curved rotation-arrow cursor appears and then drag the reflection a few degrees of counter clockwise rotation. Hold the “Shift” key down while you click and drag the reflection up to align both the left-hand end and the shoe end of the reflected image just below the lighted image. Repeat this procedure until you find a combination of rotation angle and vertical alignment that produces the best-possible alignment of the reflection.

 

Step 14. So now you have that orphaned reflection of the right hand. What to do? Well, shoot, let’s do something embarrassingly quick-and-dirty. On the Toolbar select the “Clone Stamp Tool” and clone the right hand reflection to a position just under the lighted right hand. Now select the “Eraser Tool” from the Toolbar and carefully erase the misplaced hand from the reflected image.

 

Final Comments: There you have it, a decent spotlight effect, an image of the lovely Splashette in a compromising position, and a related reflection from a seemingly polished floor that will satisfy casual viewers that don’t suffer from the photo editing disease.

 

2d25de22-2518-42a3-a1fc-0e8513c8c5d1.jpg

 

What you also have is an introduction to the spatial-geometry challenges of edited images in general and cast reflections in particular. Part 2 of this lesson will explore some techniques for preparing reflections that are in harmony with the spatial geometry of an original image. (Good gosh, now I’ve got to figure out how to do that.)

 

Part 2 of this lesson will be added to this Forum post as a Quoted section. That way the lesson will be intact. Of course I realize that doing so will force you readers to keep track of two rather than one page of the “SD Banter” Forum thread. Still, can you beat the price?

 

As always I will review this presentation in time to make an editorial pass to correct noted errors and omissions. I look forward to seeing a few posted results.

 

Enjoy.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Lesson 10. Cast Reflections

Cool, another lesson. We check out of the hotel this morning and meet the movers at our new house. The Cable guy shows up tomorrow to hook up cable/internet. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I will have my office set up and can give the lesson a shot! :)

Thanks for posting that Harmon! Can't wait to try it out! By the way....I stopped by that waypoint this weekend but it was missing! :)

 

Good luck moving Dave! Now you'll get to experience the true joy of living in snow country.......shoveling your driveway! :lol: Just wait until the plow drives by and leaves a 3 foot high pile of snow and slush at the bottom of your driveway that has turned to ice by the time you wake up to shovel! :lol:

Edited by TrailGators
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By the way....I stopped by that waypoint this weekend but it was missing!  :)

With all that traffic passing those compromising positions caches I'm not surprised that an instruction plate is missing. Maybe somebody tried to get into one of the positions and failed. Probably took the plate with them when they got hauled off on a gurney.

 

When I look back through the new lesson I'm always pleased with that image of Spashette in the crosshairs. She's probably busy due to the impending holiday but soon I expect a pointed post from that little girl. I'll just bet that Splashman is thrilled that Splashette is still so flexible.

 

By the way, while preparing Lesson 10 I was reminded of the sky and reflection that was added to the Mono Lake vacation shot of your son Trevor. That reflection was produced in much the same way as the methods described in the latest lesson. The significant difference is that the Mono Lake reflection appear to emanate from the mirrored surfaces of the lake and the puddles. For that situation much more color and clarity must be preserved. Also a blend effect must be used to retain the texture of the waves and ripples on the water surface.

 

681b90b3-9b50-499b-a03c-a037192d0d2e.jpg

 

The sky was a painting and the reflections were fabricated. Unreal.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Speaking of panoramic photographs, here's a three-frame panorama of the lovely trail near the new IHO Harmon cache by Yeshua's Girls.

 

snip

SWEET photo! This trail was one of the first trails I rode my bike down when I first moved out to Ramona, that is why I'm still here!

 

I bagged that cache at night and my flashlight died out right around those boulders....I swear I saw a mountain lion. :unsure:

 

PW

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Speaking of panoramic photographs, here's a three-frame panorama of the lovely trail near the new IHO Harmon cache by Yeshua's Girls.

 

snip

SWEET photo! This trail was one of the first trails I rode my bike down when I first moved out to Ramona, that is why I'm still here!

 

I bagged that cache at night and my flashlight died out right around those boulders....I swear I saw a mountain lion. :unsure:

 

PW

Yeah, and that mountain lion scared a tiny bottle of Passing Wind out of you didn't it? Check out my log entry to see what I ran into this morning along that trail.

 

Harmon

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By the way....I stopped by that waypoint this weekend but it was missing!  :lol:

With all that traffic passing those compromising positions caches I'm not surprised that an instruction plate is missing. Maybe somebody tried to get into one of the positions and failed. Probably took the plate with them when they got hauled off on a gurney.

 

When I look back through the new lesson I'm always pleased with that image of Spashette in the crosshairs. She's probably busy due to the impending holiday but soon I expect a pointed post from that little girl. I'll just bet that Splashman is thrilled that Splashette is still so flexible.

 

By the way, while preparing Lesson 10 I was reminded of the sky and reflection that was added to the Mono Lake vacation shot of your son Trevor. That reflection was produced in much the same way as the methods described in the latest lesson. The significant difference is that the Mono Lake reflection appear to emanate from the mirrored surfaces of the lake and the puddles. For that situation much more color and clarity must be preserved. Also a blend effect must be used to retain the texture of the waves and ripples on the water surface.

 

681b90b3-9b50-499b-a03c-a037192d0d2e.jpg

 

The sky was a painting and the reflections were fabricated. Unreal.

I remember that one! That one was awesome! Harmon, you captured a kid that was really enjoying the moment chasing millions of flies in a very unique spot in California. There is no doubt that one was one of your best Photoshops! I would be cool to get the original; print it out; and hang it on the wall! Trevor really got a kick out of it too! As far as Photoshop I'm a long ways away from creating something close to that. I did order that Photoshop book you recommended, so with a lot of reading and practice someday maybe someday I might be able to create a work of art your "Lord of the Flies" piece! :unsure:

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YMS #13 Parsa on the bomb-proof Wildcat using Photoshop Vanishing Point Filter.

 

4fd89c9f-4260-4161-9878-ca3f30215e61.jpg

 

With regard to the Cast Relections lesson, as in Lesson 10, Part 2, how many interested participants actually have Photoshop CS2? Check the "Help/About Photoshop" information to verify that you have "Photoshop Version 9.0."

 

The reason I ask is to decide whether or not to include steps for the "Vanishing Point Filter" and/or the "Transform/Warp" editing feature. Otherwise the effort will be limited to less sophisticated editing steps much like the steps in Lesson 10, Part 1.

 

Of course if there's a small number of participants that do have Photoshop CS2 and have an interest and need to master the Vanishing Point filter then I will cover that subject in another lesson.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Hi Harmon, I made it to Step 5 and could not find the "Elliptical Marquee Tool"?

 

Step 5. We will now add the first of two new layers for the spotlight effect. First of all at the very bottom of the Layer Pallet click the tiny “Add a new layer” button and verify that Layer 2 has appeared. From the Toolbar select the “Elliptical Marquee Tool”

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Hi Harmon, I made it to Step 5 and could not find the "Elliptical Marquee Tool"?

 

Step 5. We will now add the first of two new layers for the spotlight effect. First of all at the very bottom of the Layer Pallet click the tiny “Add a new layer” button and verify that Layer 2 has appeared. From the Toolbar select the “Elliptical Marquee Tool”

On the Toolbar, right-click the Rectangular Marquee Tool and then select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the pop-up window. The button actually has a circular marquee icon on it.

 

00d2e7fb-825f-45e5-8ac3-3c802b3a70a1.jpg

 

Delighted that you found time to explore the lesson.

 

Start the ellipse from the lower-left quarter of the frame and draw it out toward the right to get the size and position you want. It will take a few tries so just use Ctrl-Alt-Z to get rid of the ellliptical selections you aren't happy with.

 

Say, you've got a great chance to be FTP on this expercise. You can beat ol' Rocket Man to the punch.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Thanks for Lesson 10 Harmon!!!  :lol:

Here is my stab at it.....drum roll...........

aa89c930-c409-4460-991b-767ecbf96b50.jpg

That was a fun lesson!

I guess I made my white elipse a little bigger than you did and it created a different effect....

It was great how you showed us all those shortcuts!  ;)

Hey! that's a great spotlight effect and the cast-reflection is terrific too. Nice job all around even including the excellent selection. From neophyte to expert in ten short lessons. Who knew?

 

Yes, I figured that it was time to start throwing the shortcut keys at you. The odd and unusual thing is that when you master the Vanishing Point filter you are forced to use a few shortcut keys. You'll see.

 

So you win First to Post (FTP) honors. Ol' Rocket Man must be stuck in the snow.

 

So now lets see a reflection cast onto water so's you have to apply a blending technique to preserve the texture of the water surface.

 

Ain't that Janie th' cutest thang? I can't wait to 'shop a photo of PW doing that same compromising position. Bwah-hah-hah!

 

Harmon

Edited by SD Rowdies
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So you win First to Post (FTP) honors. Ol' Rocket Man must be stuck in the snow.

No, not stuck in the snow, just buried under mounds of moving boxes. It's a good thing we have a basement to put all of our stuff in. We have a few more days of work still and I was originally thinking we could finish yesterday. Then we have company through the holidays. It may be a while before I get around to that lesson, but it is on my list to do once things calm down. Thanks for posting it Harmon.

 

RM

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