Image Manipulation Accreditation
Image Manipulation Accreditation
Before and after showing some of the pieces that went into my award-winning pet portrait “Modern Family”. This planned composite image would have been a lot easier to put together if I hadn’t forgotten my tripod that day! Fortunately, I had a monopod in the car, so I was able to mark a spot on the floor with tape and make do.
Ok, this was probably the most fun I’ve had putting together an accreditation submission so far. This week, a panel of judges from the Professional Photographers of Canada accepted my Image Manipulation accreditation with an overall score of “very good”.
Before and after showing changing the seasons from summer to winter in this image of two horses running.
This accreditation is a little different than most, because we had to submit at least two photos for all 10 images; one or more “before” images together, and then the final product.
Before and after portrait of 3 Newfoundland dogs, showing a head swap, removal of leashes and owners’ arms, moving a fencepost behind the dogs to a better place in the composition, and more.
“Examples should include at
least five (5) of the following:
1. Removing people, objects or color from a photograph
2. Adding people, objects or color to an image
3. Major restoration of damaged images
4. Combining several elements from more than two images
5. Moving objects within a photograph
6. Cloning objects.
The final image should be realistic and follow normal conventions of light, shading, commercial or
general areas. ”
A before and after showing 3 original images of a sunset at Point Wolfe Beach in Fundy National Park, and the finished image after exposure blending using luminosity masking and HDR techniques.
Reality doesn’t interest me much. Don’t we all get enough of that in our day to day lives? I love creating images where things are as (I think) they should be!
The before image of this joyful jumping puppy wasn’t anything special, but with a “little” photoshop work, it went on to win third place in an international photography competition!
This puppy could only be safely photographed in his own backyard, but there was chainlink fence in the background, and a lot of leaf litter on the ground. Some added background blur (bokeh), and clover from a shoot I did years ago in another province took it from “ok” to “oh wow”.
Before and after showing a conversion to dramatic black and white for this portrait of a very regal looking English Cocker Spaniel.
I love vibrant colour. Maybe it’s making up for all the goth years I spent dressed in head to toe black. At any rate, I rarely convert my images to black and white, but when I do, I usually love the results.
Before and after showing the images I composited together to put a salamander on top of a mushroom.
Sometimes, it wouldn’t be safe or ethical to create an image in real life. Salamanders have a slime coating that protects them, and handling them can harm them. Also, I have no idea if the mushroom might be toxic to such a delicate little creature, and I wouldn’t have wanted to risk him falling.
This is one of the first composites I attempted, and to be honest, I don’t love it now, except for the silhouette of the salamanders foot showing through the mushroom. I think that is what really sells the image, and I owe a shout out to my partner (and eagle eyed critic), Graham, who insisted I had to figure out a way to do it.
Sometimes, a scene is just too big to capture it all in one frame. There are a lot of those kinds of scenes in Newfoundland, where I captured this 6 image panorama on the Skerwink Trail.
I don’t have much to say about this panorama except that it was an awe inspiring place to be. If you haven’t visited Newfoundland, do it. (As soon as Covid is over).
A before and after portrait of a German Shorthaired Pointer in autumn at Centennial Park, Moncton. After image shows leash removal, changing the colour of the foliage, and cloning in a raised paw from a different image.
One of the things I love best about image manipulation is that it allows me to photograph pets safely on leash at the location, and then remove it later in Photoshop. Also, is it me, or are the leaves changing later and later every fall? We pushed it into November for this session, and I still needed to help the colours along!
Before and after, showing the images I put together to create my portrait of a Persian cat and a Sphynx on a bookshelf, titled “A Tail of Two Kitties”.
This is a personal favourite, of course, because it features my own cats, Stompin’ Tom and Trillian. I have a large, framed canvas print of this, hanging over that bookshelf. Sometimes, the sphynx jumps up there and sits under the portrait, which makes me happy.
The press release from my 2021 Accreditation in Image Manipulation from Professional Photographers of Canada.
