Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Just Hitched/ Sepia Scenes

Now this is not a common scene these days in East Gwillimbury. Way too cold. Brrrr. This photo was taken last September on a warm day...long before snow fell on East Gwillimbury, as it did last week.

A newly married couple was out and about town, sitting in the front seat of the carriage. The maid of honour and best man were in the rear seat. What a pleasant way to take a breather after the wedding ceremony before heading back to the wedding reception.

I converted the top photo to sepia in PhotoShop Elements by first removing the colour, then adding the filter "color dodge," unchecking the luminosity box. Then I added 90% sepia and finally flattened the image.

I think the carriage still looks too "plastic" of metallic. So for the second photo...

I used PhotoShop Elements' old paper filter to age the photo. Unfortunately, that distorts the faces on the people.

I think changing these photos into sepia tones is still in the experimental stages. Ha! I need to work on this.

To view other Sepia Scenes visit MaryT, theTeach at http://sepiascenes.blogspot.com/

18 comments:

Annie Jeffries said...

Happy times and strikes just the right note for representing another era. We have lots of these wonderful carriages around here for wedding and special occasion rentals. Fun!!

Carletta said...

I really love the effect on the second one!
So fairytale like - I bet the couple would love this!

Mojo said...

I use a really, really old version of Photoshop (5.5) to do mine, and go about it (usually) like this:
1) I tweak the color balance of the original to create what would be a pretty severe red shift if I were going to leave it in color. Crank up the red, magenta and especially the yellow in all three ranges. This enhances the contrast when I convert it to monochrome. Red does that, and no I don't really know why.
2) Desaturate the adjusted image to create a greyscale image -- but don't use the greyscale mode because I want the color information to remain part of the file.
3) Adjust the color balance again pushing the red/yellow scales. You could do this in the channel mixer, the color balance dialog, using compensation curves or you could just use the "Variations" menu option and select "More Red" and "More Yellow" incrementally until you get the tone you want.
4) If the image comes out too brassy, use the Filter->Fadelast effect to dial down the intensity.

And I've saved the "Variations" settings in a file so I can load them for future projects as a baseline.

I don't know if that would solve your "plastic" problem or not, but it's a good place to start.

Incidentally, I thought the first image looked just fine! Even after reading your comments I saw nothing wrong with it.

Becky said...

Great shots. A couple from around here took a ride around town on a hay wagon after their ceremony. Everyone was dressed in cowboy clothing.

Roan said...

I think both shots are perfect. They could have been in September 2008 or September many years ago.

Anonymous said...

I like it! I love that "Just Hitched" note:) Happy Times indeed!~

Mine is, HERE. See yah!

dot said...

Cute pictures! I hope they are still happy in a few years and forever. I think that was a nice beginning.

Small City Scenes said...

Interesting effect. MB

Anonymous said...

Nicely done. Yu are lucky to have snow...

Robin said...

What a great subject for sepia! They look like they've stepped right out of the past.

Rune Eide said...

You do seem to be in an old-fashioned world! B & W is special in some ways, but not in others. Not everyone know that there are many ways of going from colour to B & W without getting the same result.

Thank you for the comment - it was highly relevant. The inscription now seems to be "only" around 1500 years old. My home town was founded in 1070...

Gemma Wiseman said...

The first shot is interesting, but love the effect in the second one!

judi/Gmj said...

yep, this sepia thing is sure fun to play with. You also have a great subject for it. Good job.

me ann my camera said...

How sweet, bridges the generations to celebrate a special day. I prefer the look of the first photo. have a great day.

Jientje said...

I learned a lot again today, this is so interesting how we can learn from one another! I have printed out Mojo's comment, and next time maybe I will give it a try!
I agree, there's nothing wrong with the first one, and they are both very good choices for a Sepia Scenes!

Jan said...

Love the buggy, great job with the sepia.

Dianne said...

I really like these!! Love the way the horse looks in old paper ;)

Jackie said...

Oh my what a lovely subject to choose. A carriage ride. Both shots are great.

Oh wouldn't it be so much fun to go for a ride.

You did a fabulous job. and don't worry about any shininess...I wouldn't have even noticed if you had not pointed it out.

I apologize for being so late in dropping round but I have been bogged down in work.

Mine is here and I would love a visit if you have time.

http://shinade.blogspot.com/2008/11/sepia-scenes-3.html

My PS won't load so I have to work in PSP and it is difficult some times.

Thanks for the lovely share!!:-)

Friends who encourage me

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
East Gwillimbury is a rural town less than an hour north of Toronto, Canada's largest city. My family calls me CameraGirl because I take my camera with me wherever I go.