I've tried to not mix things on one sheet in the past, but since I've added more portraiture to my efforts on behalf of a very diverse clientele, now I'm mixing a lot of things together -- I'm try to show diversity -- including very tight art to very loose brushstrokes especially for backgrounds.

(Download)

Thanks. I’ve been painting and retouching
with a mouse since about 1984. Started
with the Commodore Amiga (16 colors in
hi res which was 640 x 480). What a journey!

Thanks — I will

I'm still doing retouching and photo "enhancing" and for lack of a better word, "artsifying". I do use photography for some portraits and the amount of "enhancing" or "artsifying" is up to the client (and parents and friends).

(Download)

Thanks, Snappy Happy-- and I want to say how important the idea expressed in your quote has been to me:(“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”― Dorothea Lange). When I first got out
of the U.S.C. Cinema Graduate program and then a brief stint in the National Guard (there was a draft in those days-- early 1960s) I managed to land a job as a cameraman assistant to the legendary designer, Saul Bass, to try to implement his very experimental and artistic film ideas for feature film titles and montage sequences. (which I totally loved of course. I was working along side of his main assistant, Elaine, who directed many of these ideas also, and who eventually became Mrs. Elaine Bass and who carries on his work even today-- so I understand) Wow-- I really digress-- Saul's statement to folks about his ideas as a film and title designer was that he tried to see ordinary things in life but in a different, non
-ordinary, artistic way. And he certainly proved that over and over again! His film titles are still artistically awesome today. Once a reviewer commented that if a feature film ("Something Wild") had only been as good as Bass's title for the movie, they might have had something. He used both animation and photography. Sorry-- but I could go on and on about this whole thing . . .. Some of his titles and the films you might recall seeing: Man with a Golden Arm, West Side Story, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, Spartacus, Walk on the Wild Side, Nine Hours to Rama, Ocean's Eleven, It's a Mad, Mad, World . . . and he got an Academy Award for designing/creating the documentary, "Why Man Creates" (which was narrated by Robert Redford).
Anyway, my whole thing is-- back to photography and which cameras can we use and are the best, and pro vs. amateur etc., let's not forget the often overriding idea of having creative and unique artistic visions and ideas as a very important part of the whole joyous mix.

Happy Hedgehoging to all, Tom Miller

(Download)

Thanks, GSCRS-- I've enjoyed both painting in a computer
and fixing photos since the early days of the Commodore Amiga in the early 80s, and I haven't gone back to "regular" art media ever since. Some people liked the fix-ups that they saw me do, somehow my reputation got to a gentleman in San Francisco who had a Yacht touring company in the Bay area, and supposedly I saved him a lot of money for a photo fix-up job I'll include here. (I was working out of my living room in Montana at the time-- it
beats me how he got ahold of me).

(Download)

Wow, Bill, congratulations to you and your wife!!

Please let us know how things go with that new Panny,
and I wish you the very best with Photoshop-- it's truly
a world class, great program--!

Thanks Amy in Sparta.

(Download)

Bill,
Thanks for your interest. I sent out a reply to another UHHer about using the old Paint Shop Pro software programs #6,#7 & #9. I have different reasons for using each of these, but generally the brushes in #9 are more controllable as far as the different shapes, sizes and textures that it offers. Photoshop has some truly great air brushes and many features that are excellent, but I find it a bit too pricey for me, and I've got a lot of momentum on
Paint Shop Pro. PSP #9 took me quite a while, but I finally figured out some of its "tricks for textures". It takes a lot of experimenting. Good cloning brushes are very helpful of course. I'll include here a couple of pieces were I tried to explain and show some of the possibilities within the Digital Art domain-- And as you probably know, if I would spend a month on a digital painting it still wouldn't be worth anything close to what I might do in 2 weeks with oils etc.

Photographically speaking, right now my main tool is a Panasonic FX200 with its 24x optical f 2.8 zoom lens-- (all the way f 2.8).I love it, however, I'd also love to shoot 4K video for video but also as a tool for getting just the right moment for an action still shot some day-- but can't afford that right now. More and more good cameras with 4K video are coming out and I believe that there are a number of good ones by Panasonic and Sony for even close to $1000 or just under.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

Thanks cmc65,
I agree about the kid being removed, but the client was ok to leave him--- so---

anyway, here's my attempt to do a photo retouch job on a precious photo of a daughter and her dad from many years ago (he's passed on now) and to utilize a sort of rough brush stroke background.

and then 2 more attempts to rescue really badly damaged photos-- note the word "attempts". (Clients were happy though)

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

Good eye-- I did do a bit of "reshading" on the cloned leg
and a slight reshaping, but not enough. I'll include a few steps in the process in this reply.

I do appreciate the good thoughts expressed, because this
project was a doozie!

My favorite software programs are the JASC (Originally) Paint Shop Pro programs #6, #7, and #9. I have always found these-- for me anyway-- easier than Photoshop and all of it's iterations and incarnations. But Photoshop does have GREAT airbrushes! And I'm looking forward to some of the newer paint programs with much more control of the brushes so that I can more easily "mimic" real brush strokes if a client wants that. (I'll send a retouch job that I did recently where I faked brush strokes in the background).

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

I think that I have just survived one of my biggest photo retouching challenges and wanted to share it with my UH
compatriots. I'm in my late 70's, a former documentary video director, photographer, editor and digital artist-- and this is what I try to do nowadays to keep off the streets . . ..

(Download)

The "Mona Lisa" was shown both normally and reversed-- what a difference I thought it makes but it's still an amazing picture either way. I was an art major at Carleton College (Minn.) very many years ago and we were told that Renaissance artists would often look at their artwork in a mirror or upside down to see if they wanted or needed to adjust anything. Da Vinci was left handed but also often wrote in reverse-- or as though seeing through a mirror. He almost, I suppose one could argue, obsessed about sacred geometry being used in his compositions, but wanted to be extremely accurate in depicting biology, botany, lighting, etc. And THEN DESPITE ALL THIS is said to have made the following comment, "The eye sees a thing more clearly in dream than the imagination awake." To which I can only say, WOW!!! Now some folks that I know believe that there are matricies, forms and energy that exist in "higher frequecies" than our normal
eyesight can view and that these things are actually more important to what is "real" than the so called "visible" world. I wonder if that was something da Vinci was referring to. The reason I bring this into the conversation is that I believe that what is "beautiful" and what is "artistic", that this is an immense and deep subject! And I certainly congratulate all for their various inputs. Now-- the rule of thirds! It works for me-- but there is so much more-- i.e. creating while in feeling of joy can add a lot to our
compositions. And just capturing a great serendipitous moment in life-- no matter even if somewhat "poorly! composed". But I DO love great framing, lighting, exposure etc. and the excellent equipment that makes it possible.
And I love the UHH FORUM-- (even though I don't understand how an "Ugly Hedge Hog" got to be its name).

Ah well-- pardon the rambling-- it's a great topic!

(Download)


(Download)

Hi, Neil,
My understanding is that the LX 100 is the ongoing evolution of the LX 7 which you use and that Panasonic has put a huge 4/3s sensor in it to really ramp up its still resolution and allow for 4K in video--(from which they claim that you can also grab amazing stills). Anyway you might want to check it out since you like their LX 7, except for the low still resolution.
I believe that its due out next month, but if you Google it now you can read some fascinating reviews that have come out already, and which contain specs.

I want to thank everyone for all of their input!!! NOW I have learned from a good friend and a video/still photographer of much skill-- also a terrific composer-- that Panasonic has just released another 4K camera at about the same price as the FZ1000, the Lumix LX100. However it is a much more compact camera with far less zoom, and has many fine still photo features. I'm wondering what you all think about that. Would it provide sharper images than the FZ1000? (It would apparently allow the photographer to keep a lower profile if that were any concern but doesn't have the same reach).