Content Aware Scaling???

OK, I knew that CS4 was going to be amazing when I bought it last year and it really has been so far. Although, I saw something new for CS4 when looking through the videos on Adobe last year that I haven’t been able to figure out how to do (or find the videos for it again).

What could that be, you ask?

CONTENT AWARE SCALING!!!

I admit, it doesn’t sound too amazing when you just read the name, mainly because it sounds so nerdy. However, it will blow your mind when you know what it actually does.

In the past, whenever you wanted to resize a photo, you would have to crop it to get the composition the way your wanted, but not necessarily the size you wanted. Or you would have to resize it to the correct size, but necessarily have the composition you wanted.

CS4 partly took care of that through Camera Raw with cropping ratios. That way the frame would always be in a standard size after you were done. But it still didn’t help if you had all the components of a good photo, but they were too far apart. So you were really out of luck if that happened.

Not any more.

Notice how far apart the players are in the first photo. Now look at the second photo and see how much closer everything is.

Before:

After:

Now this is not a “get out of jail free” card by any means, but it will help recompose images that might not have worked otherwise. The more complex the image is, the harder it will be for the algorithms to sort things out in the fashion you want.

So start with smaller changes and see if it works before trying again.

Oh, and the special command that works all the magic is:

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C or Command+Option+Shift+C for Macs (after selecting with the marquee tool)

Photos for Christmas: Mine, All Mine

Yup, I’m still working through all the photos I took while out in Arizona.

I know, I know, it’s not exactly “holiday-esque”, but I didn’t want to do another post of photos from around the web.

On the second day of the trip we decided to take a tour of the ASARCO copper mine just outside of Tucson, AZ. Man, talk about a BIG hole in the ground.

It’s more than a quarter mile deep from the top and almost 2 miles wide. The pool at the bottom is even 80 or 90 feet deep past the surface.

Anywho, it’s now Christmas! and I need to go wrap some presents.

Click the link to view the photos.

Gallery: MINE, ALL MINE!!!

Snow, Snow, Snow!

With all the snow we got this past weekend, it’s kind of hard not to get int the holiday spirit. I mean, this will be the first white Christmas I’ve ever had since moving to the DC area.

To be honest, even though I’m sure I had one wayyyyyy back when I was little, this will be the first white Christmas I can ever remember.

So, since I’m in the festive mood (And since the snow is absolutely gorgeous) I figured I’d find some interesting snow photos on flickr to share with all of you.

[click the link to see more photos after the jump]

Photos for Friday: Desert Beauty

Well, it’s Friday again. Man, what a week it has been.

I’m sure all of you want to relax just as much as I do. And, since that’s the case, I figured I’d stick it out and get another set of photos put up from my trip out to Arizona.

Surprisingly, all of these photos came from a 10 minute walk around my Grandparents’ house. OK, I was actually walking around a lot longer than that, but it wouldn’t have taken you more than 10 minutes to get to any of the spots in the photos.

I still can’t believe how gorgeous it is out there. Blue skies as far as the eye can see. Mountains sitting resolutely, securing the sky to where it belongs.

Harsh landscapes that will suck you dry in a matter of hours, yet full of plants and animals thriving everywhere you look.

Click the link to view the photos from my first day out in Arizona.

Gallery: DESERT BEAUTY

Christmas Extravaganza

This weekend I drove down to Richmond to partake in some festivities. Every year quite a few friends all get together to catch up and simply enjoy each others’ company in what we like to call the “Christmas Extravaganza”.

Unfortunately, there weren’t as many people joining in on the fun this year as in the past, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time.

Of course I brought my camera along for the ride. Although, I will admit I was a little more preoccupied with catching up with friends than taking photos. Good thing I forced myself to take a few shots though.

Click the link below to view the gallery.

Gallery: CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA ’09

Photos for Friday: Dulles to Hotlanta

Have you ever wondered what it was like to fly most of the way down the coast at the crack of dawn? For the most part it’s not very fun because you’re up several hours before you want to be. Not only that, but you have to be functioning on top of that.

However, you’re in for a real treat when you get up above the clouds. Talk about a light show.

I had planned on sleeping on my flight to Atlanta before connecting to Tucson, but I had not idea what I was going to see out that little porthole.

Click the link below to view photos from the flight.

Gallery: DULLES TO HOTLANTA

What an Adventure!

If you’ve been reading the blog lately then you know that I’ve been out of town the past couple of days.

I was able to take a nice vacation and swing on over to my grandparents’ house out in Arizona for a little while. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to bring the nice weather back with me to Northern Virginia, though.

The trip in general went by in an instant, but more than enough happened along the way to make it memorable. Specifically the trip out there.

[follow the jump to check out the photos from the first day of the trip]

Lights, Camera, Action!

Hi everyone.

This has been such a short week for me. Mainly it’s because I’m preparing to leave for Arizona in a day. Hopefully I’ll still be able to put up a post or two while I’m out there, though.

With that said, I figured you would get more out of me finding some relevant tutorials than you would if I were to write another post about how tired I am.

Thankfully, for both of us, I was able to find a couple of them that illustrate what I’ve been talking about in my recent posts of using off camera flash and action photography pretty well.

How to Shoot Action Photos

Action photography. It doesn’t have to be limited to sports photos. It can be of you and your friends running through a field while goofing off. It can be a photo of a train rolling through a station. It can be a photo of your dog chasing a squirrel or cat playing with a toy.

The funny thing about action photography, and photography in general really, is that it is very unnatural. Life is constantly moving and flowing. Even at rest we still have things going on around us.

Photos for Friday: Soccer in the Fall

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going out to see my sister’s soccer team make it to the semi-finals of their league’s playoffs. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it to the championship game, but they did put up quite a fight.

The game was so close that they had to go to a shoot out to determine the winner.

Click the link below to view the photos from the game.

 

Gallery: SOCCER IN THE FALL