Arch Rock (Graphic Novel filter)

Arch Rock is one of the more highly photographed features of Mackinac Island. I know that I've seen lots of different postcards, going back... a long time. One of my favorites has a little sailboat crossing underneath the bridge of stone. Here's my picture of Arch Rock, processed with the Graphic Novel filter. Thanks for stopping by!

Garrison Road by the Cemetery (Graphic Novel filter)

Here's another memory from Mackinac Island, walking down Garrison Road in the late fall next to the cemetery. Once again, I like what the Graphic Novel filter has done for the trees, with its swirly cartoonishness. Thanks for stopping by!

Late Fall Colors, Sunrise on the Lake (Graphic Novel filter)

A problem I've had with my graphic novel images is that the colors tend to get toned down significantly as I merge the color image into the black and white image. (I usually use something around 60-70% opacity, so as not to lose the effect of the filter.) The color image here worked well, I believe, because the HDR with which I was working was very much overblown. Here, they look quite normal for fall (late fall) colors. 

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Keep Off (Graphic Novel filter)

Island Trees and Waves (Graphic Novel filter)

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Yellow Butterfly, Red Flowers (Graphic Novel filter)

Today's photo proved an interesting challenge. As I shot the butterfly (that doesn't sound good...), there was something about my shutter speed that was just too slow; the wings kept blurring. I tried to compensate by making the image darker (stepping down my exposure bias), which gave me a quicker shutter speed but made the image noisy, at least when I brought the light levels up using HDR processing with Photomatix. When I took the resulting image through Photoshop for the Graphic Novel filter effect, I was a little surprised at how light the butterfly turned out. Also, once the color was removed from the image, I was struck by how... weedy the red flower appeared. I'm not sure that adding the color back into the Graphic Novel filtered image helped. I guess I'll chalk this one up to a learning experience. Thanks for stopping by!  

Butterfly Out of Focus (Graphic Novel filter)

In this image, the butterfly (which seems to be the focal point of the image) is really background imagery, as the focus of the image is clearly upon the colorful flowers in the foreground. ('Clearly,' that was a really bad pun.) Thanks for stopping by!

Orange Butterfly Redux(ed again) (Graphic Novel filter)

I seem to be doing the challenge where I redo all of my pictures to see in which Photoshop filter I like them best. So far, the Graphic Novel filter is my new favorite, though I have in no way even come close to having even sampled the various filters available in Photoshop. Also, I have adopted a layering style in which I layer together several different versions of the image from light to dark, creating (maybe) a pseudo-HDR effect. (Although again, I usually process my images first in Photomatix for HDR, because HDR images tend to do a better job of being picked up by the filters.)

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Little Island of Trees (Graphic Novel filter)

Yes, this really is a little island of trees. From the first picture (processed with the Graphic Novel filter), my first impression was that it was a little flame-ball island. The second picture (color layered in) made it a green flame-ball. They really are trees, though, and it really is an island. ;)

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Water and Trees (Graphic Novel filter)

Straight out of the box, one of the more frustrating experiences that I had with my Sony NEX cameras was a dirty sensor. When I took today's picture almost five years ago, I was on a trip and was still learning how to use the cameras. It was only later that I was really saddened to see all of these little spots on my images. (In order to try to avoid dust, I assembled the lens and the body right out of the box.) It really made me wonder how folks like Trey Ratcliff and some of these others do it, especially with all of his sunset and open sky landscape images that are prime for exposing this type of blemish.

Well, with the Graphic Novel filter, I was able to use "hard edges," which is a lighter setting, for which the sky (and my spots) were too light to pull into the image, while yet retaining enough of an image for what you see below.

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Boat on the Lake (Graphic Novel filter)

Impressionistic. I think that's the word that I'm looking for to describe these Graphic Novel filter images. (At least, that's the word I think that I'm looking for....) In these images, the trees don't look like trees, but like little swirly blobs in the background. Ok, the boat looks like a boat, and the water... But the trees are very impressionistic, right? Right?

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Shadow Self-Portrait on a Wall of Rock (Graphic Novel filter)

Trucks Crossing Mackinac Bridge at Sunset, 2013 (Graphic Novel filter)

The original HDR image has much more fire to the clouds (the layering process tempers the original image,) but I was interested to see how it would turn out using the Graphic Novel filters. It's still a rather striking image. Thanks for stopping by!

Trees and Grass (Graphic Novel filter)

The parts that I like best in these tree images are the tangled branches and the grass. I really like how they turn out in the Graphic Novel filter. Thanks for stopping by!

Hotel Lobby Christmas Tree (Graphic Novel filter)

This is the end of this particular set of hotel lobby photos from a few years ago, newly processed with the Graphic Novel filter. I was a little concerned about how the window reflections would turn out, but the filter seems to have flattened them. (Perhaps this is more due to removing the color from the image, rather than the filter?) Thanks for stopping by!

Decorative Wreath (Graphic Novel filter)

Here it is practically Valentine's Day, and I'm still going with the Christmas decorations... I'm not sure what more to say about the Graphic Novel filter that I haven't already said. I like how it picks up on details, how it makes an image "cartoonish", or maybe "coloring book-ish". Thanks for stopping by!

Poinsettia on Table with Exit (Graphic Novel filter)

In addition to the ornamentation on the table, I also like the parts where the texture and patterns are brought out in the wood. Thanks for stopping by!

Chair and a Lampstand (Graphic Novel filter)

I'm noticing that fabric tends to come out well in these graphic novel filtered images. I like the texture when I look at the image close-up. Thanks for stopping by!

Chair and a Bookcase (Graphic Novel filter)

This is another redo of an image from a hotel lobby. I really like the close-up view of the pattern on the chair as it is processed with the Graphic Novel filter, which has become one of my favorite ways to process images. I like the texture, the cartoonesque feeling to the image when you look at it close-up. Thanks for stopping by! 

Hotel Lobby Flashback (Graphic Novel filter)

The photos that I took in this hotel lobby a few years ago are among some of my favorites. I have taken this planter decoration photo and processed it with Photoshop's Graphic Novel filter. I like the texture, the cartoonization (I know, I made that up,) that you get with the application of the filter, which makes it one of my favorites. Thanks for stopping by and looking at my pictures!

Mall Christmas Decorations (Graphic Novel filter)

I think that the palm trees (are they palm trees?) wrapped in Christmas lights are pretty sweet here on the holiday beach scene. The color version is better for making the lights more than little specks of white. The black and white is probably better for seeing the texture of the Graphic Novel filter. (I left the bw at full-size and shrank the color down to x-large.) Thanks for stopping by!

Mall Lights in December (Graphic Novel filter)

Strings of lights in black and white look something like jungle vines hanging from the ceiling than a colorful display of holiday cheer. Still, I like the lines of the hanging lines juxtaposed against the lines of the ceiling in the background. Shoppers blur their way across yet more lines, walking beside the railing on their way to the stores. Yes, I know it's not December anymore (and hopefully spring is just around the corner,) but I was thinking back and enjoying the memories. Thanks for stopping by!

Meerkats at the Zoo (Graphic Novel filter)

(These images may not be reused.)

When I think of meerkats, I think of them as being social animals, always tending to hang out in groups. This may be because, when I see meerkats pictured, they're usually pictured in... groups. I would say that I singled these meerkats out for individual photos just to be different, but the real reason was that their buddy in the middle moved during the shot, rendering himself a blur. So... Here are his more stationary friends in photos of their own. Thanks for stopping by!

Rhinoceros at the Zoo (Graphic Novel filter)

Here is another zoo photo (sorry, this image may not be reused) from a trip that I took a few years back. The rhinoceros was not much interested in posing, but it was interested in eating. Here, I have processed the image with Photoshop's Graphic Novel filter. I like how all of the wrinkles are highlighted. Thanks for stopping by!

Lion at the Zoo (Graphic Novel filter)

I've decided again to post my image (sorry, this image may not be reused) at full-size so that you can see all of the details from the Graphic Novel filter. The image is a zoo lion from a number of years back, hanging out on a large rock (fooling the tourists into thinking it was lazy and harmless?)  I think one of the things that the Graphic Novel filter accomplishes is a sensory overload; it brings out details in the image that you might otherwise overlook. (At least, I might otherwise overlook.) After processing an image with the Graphic Novel filter, I find myself looking at all sorts of line details that I hadn't otherwise noticed or paid much attention to. Are these details all that important? Perhaps not, yet I still find them interesting to look at. The effect reminds me of a highly detailed coloring book. 

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Cat Face (Graphic Novel filter)

I wanted to call this "unnecessary zoom on a cat," but decided against it. Cats roam our neighborhood and from time to time get close enough for a picture. This image, an older image, I processed with the Graphic Novel filter for its special drawn effect. Thanks for stopping by!

Phoebe in the Leaves (Graphic Novel filter)

As I have been poking around on Photoshop's Graphic Novel filter, I have usually been using the Painted Gray preset, adjusting the darkness level to get three shades to layer together at varying opacity levels. In addition to the Painted Gray (top), I also played around a little bit with the Twisted Plot preset, which as more of a hard black and white feel to it. It's difficult to put into words, but it's perhaps easier to see as you compare the two photos below. The top definitely has a grayness to it; does the second have a twisted plot? 

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