Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Rich Legg is a photographer from Utah. He recently announced a photo shopping contest on his site. i was lucky quick enough to be selected as one of the 5 to submit results.

I have posted my two separate entries to this site and also to my photo archive and the technical and artistic reasons behind my edits are listed below.

Here's my reasoning and technical data
I looked at the photo and it seemed to be a pretty candid shot snapped mid action, but when I thought about it from the perspective of the couple, there was obviously going to be some memories associated with the event. It was obviously a staged candid shot. The railway tracks and the way they were dressed and walking holding hands suggested that a photographer had set this shot up for them – maybe as a anniversary special photo occasion or something. So while wild fantasies of photo shopping an old fashioned steam train in behind them to make them look as if they were in danger crossed my mind (in fact I even found some suitable photos) I didn't attempt this. Instead I reasoned that the couple would be interested in framing this photo on their wall as a memory of this event or time in their lives. So I created two different looks and borders that would lend themselves to printing on canvas or photo paper and framing with a nice frame.
Technical
Shot 1 – the sepia image. First I tightened the shot by cropping substantially. I then copied this onto a larger white canvas to create a large margin. I then changed the image to black and white using a gradient adjustment layer and then added a colour adjustment layer of sepia. I then created a slightly larger selection in the background and filled this with black to give the old time real photo look of the black edges and sepia tone. I then added the text at the bottom. This would look good in an old wooden frame – probably 2-3 inches in width in an old fashioned style.
Shot 2 – the soft edges. Once again I tightened the shot by cropping the extraneous material. I then create a border inside the edge and feathered this by 170 pixels. I then selected the inverse and deleted to create the soft edges. This would look good on a matt photo paper and framed in a thin metal frame, gold or maybe silver.

Welcome to my Mum and Dad who are now reading this blog using an RSS Reader. Thanks to my brother Jono who set it up for them.

You can't be serious?

I think the United States Education System is in serious trouble. Watch this YouTube video to see what I mean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

They seriously need spelling, geometry, geography (local and international), history and current affairs fixed!

Here are some interesting links I have found lately.

fitsugar.com/ My wife actually found this one and reads the health and exercise sections, food and products combined with some celeb fitness, shopping, fashion and tech.

This group of commonly branded websites targets web savvy, body conscious women. The sub headings include:

sugarloving.com/ Link love

popsugar.com/ The insanely addictive

buzzsugar.com/ Entertainment hourly