Images of newborn lambs

Here are two of the photos I took at a farm in the Yorkshire Dales we went to where lambs were being born.

The story and the rest of the images are at Quillcards Blog.

Enjoy!

 

Llama with its ears back

For anyone who wonders what the tell-tale signs are that a llama is about to spit a mouthful of straw and spittle, ears back and head reared back are the things to look out for – as here.

Nikon D60 with 18-55mm lens at ISO400 1/125 second at f5.6

It snowed yesterday

It snowed yesterday and the trees were laden with the lightest of fresh snow

Apropos of nothing, I watched a program on the television recently where a man showed that as often as not, water needs a seed for it to turn to ice when it is cooled below zero degrees centigrade (32˚ Fahrenheit).

It completely undermines one of those basic facts that I always believed to be true. It was an eye opener not just because of what I learned to un-learn about water, but because it has taught me that there may be many things I may need to unlearn.

Back to the photo. It is now an ecard at Quillcards for distinctive ecards, and it makes a pretty picture to send to a friend or family, whether as a birthday card or just to say hello.

Rosa Parks

 

The rose on the right is a duplicate of the one on the left. I used Displacement Map in Photoshop to alter it.

Go to Distort > Displacement Map, and it will ask you for an image to use as a displacement map. Which means you need an image to use for that purpose. I recommend something that has ‘dramatic’ lines to it, such as the black and white image below. I made the image totally in Photoshop by drawing black lines and then copying and re-copying sections of it across the image.

 

 

And the following shots of Big Ben show what using that displacement map can produce.

 

 

And now, abracadabera:

Digital Black and White and toning

There’s a nice article by David Clapp in Amateur Photographer (Edition of Saturday, November 1st, 2008, but it came out last Tuesday the 28th October) describing how to make black and white versions of images.

It involves making an adjustment layer (layer, new adjustment layer, channel mixer), checking the monochrome box and moving the sliders (keeping the totals to 100%).

Then open another adjustment layer (layer, new adjustment layer, color balance) checking the shadows radio button and adding around 5% blue and cyan.

Then, in the same color balance layer, check the highlight radio button and increase red and yellow by about 5%.

Another way to make an adjustment layer in CS3 is to click on the little half black – half white circle at the bottom of the layers palette and choose the appropriate option.

I tried it and found that by moving the sliders beyond the amounts recommended in the article, is an easy and elegant way to alter the overall colour tone of an image. It is easier and offers most control than converting to Black and White and then to duotone. 

Sheep in black and white