Trolling Firas: Photoshop in the Wrong Hands

I mentioned on Monday that I was asked to photograph our company's annual party. I  set up a photo opportunity at the entry where anyone who wanted to could have their photo taken behind a life ring with the company logo and party date on it. My good friend Firas opted not to stand behind the buoy, so I snapped a few photos of him as he walked past. This was the best, and I sent it to him today. He works in another office, so we e-mailed about the photo a few times.


Firas: Hey, can you make my mouth look different? Better?
Me: Sure.


Firas: No, that's not my mouth! Your work is not good. :(
Me: Just to warn you, you're about to get trolled.


Me: Is this more what you were looking for?
Firas: Now I have twice as many problems!


Me: You don't have to worry about your mouth any more.
Firas didn't actually respond to that. I like to think it's because his mouth was sealed shut.

Firas called me and we had a pretty good laugh about it, so everything was taken in the humor I intended. In fact, he and I were laughing so loudly that my entire office area left their cubes to come see what was so funny. They had some pretty strong laughs, too.

The moral: I'll gladly take Photoshop requests, but I can't promise I won't troll you.

I'm on a Boat

Originally, I planned to share some photos from a recent softball game. Instead, I elected to share some photos from my company's annual employee appreciation party. On Wednesday, I'll have some more. This year's party was on the California Spirit, a Hornblower ship. My company does a good job with the annual party. This year, I spent most of it working as the company photographer, but still managed time to take a few photos for myself.


Outside Sausalito, about halfway through the night, we passed a number of boats moored in the bay. I mostly used manual focus lenses that night. This was with my Vivitar 135mm 1:2.8. This lens has always performed very well and is one of my favorite short-length telephoto lenses.


More boats.


Before everyone arrived, I took some establishing shots to chronicle some of the night's events. Each year we have gaming tables (though we're not allowed to use actual money and when you run out the dealers just hand out more chips... Yeah, I know...) Of the Blackjack and Roulette table photos, this was the best.


The Bay Bridge West Span.


The Golden Gate Bridge


Another shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.


While shooting the boat photos above, I noticed the XO outside the cabin, getting some fresh air. I managed this shot.

Shipspotting

I took the FTN out last Tuesday to see if it had bad light seals or the roll of film I'd previously used in it had a flaw. This camera needs new light seals, and I have to order the material for that this week. It may be a fun how-to blog to share the repair process for that.

For added contrast, I used a red filter. That darkened the sky and lightened all the reds. The results weren't too shabby.


1/1000th at f22. Darkened the sky a bit with the gamma function. The best shot from this roll, I think.


1/1000th at f22. It would have been great had the bird been facing me, but regardless there's not tons to be mad about here. I cloned the left side and dropped it on the right. This preserved the original image and repaired damage caused by the light leak.


1/1000th at f22. Darkened the sky a bit to correct some over-exposure. There's a horizontal line going across the image, a bit wavy. I left it in. That's a stratline and results from dirt in the film cassette felt or a burr on the camera body where the film crosses, among other causes. Those causes both result in perfectly straight stratlines, though. I'm not sure what caused this as I didn't touch the negative until after it dried. And at that, didn't touch the emulsion. If it happens again, it will warrant further investigation.


1/500th f11. A different kind of bird.


1/1000th, f22. Very grainy. The developer was, I think, past its usable lifespan.


1/500th, f16. Here you can see mild damage caused by the light leak. On many images, this was substantially worse.


1/250th, f22. Another image damaged by light leak, so I had to again clone the left side and put it on the right.