Lights, Camera, Action!

Warning: Photo-intensive post.

These past few days DH and his cohorts have been busy filming short films for their class at the MDA Film Institute. MIL's house has been overran with camera crew, catering crew, gofers, gaffers, producers, actors like Meryl Soriano, Ina Feleo and Jao Mapa, and a few others I missed because I wouldn't go out with my hair uncombed lest I be caught on tape. I swear I will go to the parlor first if ever they get John Lloyd to play a role.

They usually work at nights for better lighting, so puyatan talaga sila. Even Diego got into the spirit of things. When DH was directing his short, he was the one who shouted "Quiet in the set" and "Action!" I think he picked up a few cuss words along the way, too. :-(

So with DH busy mastering his new craft, I had the laptop all to myself. Looking at the photos I have somewhat alleviated my disappointment about not getting that DSLR camera I've been wanting since two Christmases ago. My point and shoot Nikon, which I bought 4 years ago for $500 (the price of a DSLR now!), still works quite well. Sure, it only has 3 effective mega-pixels and the battery cover has to be held together by tape, but I've been able to get decent photos using it. The way things are going, I should be happy I have a working camera at all.

I usually just crop or clone out distracting objects from my photos, but this time I played with some Photoshop actions I purchased early last year. When I realized I wasn't getting a new DSLR anytime soon, I thought buying actions on line was a cheaper alternative. (Well, only if you use them.) I experimented quite a bit and was thrilled to discover that I can layer actions upon actions. I love the results. But please don't ask me what specific actions I used to achieve certain effects because I was way too trigger-happy and I didn't take notes of the clicks I did. In some cases I just blended like crazy and used available Photoshop presets.

Love that glow, Diego looks lit up from behind, and look, Ma, no lantern (which was made by Kahlo, by the way.)

Before

After

Sarah is ready for her closeup, zooming in tighter, some digital makeup and voila!

Before

After

I just love those eyes and wanted to play them up a bit.

Before

After

Just traded that grayish pallor for some sunshiney glow. Yup, she is one serious girl. Seriously.

Before

After

Love the expression on her face but the original photo was a bit too orange for my taste. A few adjustments with opacity here and there...

Before

Somewhere in the middle

After

DH is not a fan of the last version, but I'm thinking it would look great on textured paper. How about you, which version do you prefer?

This exercise made me realize 1) there are no bad pictures, specially, not with Photoshop; and 2) like what my DH often tells me when I whine about my poor yet trusty point and shoot), "It's not what you've got, it's how you use it." Sabay sayaw. Everybody now...

Don't expect to see these photos on layouts anytime soon though. I am still having way too much fun with Photoshop. It's made me forget (for awhile at least) how much I want that Nikon D90. Sob.

More Ephemera

When it rains, it pours. It all started with the Pinoy Scrapbookers Kaya Challenge when I needed ephemera to scrap. I dug up all my boxes of stuff in the bodega and found, ephemera galore. Truly, my DH and I are such pack rats that sooner or later, our "collectibles" will run us out of the house. Can you imagine the headlines, "Ephemera bury husband and wife. Wife can't scrap fast enough." Hahaha.

But I am enjoying these mini-trips down memory lane. And if I can't scrap just yet, I can scan and upload them in this blog. So be warned. Ephemera coming!


This is a brochure for The Alcove, the photo gallery of the Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL) in Makati. The upper left most photo is of Sarah at less than two years old. It is one of my first photos using my Nikon FM2, my first (and only) fully manual camera, which I bought in 2001. I enrolled at FHL to improve my photography skills, such as they were, a few weeks after I got it. I wanted to learn how to best use my equipment (note: my DH finds this statement funny) to maximize its features. Up until then, I had only used autofocus cameras. At the end of the 4-week workshop, we had to submit photos to our instructors Kat Palasi and Vir Montenegro for critiquing. My photo was chosen one of the three winners and it was used in the FHL brochure.

I kept this because it marks the beginning of my official (it feels more official if you're somewhat published hehe) foray into the wonderful world of capturing images. Now I have to look for the original rolls of film so I can have them scanned to digital files. I wonder under which broken-down piece of furniture I will find the box that contains them?