I’ve become increasingly enamored with Photoshop curves latest, especially for toning monochrome images.

Full article includes Photoshop curves file download

I downloaded a set named “rustica” a year or so back and would love to be able to share those, but I cannot find anywhere to download them currently and don’t know how the original author would feel about having them redistributed. In the meantime, I’ll post a similar Photoshop curves preset that I’ve made with the hope of sharing more in the future.

The file was created with Adobe Photoshop CS5, but I believe it is backward compatible with any CS or later version of Photoshop. I’m not sure about Elements, but you can always try.

Like everything on this site, with the exception of samples of the commercial work I have done for others, these are shared under a Creative Commons license that allows you to use them and share them with attribution but not redistributed them commercially.

Download: Split Tone Strong

I’ve included a zucchini parmesan recipe that would work pretty well with whatever squash and squashlike veggies you have laying around. Like eggplant. Wait.. is eggplant a squash? I don’t know, but this tasted really really good. Really really really good and the instructions are comprised almost entirely of “throw everything in a bowl” which is about my speed. Served here with some Amy’s Tomato Bisque and a slide of fancy focaccia from the Coffee Depot in Christiansburg, Virginia.

Full article includes recipe for zucchini parmesan

Simplest Zucchani Parmesan Ever

Ingredients:

• 1 medium zucchini chopped
• 1 small yellow squash chopped
• .5c small onion chopped
• .25c feta cheese
• 1 medium parsnip chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• .75c Parmesan cheese
• Red pepper flakes to taste (tsp or two)
• Couple dashes of garlic salt

Instructions
Mix everything together and cook in a 9 inch baking pan for 20 minutes.

Notes
Just in the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I don’t think I actually used a measuring cup for any of this. I needed to finish off the feta, the last of a very sad looking onion, and a parsnip that had been in my refrigerator long enough to qualify for rent control. Also, what I call Parmesan cheese is actually Kroger brand “Italian mix.” Would Parmesan have been better? Probably. Half as much for twice the price better? Probably not.

I can’t believe it has been two years since I’ve been down to Mount Rogers. I wish that I could reminisce more about what a magical place it is, it’s unique landscape dotted with wild ponies and wind blown trees, but I’m pretty sick with some sort of summer ick. It is making my head swim pretty badly, so I’ll have to leave you with just a photo.

I needed a good bit of processing on this one to really bring out the mood that I saw in it. The overlay is from my Rollei’s viewfinder, plus a nice rustica curve and some general tweaking.

Well it is amazing what a proper photo store can do for one’s buying. When I was in Columbus, Ohio visiting my sister, we stopped by Cord Camera‘s West Lane Avenue location and I finally decided to join the ranks of gadgethead photogs and bought a proper reflector and a light tent.

The photos above are all taken in my fancy new SystemPro LiteTent. The vacuum tubes are courtesy of my husband’s affinity for everything old and the repair of things that have long since become obsolete. The overlayed image is that of my Rollie (Rolleiflex Automat Model 2 K4B2)’s viewfinder copied as new layer in Photoshop, blended as an overlay, and treated with a curves preset that rather resembled the old Rustica set.

We had a special guest at my parents’ house for Mother’s Day this year. His name is Beauregard Puppyton Strayhound and he is the doggiest dog I have ever met. Ever. “Dog” with all caps and an exclamation mark.

My dad woke up one Saturday morning in April to find a dog crying at the front gate. Dad saw the dog and didn’t understand what a fully grown dog would be doing begging at a stranger’s house. So Dad went out to introduce himself. As it turns out, Beauregard is not an adult. Oh no. Beauregard is a three or four month old puppy who can put his paws on the shoulders of my 5′ 2′ frame and devourers Beneful Puppy Food straight from the thirty pound bag.

My parents called animal control to file a report and posted fliers in the area but, if Beau has an owner, they’re still in the wind some three weeks later. We suspect, very strongly, that Beauregard P. was the victim of a dump job.

When my mother first told me about Beauregard, I told her that he would probably be a hundred or more pound dog. I told her that they were not equip, their lifestyle not compatible. I advised her to contact a rescue organization and start training now so that it would be easier to find him a home. I told my mother, directly, that he would be a hundred pounds (and her fourth dog) and she couldn’t keep a hundred pound dog. She told me, more directly, that he would not be a hundred pounds. But what about keeping him? We were apparently not discussing it. Nice.

Beauregard will have been with my parents for over a month next week and will be making his second trip to the vet on June 3 – this time to be neutered. Both of my parents cringe when I bring up the option to find him a nice home with another family. I’ve stopped bringing it up. Happy Mother’s Day!

When I jumped into my car at 8:45pm last night, headed to the craft store (that closes at 9pm and I live, apparently, 12 minutes away from) because I was out of spray adhesive, I realized that I have so much to learn before I exhibit my work again.

Lesson one: plan head.

Actually, I learned that when I ran out of ink on Friday after planning to hang my work on Saturday. I love living in a relatively rural area and I love my Epson R1900. However, I do miss being able to pick up an ink cartridge at the local store. That just isn’t an option so my lack of cyan turned into a three day delay.

Small problems, enlarged

The second thing I learned is that small problems on screen turn into huge ones at 12×18 inches. The Pentax K10 that I had been so excited to lay out about a thousand dollars for became a nightmare when I realized, slightly after the warranty had expired and thousand of frustratingly blurry images had been recorded, that the mirror box was defective. I would take a photo that looked perfectly sharp in the viewfinder only to discover later that I had not gotten when I thought. If I focused on the front of a flower and confirmed focus in the viewfinder, I would discover later that focus lay just behind where I had thought. Focusing on someone’s eyes usually resulted in photos with no discernibly sharp area, and one very confused photographer.

I told myself that I needed new glasses or was relying too much on the shake reduction or just plain didn’t know how to use my camera. In hindsight, I can’t believe that after spending eight years delving into the world of photography using nothing but a Pentax K1000 and A 50/2.0 (fully manual setup), I questioned my ability to focus a camera over and over again instead of considering seriously that my camera was defective. The result is several photos that I just had to include in the exhibit that are not in perfect focus.

There is no such thing as a free pixel

I have read just about every article I can find on resizing and interpolation. In the end, the photo printed from a 6×7 negative blows away what I have shot with my old 6 megapixel Pentax *istDS. Don’t get me wrong, the 6MP file produced some adequate results. Intellectually, I know that if printed at 300 dpi the largest size a 6MP file will produce is 10×6.75 inches. However, I have heard ad nauseam that 6MP is enough for larger prints. Ken Rockwell even wrote an article titled The Megapixel Myth professing his belief that if you cannot make posters out of your 6MP files, there is something wrong with you. Poppycock. I am looking at a 12×18 inch photo right now taken with a 6MP camera through a Pentax 31/1.8 Limited (arguably one of the best autofocus lenses ever made) stopped down to f8, and it lacking. Sure, it is fine once you take a step back, but part of the joy in good photography is drinking in the detail with your face three inches away.

I was right. Matte is awesome.

Half of my photos were created with my Epson R1900 and half were printed on traditional silver gelatin paper by my local printer, PFS Photo, since my enlarger is still packed up and waiting for some plumbing work in the darkroom. The PFS (film) photos are on a matte or luster paper, mine are glossied for all they are worth despite my lifelong love of satin and luster finishes. The glossied photos looked so beautiful, so high in local contrast and so sharp, until I mounted them. The matte prints look flawless. The glossy ones show every imperfection in my beginner’s mounting technique. I thought the added gloss would be added pop, but I should have listened to me old bias for a more subdued finish.