Day 6: An Apple a Day...

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Day number 6! As I mentioned yesterday, I planned the next few days for messing around with Apple Aperture 3. I download a trial version, but am planning on getting the full version once I have some money to do so. From just messing around on it for about an hour or so today, I really like it. It has a very user-friendly interface and you can get some great turnout from its RAW processing. I mean, I don't even know what I'm doing yet, but am still happy with some of the color that it produced for me.

Speaking of color, this first image is monochrome. Hah.

6 sec. exposure at F/11. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

I took this one of my guitar. I set a longer exposure, and I strummed the low E string while the exposure was happening. I was hoping the vibration would have showed up a little more, but whatevs. I also shot in RAW, which if you're not sure what it is, I'm probably not the best person to explain it. The shortest answer I can give is that it's basically an undeveloped digital negative. You have to upload it into a program that handles RAW processing (most photo programs do; if you're shooting on a Canon like I am, you'll also have a limited one with Digital Photo Pro, the included software) which then produces a finished image. But you can tweak lots of tiny details. More details than I know their purpose at this point.

Anyway, I put it into a Single Color Monochrome adjustment mode. It then allows you select the color that you want the monochrome to be. I also adjust some other sliders and things, but I can't remember what at this point. I was basically just messing with the image until I got bored.

For the next image, I wanted to make sure I shot something that had some really bold colors. Something that would really stand out when I tweaked them in Aperture. So I took a picture of one of my Superman toys.

1/5 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 400.
Click here for larger image.

Again, I messed around with a lot of things (including putting this one in black and white) until I got this to come out. I think the part of the image that I was most surprised with how it came out is the blanket behind the toy. The blanket is actually a lighter, sky blue. But when I started tweaking some settings, highlighting the blues, it really started to show the texture that the image ended up having. You can really see the "fuzz" of the blanket. Not bad for just hitting a bunch of buttons, eh?! 

That's it for today. I'm thinking you can expect the same type of post for tomorrow and maybe the day after that. But I will try and pay more attention to what specific things I'm changing in Aperture and write about that. Like I said, I was running a bit blind today, just randomly changing settings here and there. Maybe I'll just do one photo each the next two days (one tomorrow and one Saturday) and show more a process (i.e. how it looked un-tweaked and how it looks finished). Yeah. I think that's what I'll do. So come back for that. What else are you gonna do anyway?