SOMETIMES I TAKE photos and then have nowhere to weave them into the fabric of a blog post. So you never see them.
Take two images I shot last Saturday afternoon at the Faribo West Mall in a store selling a hodge podge of collectibles, clothing and other, well, stuff. I can’t tell you the name of the place because I don’t recall seeing a business sign. And when I purchased two items (not these), the shopkeeper simply stuffed my five $1 bills into his pants pocket.
All of that aside, I spotted so many objects that I wanted to photograph simply for the color, the art, the shape, the uniqueness, the nostalgia. But, I also did not feel comfortable clicking away unfettered while other shoppers browsed.
Thus, I focused my camera on only two pieces of colorful merchandise—a rainbow-hued glass elephant and a vibrant wind-up chicken.
When I show you those two unedited images, you might be impressed. But probably not. Here are the original untouched photos:
Except for resizing, I’ve done nothing with this photo of a glass elephant.
The original chicken photo, only resized.
Then I opted to play with my photo editing tools, of which I understand little. I once edited and posted some winter photos here and then a reader asked “How did you do that?” Seems she wanted to duplicate what I had done. I could not tell her.
But this time, oh, this time, I am going to exercise my smartness by telling you I simply clicked on the “posterize” editing tool and these were the results:
A bolder and more modern looking posterized chicken.
Isn’t this fun?
Ta-da, the posterized elephant.
I took plain ordinary images and, with the click of my mouse, transformed them into works of art that really don’t resemble photos at all.
I’m especially smitten with that chicken. And for me to admit any fowl love…
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS on these two transformed photos or photo editing in general? Do you use photo editing tools to enhance your photos and/or create art?
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Oh I absolutely love them!!!! What a fabulous chicken!!! 🙂 I just started using some of the features on instagram and on Picasa and am amazed at how they can absolutely change an image into something totally different!!!! Great shots of two kitschy items!!!!
It is fun to play around with photo editing tools, isn’t it? Typically I happen upon results by accident and then need to backtrack and figure out how I “made” the artsy image. I have a simple cell phone so cannot use Instagram. But I absolutely love the vintage look of Instagram images which so remind me of old Polaroid shots.
That chicken image I could easily see framed or made into greeting cards or… Perhaps I’m on to something.
The elephant is gorgeous!!! Would have hesitated near that one for sure! The chicken is something I had as a child…..brings back so many memories (as many of your posts achieve!)! “Posterizing”(word??) sure brings out the Andy Warhol(sp?), doesn’t it. Love this post!!!!! Hugs….
Do you still have your wind-up chicken? I’m trying to recall the price tag on this one, but I think it was well over $100.
I googled that word posterize and it did refer to the making of posters. And Andy Warhol does seem like the appropriate artist to mention in relation to posterizing.
He is/was one of my favorite artists! His art and eccentricities always interested me. The wind-up chicken is long history……I may be a “pack-rat”(?) but my mom isn’t and had no problem “clearing house” over the years, whether it was her things or her kids’;-(
So, this means your mom tossed the wind-up chicken?
My mom is a pack rat. And sometimes, but not always, I’m glad she is.
She got rid of things that just amaze me! Things that were phenomenal treasures of her own (these are MY evaluations and not her’s, obviously). At Thanksgiving I asked about an item that had been given her when she quit her position at the old Brown and Bigelow company. She worked as a secretary and knew the artists who made up the calendars and commissioned ad art. They drew up a large “scrapbook” with caricatures of her and all of them with signatures and short memories recorded. Yup…..tossed out—-“I can’t keep all that stuff” was her reply. Saddened me greatly, especially since I was an commercial art major at the U of M!!! Oh well………..
Oh, my, this is terrible that your mom would have tossed such an artistic treasure.
I never knew you were a commercial art major. That makes sense given your creativity.
Thank you. It does, doesn’t it!?!
Fun images, but I actually like them as well in their “natural” state. I use photo editing to make my photos look more like the actual image i see with my eyes. For example, when I photograph snow, it is rarely as white in my photos as it is out there on my trees. So I play with the midrange and shadow functions to make the snow look more like snow and less like gray yuck. I do occasionally play around with the editing, but just for fun. There was a time when I developed photos in my darkroom and hand colored them. I got a little crazy then. One of my favorites was an old motor court type motel in Michigan. I colored each room door a different bright color. Nothing like the real motel! Digital manipulation just doesn’t spark my creativity in the same way.
Oh, that would have been fun to develop images in a darkroom and handcolor them. I did my share of darkroom developing also, back in the day, in the darkrooms at college and at the first newspaper where I was employed.
Typically I do as you with my photos, strive to enhance their natural state. But once in awhile it’s fun to take an artsy approach.
I think these are great fun! I’m still learning how to use the camera (Nikon D5100) I got this year, but the software has all kinds of special effects that give me a chance to play. It certainly can alter a shot into something that changes how you think of a scene. I’m thinking I need to find a class in the new year so I can be more intentional about how I alter my photos.
I can see why you fell in love with that chicken.
http://oneminnesotawriter.blogspot.com
I don’t pretend to really know what I’m doing with photo editing, although I do have some of the basics down. My computer geek son always advises me to not be afraid and simply “do it.” Ah, the young.
Just playing around with photo editing is a great way to learn, as long as you make notes as to how you reached the results. That’s my problem. I do this. I do that. And then I don’t know how I got there.
Have fun with your camera.
Nice. I used to have to do photo effects the hard way, in the dark room. I ran a school dark room, taught dark room and advised the yearbook. /We used to posterize some pictures. It is called the Sabattier effect when you do it in the darkroom in black and white.
I just did a book through Shutterfly of pictures of our kids as kids along the North Shore. Just came. Turned out well.
I always learn something new from you in your always informative, interesting and insightful comments. I, too, learned photography first in the darkroom and acquired my digital camera only three years ago.
Good to hear that the book turned out well. I have not attempted a book, but my daughters have. The eldest gave me a “Helbling Family Memories” book for my last birthday. I love it.
Love the Captures and the Creations from the Captures – COOL!!! Happy Friday:)
Captures and Creations. I like that synopsis. Thank you.
I have used Posterize, it looks awesome on your two photo’s! I do have Photoshop CS4 on my MAC and I do use it when I feel the need. I like to play around with all the different things it allows you to do with a photos, there is much I still need to learn, my son is the expert and gives me occasional lessons. I like that 🙂
Nice to have an expert to assist. Your photos always look great, Jackie.
Both the original pics and the edits look great! What editing program do you use? And what camera?
Thanks, Nina. I shoot with a Canon EOS 20D. I use GIMP, a free open source image manipulation program.
My dad, who used to be a semi-professional photographer, loves doing stuff like this with his photos now. He makes us calendars each Christmas with his photos…and I don’t like it when he messes with them this way! Just leave them alone, Dad!!
Too funny. “Just leave them alone, Audrey!”
But, Gretchen, I totally understand your dad’s desire to play around with his photos. It’s so much fun, especially if you want to create an artsy affect.
The one thing I detest, though, is when heavily-edited photos win photo contests.
OH, yeah, that’s annoying!