Bring your black and White photos to life!

Who doesn't love black and white photos?Any,and most photos look fabulous in black and white - unless of course there are prominent colours that make up the photo .

I'm a make up as I go along girl until I found myself following the same process while editing andd turning some of my photos into monochromes.

In a box view they are : ( I use Photoshop Cs5)

a) A Slight adjustment of exposure (if needed).

b)A slight adjustment of gamma from the Image>Adjustments>Exposure box in Photoshop Cs5.

c) Convert to black and white Image>Adjustments>Black and white.

d)A slight adjustment in Levels,again from the same menu.(Not so much that you cloud all the details and black everything out)

e) A Radial gradient of white(center) and light gray (blending out) on a separate layer set to Hue or Soft Light.

f) Crop (if needed).

Here are two which turned out satisfactory,I believe

I prefer shooting in colour instead of directly in monochrome,so that I can have the best of both worlds,like so :

What are some of your routine editing processes? Share share!

Do you use Photoshop Actions/Light room presets? Or do you make up your own?

This post was also posted by me on iblog4.me.

Friday Faves v2.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!- By Kristen.I'll pay you if you can get over the coolness/uniqueness/radness!

21st  Century white girl problems - The Tsaritsa a.k.a. Alexandra.This made me chuckle and I'm linking up soon-except it's going to be First World problems in a Third World.Weird kind of subversion,yo!

Solitude - by Vic.I totally nodded along.Also-how gorgeous is that photo!?

Which lens should I choose?- By Kevin and Amanda. This was an amazingly helpful read for a photography amateur like me.I have been meaning to buy a 50mm prime for a while now and am yet to put my dad's old macro lens to better use than early this year.

Shoot and Edit:Bokehs in Photoshop: A guest post by Mira Crisp on Ashley Sisk's blog. Are you a huge bokeh fan like me?Real ones are always the best, but check out this tutorial on how to create some cool ones in Photoshop!

Hope you enjoyed my this week's picks!

Do you have a favourite post of the week?Leave the link in the comments section.Want to feature your faves of the week?Email me at swetablogs{AT}gmail{DOT}com.

Wordless Wednesday but with words:Bazaars of Calcutta

linking this up with B&W Wednesdays at http://www.measamother.com/

Yesterday,my bestfriend and I(I often wonder if that sounds too puberty-ish?Then I'm like,who the hell cares?Who else has your back?)  took a sudden and utterly unplanned to our favourite part of the city-New Market in Esplanade.If you ask around in this part of the world,the men on the street hardly know the meaning of the word,but,to them 'splanade is the place for all things cheap,shady and occasionally good.New Market (or less popularly Sir Stuart Hogg Market) is over 200 years old,has been burnt twice in whole or partially,yet it still stands as the busiest and the most cherished shopping district of Calcutta.It was built at the time of the British Raj and inspite of it's antiquity, nobody blinks an eye about the word "new" still forming a prefix..I guess  it's just one of those places that never looses it's charm no matter how old.Some of the oldest shops of the city are in this district-and if you look around under those huge Victorian ivy-laced buildings you may see the foyer of the Oberoi Grand is still cobbled, though with  no hooves to strike an archaic symphony.The clock-tower ,you would be glad to know,has chosen not to run off  -horses or no horses,evening rides or not- and still tolls faithfully at each hour.

rookie attempt at perspective

After some time of usual public embarassment(crazy lady says whaat?) and aimless roaming- we slunked into a narrow,barely there lane and found these beauties.


This has to be my favourite shot of the week.Reason?Can you guess?5 points to Slytherine if you guessed "bokeh".

Showcasing it at show off your shot-http://www.andthen-shesnapped.com/

The bazaars in my city are noisy and often too crowded.But at the end of that jostling is a thing of beauty-the colours,the deliciously spice tinged aromas,the people and their niceties -you just want to get lost in it-even if you have  nothing to jingle in your pocket but a lone rupee.







Linking up with :

In which my friend goes LUMOS!

That thing in her hand which looks like something they would sell at Olivander's?That's a cracker.Fizzle,pop!

This photo was entered into the iheartfaces Photo challenge at www.iheartfaces.com

This is my favourite shot from this year's Diwali.For all my overseas readers,Diwali is an Indian festival,popularly known as the "festival of lights" and celebrated around mid-October or mid-November for various reasons.However,in modern times the return of Lord Rama after 14 years of banishment in the forest is held as the principle cause for all the ladida.Thousands of diyas(purdy lights in earthen vessels with oil) were lit and lots of hot Aryan women thronged the streets to welcome him back to civilization .On Diwali light triumphs over darkness as good over evil and everybody ushers peace and prosperity into their homes.That,friends is only the tiny curled corned of the 's' in shabang!In India,fireworks and crackers are legally available to the public(yaay?).My friends are avid cracker enthusiasts and they had bought a butt-load of them to be sent scampering into the sky over to my place.Frankly speaking,the hiss and spit and the crackling scares me(you have to pay me to go anywhere near naked fired,water or high places-dear lord,what else did I leave out?) and I just usually stay out of the way.While they were busy doing what they were doing, I scoured the skies for pretty lights with my camera in vain.Turns out you need a hot damn bit of luck to predict from which direction somebody is going to light up the sky,position yourself and take a decent shot.The Calcutta Diwali night scene isn't really similar to Sydney Harbour bridge on New Years.Tragic.Back to Earth,when I first took this shot of Andy's I was kinda impressed with myself(amateur,yo!) as she was moving a lot(like a hell lot,down girl!) but her face seemed to be in focus with a nice blurry movement about her hands and body.Also,I'm bad with low light pictures(remind me to buy a tripod) but this has turned out to be a nice candid shot of hers as she usually is-buzzing,bubbling and popping with energy.It was just today that I noticed how "lumos"y this looked and at times-happy and beautiful as she looks,(here) she could give Bellatrix a run for money with that insane laughter tugging away at her face.My second favourite is quite the unimpressive one-but as it is I'm obessed with bokeh.I'd exchange my pants for some decent ones.No,really!

I might make this my wallpaper one of these days!(you want?)

Linking up with:

www.iheartfaces.com

Sundays at home

Sundays at home are never lazy on account of my dad's military rule.The guy never,ever sits still.He is either fixing or cleaning something or the other,or tuned in to his work.And me?I be the laziest person you've ever laid eyes on.I'm a truckload of lazy.So,today dad as usual was  drilling away at something(huge D.I.Y guy) and that seemed to cause a spot of tension in Gypsy(furry creature).I was rolling around in my blanket with a cup of coffee checking and re-checking how fatal a blow  the url change hath dealt to my blog.After a while I felt motivated to do something and so I grabbed my camera and found that my dad wasn't a half bad subject this morn.The natural light  coming in from the window was an added bonus.

Dad at work.

His usual expression on seeing a pair of idle hands(usually me)

And me,with my new glasses!(Oh,a mirror photo-how original!)

I got new glasses-my eye is actually better now.Couple of months ago I had surgery in my left eye.Wearing wrong specs had resulted in ugly bulbous things that not only drove me to a pirate patch but were a bitch to have hanging around my eye.Hence,surgery.Apart from the doctor's suggestion, I understood that the glasses were not right for me because I could not manually focus with my camera.My eyes hurt and I usually left them at home resulting in even blurrier shots.What a pain.The new glasses solved all that.A thousand pagan Gods saved the day.

My dad used to freelance as a photographer when he was young.He was,and still is brilliant at it.Shooting in film,he had his own darkroom-I don't think I'll ever have that kind of patience.I am pretty happy shooting in digital-though I hear shooting with a  manual film camera is even more fun and challenging.I have to try that sometime before I reach a point in life where hobbies not only take a backseat-they are politely thrown out of the car.

I also had plans to watch a play today-however it didn't occur to me that shows for a stalwart production like King Lear need to be pre-booked.FAIL.The evening wasn't entirely wasted though-Bug(boyfriend extraordinaire) and I rolled around our usual rug of funny,heh.

How was your weekend?

Imagine if it were Christmas for 5 days...

 In India,we Bengalis are the most festive of the lot.And now it's time for the biggest festival of all,the descendance of the Mother Goddess from Heaven to Earth with her children.Durga Puja.Five days of celebration when one entire race goes bonkers.I have pictures.Voila.

Arti-or the ritual of offering prayers,light and incense to the Goddess.

A  traditional Durga

..to be blessed

A themed idol.

*All pictures clicked by me.Donot copy/use without permission
The city dazzled with lights,the roads resembled a serpent in motion if seen aerially.I hate crowds and congested places and the themed idols don't attract me much.I prefer a not so quiet time with chosen friends instead.However,now that the five days have passed,I am filled with a sense of  gloom that I didn't go out as much.But then,all in all it was a pretty happy five days.More pics to come :)

Wordless Wednesday #1 I peek,Eyes Speak

Also posted on my flickr photostream here

Big Girl Camera

My Nikon D3100 with the 18-105mm lens.

Big Girl Camera+Dad's Old Lenses

The 55mm micro-Nikkor lens(among others)

=

1 new hobbiction!(thats hobby +addiction) 

Light painting!Something I'm having fun with.Say hello to low shutterspeed,flash light and sleepless nights! :)

Basically I take crappy photos..but hey I'm learning!But then I'd say I've improved..for even a year ago I set things in motion with my camera..things that didn't even move.Like mountains.Woot!

The Plaything

She powdered her nose and set his buttons right.She bade him goodbye from the cracked threshold where the termites sang their gnashing songs.He had a wife who powdered his soul.But,She blew it off and set it free,And yet she sawHis retreating back,A diminishing shadow;Never a promise ofApproaching footsteps,A hardy knock,Nor an open heartWrapped in silk or glossy paper.

#2 of 365

That's my entry for Day 2.
You can also find me here

I LOVE oversized sunglasses

On a different note,winter is finally making its presence felt in Calcutta.No it doesn't snow,nor do we have to go without bathing for um forever.I enjoy winter because my otherwise oilfield of a face tends to remain somewhat fresh throughout the day.I kid you not-hell!If Iwere a country,I'd be rich!

How are you all today?Got the Monday blues?Nothing a good trawl through your favourite blogs wouldn't solve :)

Love,

Project 365

I signed up for it!..
right here

Project365: A picture a day for the next 365 days.Sounds easy enough? I hope I can keep at it.I intend to!


I'll be posting my pictures on the project365 site as well as here.

So here's my pic for the day..

Nesha

That's my dad's hookah in the background[which we don't use for smoking but for decoration] We picked it up on one of our vacations.In the front is, well ,dad's morning cuppa :)

"Nesha" means addiction in Bengali and we happen to drink a lot more Cha (tea or chai)than coffee-probably due to the proximity of the two tea growing states of Assam and Darjeeling.Cha frequents the Bengali's entrails a lot more than any other liquid in his lifetime,and hence we find it difficult to shake off our Cha-er nesha (addiction to tea).From addas(hanging out) to business meetings,one must offer or consume tea to absorb and soak in the wholesome bangaliana (being Bengali)

I took this photo with my Canon A1100 as my dad doesn't trust me with his dslr.bleh.
So, this will be my standard camera for the project,
unless I get lucky.ha![fat chance,I have nothing devious in mind]

I have been meaning to improve my photography for a while now and I'm glad that Project365 is allowing me to do exactly  that- apart from helping me document little things I would have otherwise forgotten.So, yaay to challenges :)



P.s: Pssst..why don't you start yours too?;)