i'm all ears

just how cute are these guys! well, this gal and this guy maybe? i know this is not the best photo, but i like the fact that mommy goat provides a slightly darker background for the cleaner, lighter little goat. and my, look at the expression on their faces! priceless. plus i have always been a big fan of olive trees. their misty greyish green texture is really a feast to the eyes. i think they deserve their own entry. if only i had a better camera and better photography skills. (note to self: join a photography group).

this picture was taken in the wonderful kaz daglari (goose mountains would be a rough translation -but what good would that do?). kaz daglari might as well be a gift of nature. soo many surprises along the way! i would like to go there specifically just to sketch everything. and we didn't even go into the national park. it's a huge place.

now you know what i have been doing instead of blogging. have you ever been to kaz daglari?  what are your impressions?

does this blog make me look old?

i'm not sure i am crazy about the new blogger interface. the 'in your face' attitude with the pageview counts etc. is kind of driving me nuts. and why can't i see the blog itself in a separate window? grrr.

buuut i hope you will like my new blog interface! yep, finalmente! i have already set up an under construction page at www.merictaylan.com. i simply wasn't ready to do these changes all this time. but you know what? i think i'll never be ready. there will always be 'other' stuff to take care of. so this will be quite a real-time blog and website makeover combo for me :) hehe. i think i could even turn this into kind of a game. some things won't work for a while, my portfolio will be lacking a lot of stuff. awkward buttons will pop up and disappear.

i hope you will not get frustrated with the constant format changes in the process. i have a private test blog to test the new design, but i think i will put it up before it is finished. raw. crude. squeaky.

as always, any feedback is good feedback for me, so please do comment :)

odd tutorial #1: how to make your images a bit more dramatic

yes, here it goes: my first ever odd tutorial... maybe not too odd for most of you but hey, there will always be newbies who could find this interesting. i hope :)

you could give a rather dull image a much more dramatic and sharper look with a couple of really simple tricks in photoshop. these tricks have saved my life in many occasions where i had to work with crappy, out of focus raw photos.

applying 'sharpen' with 'brightness/contrast' to such a photo-which seems to be the obvious solution that comes to mind-, does not do the trick with most of the raw images. you might end up losing too much image data on the way, and still get a 'blah' result.

i have to assume that you have at least a little photoshop experience.

yup, here is our starting image:

ok, let's begin. just start by downloading the first picture above.

once dowloaded, open the .jpeg file in photoshop (any version will do).

from the 'layers' tab in the right-hand side menu, duplicate the 'background' layer. change the blending mode from the default 'normal' to 'overlay'. the resulting image should look like this:

pretty decent looking, high-contrast and all. but i'm still skeptical about the sharpness of the image.

now we will add another layer that will sharpen the image, but it will yield a much more advanced result than the 'sharpen' filter. we will use 'high pass'.

duplicate the 'background copy' layer one more time. again, change the blending of the layer to 'overlay'. don't worry, the super-contrasted look will soon go away. choose 'high pass' from filters. that's right, with the uppermost layer chosen, go to 'filters/other/highpass'. tweak the value until you are happy with the sharpness of your image. notice that 'high pass' also adds some detail back to the image.


enjoy!

first tutorial ready...

yup, the first ever odd tutorial will be up in couple of days. i wonder what you'll think about it. let's see, i could improve myself with the reactions i get from you. or maybe not.

in the meanwhile, you could check out felt-tip kittens :D

life on crutches

as if i haven't been absent enough from blogosphere, i have broken my foot as well. 'fifth metatarsal' in case you would like to learn a little anatomy trivia :) when will my design inspiration come back? hopefully soon. i'm still working, but life gets me exhausted quite easily. sitting on my behind has never felt so bad, and the world outside is such a dream land for me right now. enjoy the outside while you can!

oh-and one more thing- apparently now i'm 'following' myself. any idea how to cancel that?

pixels:)

sketchy reality

i can't believe how fashionable it is to design without drawing anything these days. i have seen it in various parts of the world and have been mildly shocked. i have seen people finishing complete design projects without drawing a single line on paper, and i mean they don't use tablets to sketch digitally either. people don't sketch. of course, everyone has their own method but come on! don't you need to visualize your ideas even a little bit beforehand? how do they evolve into that 'mature' state if you don't let them? yeah, i know, the deadlines are tight, but how can you afford the costs resulting from an ill-designed and rushed project? sketching saves you a lot of time, headaches, resentment, fights and bitten nails. i don't know, maybe i am old fashioned.

do you skip sketching when you design something or do you see it as vital? what methods do you prefer if you do sketch? and what does a crab have to do with all this?