Honda Tuning : "Almost a Feature"

A few months back I was visiting family and friends in Flagstaff when my brother, Ian, approached me about taking some pictures for Honda Tuning. He basically explained that the Editor of HT had expressed interest in giving him a Grassroots feature in an upcoming issue. I had the majority of my camera gear with me and we had all of about 30 minutes to grab some photos... so we drive a few blocks from my Mom's house, park the Type R behind a vacant department store and try to make use of the high-noon sunlight and a few flash units. I'll be the first to say that the published photos are not my best work but considering the time and location constraints we made do.

I had seen past Grassroots features and its more or less a glorified readers rides - A photo or two and quick spec list. Upon cracking open this months Honda Tuning at Barnes and Nobles I was pleasantly surprised to see three photos of Ian's car and a small article taking up an entire page. One headline reads "Almost a Feature"... which gives me hope that with a little better photos and a few more changes to the ITR and we'll have a full feature on our hands!

Knowing that my photos will be exposed to so many people is a great feeling, a sense of accomplishment... I could have never imagined seeing my photos in a magazine that I've been reading since High School. And a huge congrats to Ian on getting his car in HT, I know its always been a dream that we've shared for a long time so being able to get my photos and his car on one page is pretty awesome.

Go pick up a copy!
Honda Tuning
April 2008
Grassroots Feature

D-DAY preparations begin...

Came across this article yesterday and thought it was worth sharing. Sorry no photos or writings from me today.

"Doomsday vault for world’s seeds is opened under Arctic mountain"

© Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

"Ten tonnes of seeds were deposited hundreds of feet inside a frozen mountain yesterday as part of a scheme to preserve all the world’s crops.

Seeds from varieties of potatoes, barley, lettuce, aubergines, black-eyed pea, sorghum and wheat were among the first to be placed in the doomsday vault inside the Arctic circle.

A specially prepared box of rice originating from 104 countries was the first to be deposited in the vault, where it will be kept at minus 18C (minus 0.4F). Thousands more species will be added as organisers attempt to get specimens of every agricultural plant in the world.

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Three chambers have been built 125 metres (400 feet) inside a mountain close to the town of Longyear-byen in Svalbard, a Norwegian island about 500 miles (800 kilometres) from the North Pole.

...(continued at link below)"

The complete article can be found at Times Online.

Something Purty...

I walk by this tree just about everyday, and just recently it went from being a tree to a huge flower plant thing. No idea what kind of tree it is but the flowers that call its branches home seem to steal my attention every time I pass by so I figured a picture was in order.

-Tre, who has been trying new techniques in photoshop.

One chapter comes to a close as another opens...

Well its been a couple months since I actually graduated from Alpha Pacific Institute but just today I went and picked up my Diploma. There's something about having that physical documentation which makes it all feel more official I guess?! Sure its not like when you walk into a doctors office and see their wall of achievements but to me its one more piece of paper to hang on my wall to remind me of those periods of progression in my life.... a little something to be proud of.

API is over but my constant want to progress has kept my brain busy. Just this morning I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a CSS book/bible. Cascading Style Sheets are the standard in web design so I feel obligated(and maybe a little excited) to learn this new language... I bit of an endeavour, but one I'm ready for...

-Tre

AlphaPacificInstitute.com

Until death do they part...

This image always reminds me of what marriage should be like.... maybe chains are a better idea than rings...?

Texas, early winter 2007.

(click for larger version)

Partitioning and using ONE hard drive to backup two Mac's using Time Machine...

Two Apples + One Hard Drive + Time Machine = One Happy Mac Fanboy.

Got two Macintosh Computers? One external hard drive? The desire to seamlessly backup all of your information using Apple's Time Machine application? Keep READING!....

Apple's "Time Machine" is a highly effective and user-friendly back-up program that allows you to not only easily back up your HD but allows you to go back to EXACT instances and recover files. From Apple.com:

"Time Machine is the breakthrough automatic backup that’s built right into Mac OS X. It keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac — digital photos, music, movies, TV shows, and documents. Now, if you ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to recover anything."


Objective: Divide(Partition) an external hard drive to be used for TWO seperate Apple computer's utilizing Mac's Time Machine Backup feature.

What you need:
-An External Hard drive big enough to support both(or all) of your existing hard drives. In my case both of my machines have 250 GB Hard drives so I opted to buy a 500 GB Western Digital 'My Book' .
-Mac OS X 10.5.2 or Higher
-Two or more Apples!
Getting Started ....
One thing that I ALWAYS do before I backup my data is to go back through all of my files and make sure that everything is in order, in tact and looks nice and tidy. Although this is not necessary I do recommend it.

Plug in your external hard drive.

Open up your DISK UTILITY. If you dont know where this is you should(spotlight it).

Now click on the Partition Tab (Shown below)


In the left column select the Disk/Hard drive you are going to split. With the HD selected click the drop-down menu that says Volume Scheme. Select how many different partitions you wish to create. For me two was plenty. I suggest only dividing the HD into as many partitions as you actually need. More is not better in this case. Once you've designated a volume scheme, click on the individual partitions which will be displayed in the middle column. Give each partition a name.(not shown below). Select a desired Format for each partition. Select Mac OS Extended (not-journaled). Now click Apply and your HD will be partitoned.

Partition Interface in Disk Utility:


Any and ALL data saved on your hard drive will be deleted when you partition it! Make sure you save this data elsewhere if you wish to keep it.

Now open up Time Machine. Click Change Disk.... Select the corresponding partition that you just created. Click OK and time machine will begin backing up your data. This will take some time depending on how much information you have stored on your HD.

Time Machine working:


Now you can Eject the HD. On your second machine, open up Time Machine and select the OTHER partition that you created and click okay.

Thats it, pretty easy huh? Contact me with any questions or concerns.

-Tre, who feels better now that he backed up his music and pictures!

Snow Buddies...

Well I can own up to editing this photo but it was actually taken by my mom! I thought it was just too awesome not to share.

Mattix(with his new boots) and Simon spending some quality time in the snow:

(click for larger version)

Honda City : old and FRESH!.. at the same time.

These photos were taken a few weeks ago while my brother, Ian, was getting his Integra Type R Tuned at Lo Cash Racing. The moment I stepped foot in the shop I noticed the gleaming antique Honda. A light coat of dust sat on the exterior but nothing that couldnt be cleaned up with a little soapy water and a sponge... considering its age(which I believe to be about ~23 years old) the thing is immaculate! The Honda City goes by a couple different names, probably more easily associated with today's Honda Fit or the Honda Jazz but being able to see an imported classic like this was really a treat.

Here's a great Wiki article on the City.


-Tre, who wishes he had the money to buy cool toys like this one!

Waking up next to ....

I wake to the sound of a pissed off cell phone ... roll over to see my alarm clock, displaying what looks to be like 2 pm ...? A lingering headache and and empty wallet is what I'm left with today but live music, good friends, and a few drinks is a needed occasion now and again.

-Tre, ....

Photoshop Tutorial FUSION: Creating Actions+ Photo Borders and Watermarks/Signatures...

Learn: What an action is, how to create your own action, Adding borders to photos, Adding Watermark/Signature to photos.

Anytime you're going to be posting your pictures on the internet its a good idea to add your name/watermark/copyright to help deter people from stealing them and its a good form of "advertising" for yourself/website. And anyone who has processed photos for web-use knows how redundant it can get, thankfully Photoshop has a feature to help automate some of your everyday routines. This feature is called ACTIONS.

One important thing to remember when creating a new action is that you literally have to do things STEP-BY-STEP, and be very tedious in adjusting certain parameters to ensure that Photoshop knows the EXACT task you are trying to perform. This concept will make more sense if you play your action later on and it behaves strangley

Your Action's palette is usually close to or attached to your History Pallette(To make active: Window>Actions).

Open up the photo you will add a border/signature to. Make sure it has been properly sized.

On your Actions Pallette, create a NEW SET(click folder icon), name it accordingly(My Watermarks in this case):
New Set active:


Within your new set, create a NEW ACTION:


name it accordingly, click RECORD:


From this point forward, every task you perform within photoshop will be recorded. Keep this in mind while creating any new action.

Lets start off by stroking the picture to give it a small border, hit Command-A(CTRL-A on PC), or click Select>All. Do NOT use the marquee tool to select the picture. Now go to EDIT > Stroke... Type in 3 for the size, position should be INSIDE, and select the color you want to use - Black works best in most cases. click ok. IMPORTANT: Even if the color you want to use is already selected when the dialouge box first opens, you must RESELECT that color before continuing.

With your picture selected go to Image > Canvas Size. Click the Box next to the word Relative and enter the desired canvas extension. I would reccomend anything between 20px-50px but use your best judgment. Ensure that both value are the same unless you want a mis-proportioned border. Dont Click OK just yet, click on the drop down menu that Says "canvas extension color", CHOOSE A COLOR instead of 'Foreground' or 'Background' color(if you choose foreground or background your canvas extension color will be based on whatever colors are currently active in your Bg/FG color palettes. Click OK.



Lets add a final border....Now make your entire image(including your new white canvas extension) active, Command-A or Select > All, then go to EDIT > Stroke, Size 5px is usually good and remember to select your color even if the dialouge box opens up with the color you want already active. Click OK.

Now Deselect the image, Command-D(CTRL-D on pc) or Select > Deselect.

Click on your Type tool or press T on your keyboard. Adjust the type settings! Make sure you select each parameter and change EACH one even if its already how you want it. Change: Font, Size and Color. Click on the image with your type tool active and enter the desired text(name, website, © info, email, etc.) Once you've add your type go to your actions pallette and click on the STOP recording button.(You will usually need to reposition the text layer for each picture but thats easy to do). If you decide later on that you dont want certain instances in your action set you can deselect/delete them and they will not be performed.

TO PLAY YOUR NEW ACTION: Open up your image, go to your Actions palette, select your desired ACTION(not the folder!), and click PLAY.

Thats it! You've created an action that will save you lots of time. I have a handful of borders and watermarks that I use and am constantly changing them up. This, often-overlooked , feature in Photoshop can streamline your workflow and improve overall effeciency.

It will probably take a few attempts to get the whole idea of how an action works down but once you've got it figured out you can create actions for everything from borders to actual photo enhancements. Next PS tutorial will be creating an action to CORRECTLY re-size photos for the web and Batch Processing... keep an eye out for those.

-Tre

Old Places, New begginings...

Thumbing through some of my more recent pictures I came across this one and it made me sit back for a moment and reminisce... A short, but well-lived minute and I was reminded not to forget about old places or where they've taken/gotten you!

Office building where I first worked as a web/graphic designer:(upside down pyrimad...?)


-Tre, who forgot about his blog yesterday :\ .

A wire tuck ... for my desk.

This is the type of thing that keeps my nerdy side satisfied... and gives me something to do when I'm bored. It's got nothing to do with photography but worth sharing I thought.

Supplies: Velcro Strips, Zip-ties, Wireloom and Electrical Tape.

The velcro strips were my best friend and the cheapest thing I bought. Mocked up the wires how I thought they would work then went in fastened things down(with either a zip tie, tape or velcro) and ran loom over most of the exposed wiring. A little time consuming but easy! I was pleased with how much it cleaned up things.

Wiring mess (dont mind the actual mess ON the desk)
Before:


After:

My view for a while:



Part-way through:



Done:

Bird. Tree. XOXO?

My bedroom window provides me with less than a "view" of the surrounding area but on occasion there are some things worth photographing from my second story perch. As of late, I have noticed that every day around 5pm a family of birds uses my neighbors tree as a refuge... from the rush hour traffic I presume. With rain clouds on the horizon and the sun making its final descent this one bird was the only brave soul not headed south...

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day was filled with lots of love.

-Tre

Click the picture for a larger version.

Photoshop Tutorial: Selective Coloring using a layer mask.

The technique of selective coloring is popular in wedding photography but can be used in many situations to help draw attention to certain objects/subjects in a photo. The following procedure is something that I have found to be efficient and effective, but there are a handful of other ways to accomplish the same effect.

Before:


After:


You'll need Photoshopto do this and a basic understanding of its tools.

Lets Begin...

Open up the image you want to manipulate.

I recommend editing at the largest size possible then down-sizing later, but you don't necessarily have to be working on a high res image.

First thing to do is duplicate your 'Background' layer. Press Command J (or CTRL J on your PC)... alternatively you can right-click on the BG layer and click Duplicate Layer.

You Layer's pallette should look something like this:




At this point we're ready to select the portion of the photo that will remain in color. Select the Magnetic Lasso Tool from the tools palette, location indicated below.



Once you've got the Lasso tool selected check the tool's settings, displayed below'



The settings I used seem to be a happy median but adjust the 'Contrast' and 'Frequency' numbers as you see fit. Basically what the Magnetic Lasso does is samples the area you're outlining and automatically snaps to the main subject based on different contrast in the surrounding pixels. Your initial outline should be fairly clean but it will take some fine tuning.

On your TOP layer, Loosely go around the subject that will stay in color with the Magnetic lasso. Once you've got your basic Selection: (shown above) ....You can refine it a bit. To do so, get out the regular Lasso or Poly-Lasso(or keep the mag-lasso). If there is an area that you want to ADD to your selection hold the SHIFT key and outline that area. If there is an area you do not want in your selection hold the ALT/OPTION key and select the undesired area and it will be removed.

Spending a little extra time on getting the selection clean makes a big difference but it doesnt need to be perfect.

With the Subject selected, Save your selection so you can get it back easily incase you make a mistake. To do this, go to Select > Save Selection ... Pictured below:



The name is whatever you want it to be.

Press Command D (CTRL D for PC) to deslect your selection.

Now you can Desaturate your top layer. With top layer selected(probably called Background copy or Layer 1) Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate ( I prefer to use the channel mixer and if you've got CS3 use the "Black & White" feature instead of desat.)

Now we can add a layer mask. With your top layer active, click the Add Layer Mask button, shown below:



(You'll see a little white box come up on your top layer in the pallete, thats your "mask".)

Now go to your Channel's Pallete. Its location varies depending on your PS version but if you dont see it go to Window > Channels.

You should see your saved selection from earlier with whatever name you gave it, shown below:



While holding the Command(CTRL for PC) key click the little thumbnail of your outline. This will make your selection active again.

Now go back to your layers pallette, make sure your top layer is active and click on the white box in your top layer pallete. This makes the mask active. Shown below:



Press D on your keyboard to get the default Black and White colors active in your colors pallete, then press X on your keyboard to make sure that your foreground color pallete is WHITE. Now hit B on your keyboard or select your brush from your tools. Size it accordingly and begin painting within your selection. You should see the bottom layer start to come through. White REVALS the bottom layer and paint black HIDES the bottom layer. So if you accidently bring too much back from your bottom layer, simply switch to black and paint the top layer back in.

Painting mask in progress:



If you want the background of the picture to be blurred, select your bottom layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.... but becareful, too much blur action looks pretty corny.

Here's the selective color with a slight BG blur:



Any questions or concerns feel free to contact me!

Pano-Sorta View of The San Francisco Peaks...

It was nearing the end of our excursion into the thick woods surrounding Flagstaff and we came upon a vast opening of trees ... the ideal spot for a few pictures, I quickly took advantage! I propped myself up in the open passenger doorway of our muddy 4Runner, I tediously balanced myself and my camera for a few moments.. The slight gain of height aided to a better shooting advantage and allowed me to avoid some of the close tree-line and unsightly foreground, but unable to use a tripod and losing my grip I dismissed the idea of a Panoramic picture and I gracefully dismounted from the slippery truck.

Now, comfortably sitting at my desk, comparing and processing photos I come across two separate pictures of the San Fransisco peaks that look like they were meant to be together!.. Well sorta. So, with a little bit of inspiration and a dash of Photoshop I've got a two picture pano-shot that gives a fairly nice view of the peaks... now I'm inspired to try a few real panoramic photographs... Stay tuned for that!

-Tre, who should be sleeping.

Click on the picture to view a high-resolution/wallpaper version ...

Home for the..... Weekends.

Since I have moved to Phoenix I have gained a whole new appreciation for the little mountain town I grew up in. Sure I don't miss dealing with snowy roadways, massive pot holes and cold toes but the feeling of being home is something that cannot be replaced... being around missed family and friends is always refreshing.

Took a trip to the cinders and was awe-struck at the amazing view of the San Francisco Peaks, why haven't I taken pictures of this landscape before?! Its always been there I've just never been able to appreciate it as I do now.

I leave you with a few photos from my weekend in Flagstaff, Location is about 15 miles north of town on an unknown back road, early-late afternoon.

-Tre, who is glad to be back in warmer weather!

(snow melts and makes small puddles)













(a-frame's 4 runner, san Francisco peaks behind)












(the san Francisco peaks ... highest point ~12,000 ft)





(mid-puddle, in-cabin)