The Hard Truth of DVD Production
There's an expression that goes, "If you put crap in, you get crap out." This relates to my DVD project as such: For days I've stressed about the quality of the project, and I've come to the realization that all of the 1100 images I'm putting in the slideshow are flawed. After tinkering with the Mount Hood image from my last journal entry, I've discovered it is possible to save these images and make them even better than ever.
When I first started working with the images back in November in preparation for the book-of-the-road-trip paperback, I thought I went through them all one by one and did the horrifying task of balancing the contrast and color. Now, I'm discovering I could have done a whole lot more to make the image really pop like jockeying the exposure, RGB levels, sharpness and saturation. Check this out:
When I originally worked on the book, I initially brightened all the images and just let my photo apps do the actual work of cleaning up the photos. Mount Hood was brightened to look like it does in my previous entry (A recommendation to get rid of the smog), which is too bright to see any quality or detail (Or even color) when it's finally mastered to DVD. But as you can see above, having gone back to the original image and then starting over with loads of fine tuning, I've turned out a much better, richer image. The smog is gone and cloud formations can finally be seen without hurting the integrity of dark tones.
Is anyone bored by this? I read my friends' journals and they all have real world issues and real drama while I just obsess over crappy photography. I've been going on and on for days and weeks about this and I suddenly got this idea of, "I bet no one cares." But that won't stop me! I'll keep ramblin' on about my art. Because, in the end, this journal is for me.
Also, there's nothing else really going on. The job search continues, work on the house continues, my little hobbies continue. Life goes on, it seems. People on eBay keep getting dumber. I really need to start a policy where people are forced to pay the moment they win an auction. This wave of non-paying morons needs to stop. Three auctions in a row now, I've waited for payments. What the heck is going on. I need this money and people are just like, "Ohh, I won an auction. I think I'll go on vacation for a month and I guess I could pay when I get back if I feel like it maybe possibly not." Please, to everyone who can hear me and shops on eBay, please be prepared to pay right when an auction ends. It freaks us sellers out when you wait a week without saying anything.
So, back to my photos, it looks like I'll be spending a while going back through each and every image (1,100 of em). I'll have to re-edit them back into my film which could take a few days because it's pretty much like starting completely over from scratch. But it will be worth it.
When I first started working with the images back in November in preparation for the book-of-the-road-trip paperback, I thought I went through them all one by one and did the horrifying task of balancing the contrast and color. Now, I'm discovering I could have done a whole lot more to make the image really pop like jockeying the exposure, RGB levels, sharpness and saturation. Check this out:
When I originally worked on the book, I initially brightened all the images and just let my photo apps do the actual work of cleaning up the photos. Mount Hood was brightened to look like it does in my previous entry (A recommendation to get rid of the smog), which is too bright to see any quality or detail (Or even color) when it's finally mastered to DVD. But as you can see above, having gone back to the original image and then starting over with loads of fine tuning, I've turned out a much better, richer image. The smog is gone and cloud formations can finally be seen without hurting the integrity of dark tones.
Is anyone bored by this? I read my friends' journals and they all have real world issues and real drama while I just obsess over crappy photography. I've been going on and on for days and weeks about this and I suddenly got this idea of, "I bet no one cares." But that won't stop me! I'll keep ramblin' on about my art. Because, in the end, this journal is for me.
Also, there's nothing else really going on. The job search continues, work on the house continues, my little hobbies continue. Life goes on, it seems. People on eBay keep getting dumber. I really need to start a policy where people are forced to pay the moment they win an auction. This wave of non-paying morons needs to stop. Three auctions in a row now, I've waited for payments. What the heck is going on. I need this money and people are just like, "Ohh, I won an auction. I think I'll go on vacation for a month and I guess I could pay when I get back if I feel like it maybe possibly not." Please, to everyone who can hear me and shops on eBay, please be prepared to pay right when an auction ends. It freaks us sellers out when you wait a week without saying anything.
So, back to my photos, it looks like I'll be spending a while going back through each and every image (1,100 of em). I'll have to re-edit them back into my film which could take a few days because it's pretty much like starting completely over from scratch. But it will be worth it.