sepia

Pied Piper of Highland Park

pied piper in sepia
Unlike the original story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, in which many children may have died of the plague, the Pied Piper of Highland Park is the story of a girl who likes to put on a show. And her mother who likes to play with Photoshop.

pied piper
Her mother took all the background out of the original photo, except for a little on the right, after converting to sepia. Except for the red ribbon and the girl’s face.

stars pied piper
A Photoshop brush of a star helped create a vibrant background. No rats were involved in this Highland Park project. And no children died of the plague. Thank goodness!

For more photos with sepia:
Sepia Scenes

Snowy Sepia Rudbeckia

snowy sepia rudbeckia
I love photographing rudbeckia (black-eyed susans); they are like sculptures in the winter snow. To achieve the see-through border, I added a 9px stroke to the Photoshop layer that had the sepia effect. Since the layer had an opacity lower than 100%, the border is also transparent. The default stroke effect is a bright red color; using the eye-dropper tool, I selected a color from within the photograph for the border.

For more sepia scenes:
bench in sepia

Eggs with Sepia Touch

eggs
I photographed the eggs, desaturated the photo, selected just the eggs, then applied a bit of sepia color to them.

Why am I photographing eggs? Perhaps because:

  • My mother painted eggs.
  • I am studying more about shiva, the Jewish mourning period after a close relative dies, and eggs are the traditional dish eaten by the mourner at the beginning of shiva. Eggs represent the cycle of life.
  • Eggs are simple and beautiful.

For more sepia photos, visit:
bench in sepia

Mosaic Wall in Sepia

Mosaic Wall at Raritan Valley Community College
You can see a full color version of this mosaic wall at Raritan Valley Community College in this post. To put this in sepia, I copied the original photo to a new layer in Photoshop, desaturated the photo, added yellow and red to get sepia, and then set the opacity of the sepia layer to 90% so just a wee bit of color would show through. I wanted to use the sepia effect to emphasize the textures of the mosaic.

For more sepia photos, visit Sepia Scenes:
bench in sepia

Masquerade Ballet in Sepia

masquerade ballet in sepia
This was my favorite dance at my daughter’s ballet recital (not counting the ballet, tap and jazz dances she performed, of course). It seemed like a fitting ballet for this time of year; on Sunday Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Purim, and dressing up in costume is part of the tradition.

For more photos in sepia, visit Sepia Scenes:
bench in sepia

Favorite Images of 2009

strawberry and red juice sycamore trunk Jill Caporlingua and my daughter carnations bouquet on black background Girl with Tulip in Watercolor pink umbrella against gray wall
Highland Park in Sepia  daughter in sepia with teal doing ballet

girls in pink doing ballet  
orange and yellow tulip in my garden, April 2009 Pink Azalea Bud Opening in April 2009 pottery
Sunset over the bay at Sandy Hook, New Jersey  

Yellow Tulip on Red Azaleas, May 2009  pink snapdragon
parsley beets noodles orange purple iris
flags U.S. Israel peaches at Highland Park Farmer's Market 

butterfly bouquet at Highland Park Farmer's Market Witch of Rapunzel in Metuchen
  pointing up a tree in autumn
ghoul gull Jacob Ladder
hamantaschen watercolor beach watercolor ink pumpkin watercolor sledding  lighting an oil wick on Chanukah

I would greatly enjoying reading which of these images strikes your fancy. Thank you!

Upcoming on Thursday: A Selection of Nature Notes Posts from around the Nature-Loving
Blogosphere. Nature Notes is a meme brought to us by Rambling Woods. Here are some of her favorite images of 2009.

Sepia Scenes: Is it the 1950’s?

Is this Highland Park in the 1950's?
Is this Highland Park in the 1950's?

No, it’s South Fourth Avenue, taken with my camera set to sepia color!

See the post below for sepia photos of homemade bread.

For more sepia photos, visit Sepia Scenes.

Sepia with Teal

ballet-teal_sepia2
I love the color accent setting on my camera. My daughter’s ballet tutu was in teal, so teal got the accent for these photos. In Photoshop, I just adjusted the magenta and yellow settings a bit to add some sepia.

ballet-teal_sepia
This photo has sentimental value, as the paintings that are highlighted because of the teal setting are my mother’s landscapes.

If you want to see a funny sepia movie, check out Time Travel Flick.

For more sepia photos, visit Sepia Scenes.