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Wednesday, March 15, 2017

various options for filtering

by Rain Trueax

My research into Dreamscope is ongoing as I try to figure out how the upgrade would work. Would I be paying $9.99 a month with no easy way out when I couldn't use it in a busy month? If I cancelled, would I lose the whole app? If I got the upgrade, would I like the images as much? More detailed isn't always better. So far as I can tell, there is no big drawback to the little ones unless I wanted to print them onto canvas. That currently is not something I'd do but not impossible for the future.

Of course, I wanted to see how the Oil Pastel filter would work for the photos that are in my albums in family folders. The first image I tried was one of my profile pictures, which I shared a few blogs back. When I had time, I began to fool with some out of the past and randomly picked different images from 1967 up to 2010. I'll share them and what I learned below.







You can probably see what worked and did not. Small faces can get turned quite weird. That does not have to be bad especially if a person wants images that don't quite look like the people. In this blog, I have not shared family photos out of consideration for their privacy and my understanding that my blog is an open door to people I don't know. I do that for myself but not others without permission. The family stays separate from this blog, but it's not because I am not incredibly proud of them.

To show how this filter worked with a family shot from 2010, you can also see how faces can be distorted-- not just unrecognizable, but even turned weird.


It is possible that some faces are easier for the filter to capture. It enlarges some features and in ways that aren't always good. Still, it's fun to try things out. It's a nice toy as a break between writing scenes.

Dreamscope has many filters as well as a custom option. I tried the Seaside filter on this photo from 2008 at the Oregon coast. It turned it very painterly. I think for each photo, it's trying out different filters to get the 'other' look that a person wants.


The next one is where I chose two of my photos with one the image and the other the background. It turned it very dreamlike which could be useful in a book trailer.
 
Maybe when the current book is finished, I'll give more a try and get that upgrade to see what it does. I don't mind paying for services I value. Nothing really is free-- or if it is, not for long.


3 comments:

Tabor said...

I have also found that filters work with some tones and contrasts and compositional elements of photos and does not get the effect I want with others. But it is fun to play with them.

joared said...

I don't show family or others either for the same reasons you mention. Interesting to see the filter effects.

Brig said...

I want to learn how to use filters, sure like the way the one of you at the beach turned out.