A little fun with chalk.

[ronlane]

I was watching my son play outside this afternoon and I saw the bowl of sidewalk chalk that they have and thought it would make a fun photo.


Sidewalk chalk by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

It's very nice to have photos of this kind of childhood stuff. The little day-to-day, "real-life" stuff that makes up childhood is all too often just thrown out each month or so. I might want to see this burned down a bit, since the brightest highlights seems a bit hot.

 

[kundalini]

What's up with the top of the page? The grate/vent seems misplaced.

 

[ronlane]

Derrel, I see what you mean about the highlights. I was wanting this one bright and colorful, so much so that I didn't notice that.

Kundalini, that is the basket that the chalk was in. I have cropped it to get rid of that.


Sidewalk chalk by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[ShooterJ]

Derrel, I see what you mean about the highlights. I was wanting this one bright and colorful, so much so that I didn't notice that.

Kundalini, that is the basket that the chalk was in. I have cropped it to get rid of that.

Chalk it up to a learning experience? Sorry dude, I tried to force myself not to go there. I wasn't strong enough. LOL

 

[ronlane]

It's all good ShooterJ. That's all I was doing with this photo anyway, was something light and fun. Just seeing if it worked.

 

[ShooterJ]

It's all good ShooterJ. That's all I was doing with this photo anyway, was something light and fun. Just seeing if it worked.

It worked pretty well, IMO. It's a simple shot, but I like it. I've seen some absolutely amazing images that were incredibly simple, so I don't think it's a bad thing at all.

 

[KenC]

Nice shot. I'd crop the tan crayon at the top. The fact that it's horizontal and fairly large makes it stand out from the others.

 

[ronlane]

Thanks KenC, I will look at that when I get back to my computer, although looking at it, I'm afraid that it will crop too close to the center one that is kinda the focal point.

 

[ceeboy14]

There is a perfectly good image in your shot, Ron, but it does take a little selective tweaking to get it to the surface. I only used the selective marque tool and the levels adjuster except where I copied and pasted a piece of chalk to cover that odd blue piece of plastic in the upper left area. I did add a drop shadow to match the rest of the image.

 

[ronlane]

Nice edit ceeboy14. on the levels, did you adjust both ends or just the highlights? At first in post, I added some contrast to bring out the shadows, but didn't like it (probably went too far).

 

[ceeboy14]

I slide as needed. On these, I went more from light to dark to try to build some "roundness" to the pieces. that was also the reason for darkening the basket - yo help push the colors up but also create some depth. Try to avoid contrast adjustments until the end as they tend to clog your blacks.

 

[ronlane]

Okay, thanks for the info.

 

[ceeboy14]

I used the quick selection tool on each piece of chalk and adjusted each to its best merits. On some, I used both levels and HSB so I could get some of the flecks from other pieces and brighten them up a bit.