Murda/Urban Gangstas - 10/23/2007 - Update - The Road Splits In The Courtroom
LissaS:
Yes elven song yes you hit it right on the needle!!!
Quote from: Elven_Song;778983
Unfortunately she probably won't realise because like you said, Moon22T, its making sense to her, and that's only because Junior's mixing God's word with his, and she's been raised to follow it.
Ps sorry about the deleted posts my computer booted me off when I tried to edit the first post and the second
FeistyRedhead:
The quasi abusive tone Raheem has with his new wife is disturbing, but you know I love the story :)
Ali Xavier:
I had to think about this chapter for awhile. As Elvensong said above, it was brilliant. What made it so is that you showed how domestic violence happens. We also know why: Junior was an abused child, and Rita was an oppressed child. Amazing how you did that.
I liked the art too, especially of Junior with the scales on his face. It's good enough to hang in my living room. You should upload it here. (Hint, hint)
vita4all:
Tenshii and I PM each other every now and then, so I gave her this feedback in a PM. She said she'd like me to post it to help others.
Moon22T also PM'd me on Saturday, asking how I get my shots to be so vivid.
Here's how:
Quote
From Tenshi: It's not too bright, is it? I'm working from a laptop with unadjustable brightness/contrast... and I'm still learning how to do this type of stuff...
I only know how to use Adobe Photoshop. Can't praise it enough, although their may be even better programs out there, and using a laptop, you may be limited by it's memory or RAM.
You asked about the warming effect on your pic, and mentioned brightness and contrast. There is something called Adjust Color on Photoshop, that has three sub-options: hue, saturation, and lghtness. One can make a photo 'warmer' this way using saturation, or change the colors completely using hue. Many of my photos you've seen have been touched up this way.
You asked if your photo is too warm. This depends on the mood you want to set. Mood is everything. I think it's perfect - if you're trying to convey an intense mood. His face and expression is already beautifully intense, and whatever you did is perfect. To add, drama to the photo, I used something called the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I don't know if you have this feature in your photo program, but if ever switch to Adobe, you'll find it invaluable.
(Credit to Beosboxboy for showing me how to do this when I wanted to modify the tie on his gangster suits. He supplied me with this pic and I've been rolling ever since. He may have a tutorial on insimenator somewhere.)
What you do is 'rope' around the object that you want to modify. In your photo, I roped off Kai (I guess that's his name, that's how you labeled him in the photo). Thus, Kai wasn't affected, changed, or altered in anyway - only the background was. (No, I take that back. I changed the hair over his ear on the left side of the pic a wee bit.) I had a photo of a fire that I found on the web (I love shots that involve heat, passion and drama), and simply cut and pasted it into the background. This took me all of 20 minutes, from thinking about it, to selecting a background, to editing the photo. This took practice, however, and patience.
Here's the exact same photo, with a different background to match the intensity:
Here's another example, and a sneak peak. In this shot, the photo of the fire is in the sim scene, so I didn't need to use the polygonal lasso tool:
or, the same shot below, in a two recent chapters. It was originally taken on black backgrounds, and the Filter was used to alter the mood and look. For the second shot, I used the paint bucket to change the background from black to red, the Image/Resize/Scale tool to adjust size, because I felt I stretched too much in the first one.
Edit 6/25/2007
Shots are never perfect when you take them.
Below is a step-by-step detail pictorial of the transformation of a close-in shot from another story I've entered for the Playing Pirate Contest :pirate::
http://www.insimenator.org/showpost.php?p=791120&postcount=89
1. Sample One - Original Photo
2. Sample Two:
The picture needs to be enhanced for color. If you brighten it, the globe lamp will be too bright and overwhelm or dominate the photo too much.
a) Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to rope off the globe. Use Edit feature to Copy, then Cut.
b) Use Enhance feature in upper left-hand corner.
c) Scroll down to Adjust Lighting, and adjust for Brightness and Contrast.
d) Then go to Adjust Color (also under Enhance), then adjust hue and saturation.
e) Sometimes you may want to use the Adjust Shadow feature too. I rarely adjust more than 1 to 3%, if at all, as it affects the lighting in ways I don't like. Save this for last. Sometimes it makes it a little better, and with some shots, it's a necessity. I don't think I used it on this one.
3. Sample Three
a) Use Rectangular Marquee Tool on left side of Adobe, it's the square box under the icon that looks like an eyedropper. Use this tool to highlight area where the globe (or your item) will be pasted back on.
b) Use Edit feature. Scroll down and click on Paste In Selection. Then line up globe where it was.
4. Sample Four
a) Use Blur Tool on left side of the page to blur around the boundary of the globe where you pasted it back in the photo. This tool looks like a raindrop. You can adjust the size at the top of the page, the same way you adjust your paintbrush.
5. Sample Five
See that thin black line going across the globe and into the crib? Theres another one under the boy's chair. The lines are from a glitch in the globe lamp that shows up in the game.
a) Several ways to do this. Easiest for me was to use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (the box) to highlight the first area where the line is, then click Copy.
b) Next, use the Polygonal Lasso Tool and lasso or rope around only the line.
c) Click Paste In Selection, and shift the pasted area until the line is covered up.
6. Sample Six - Almost Done!
See that little tiny white area in the lower left hand corner of the photo? That comes from a pile of clothes that was on the floor, but not enough of the clothes showed up for anyone to know what it is. I didn't even notice it until the last minute. This is easily fixed.
a) Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool over a slightly larger area of the clothes and Copy.
b) Since it's so tiny, you don't have to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool. You can use the Rectangular Marquee Tool again, but only over the spot. Click on Paste into Selection, and move it around until it's covered up.
c) Brightened or lightened just a tad, maybe used 1% of Shadow feature, which I save for last.
7. Sample Seven - Finished Product.
I don't know why it looks a little lighter in #7 than in #6. That's a Photobucket issue, because I didn't adjust anything. You'll see #6 in the Pirate Contest.
Whew! Done. Sounds like a lot. I think it took me probably 45 minutes, but I'm still slow and take my time studying the photo. Photo work of this kind is like art, and in the eye of the beholder. Some people might prefer the photo to be lighter. However, I like the level of darkness to portray the mood in the story. Often darkness will make a photo more intimate, especially if it's a close up shot of the subject(s). You almost feel like you are there.
Good luck, and PM me if you have any questions.
LissaS:
WOW thanks ALOT!!!!! Now to go experiment..........
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page