Sunday, July 11, 2010

A Field of Prickly Beauty

I've been trying to master the art of giving a vintage look to photos using Picnik, an on-line photo-editing tool.  As I've mentioned before I really like using Picnik to clean-up my photos before they go on the blog - just to auto-adjust the colour and sharpen the image a little (you can read about it here).  This time however, I was aiming to create the retro kind of photo that I have seen around blogland.

I started off with only a little bit of a retro look.



And slowly got more and more faded looking.


Don't you just love weeds.  Wait did I just say that - okay - let me qualify.  I love a field full of wildflowers (or in other words weeds).
 

I'm loving the sun-washed, vintage look.  Do the photos look old and faded enough?


But then again I also love the original rich purples and greens - although the contrast with the vintage ones is a bit hard on the eyes.  
Which do you prefer - the vintage washed-out look or the unmanipulated photos???

*****

Just a reminder that there is still time to enter my Summer Giveaway (ends July 13th).  You can find the details here.



Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

15 comments:

  1. I've seen those washed out vintage type pics around blogland too but I have to say I like the modern pictures better. That's kind of funny to say since I love vintage decor but the washed out photos remind me of some of my childhood photos from the 60's and 70's that faded over time and I wished they hadn't. You take such beautiful pictures, capturing color and close-ups so well, and I like them that way. Just my two cents :)

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  2. I'll put my vote in on the same side as Gina. Your photos are so well composed, they put my photos to shame! I love your mosaics, especially "Emerald Quilt". I have it as my desktop photo.

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  3. Those are such pretty photos. I'm liking the vintage washed ones.

    Have a great day Grace.

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  4. Your photos look amazing! Thanks for the heads up about Picnik. I'm going to try it out. :)

    Thanks for visiting! I still can't believe I found that basket and bottles at Pottery Barn. Havea fun treasure hunting!! ;o)

    Have a wonderful Sunday!
    Hugs ~ Jo

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  5. Loving the vintage. Your photography is wonderful. Keep playing... BTW I would love to have one of your photos (or several) to frame in my house :)

    Thanks for the SAH comment!!! Yes you do know me. Blogging friends. I'm very flattered by the comments especially showing all your family the mag. Absolutely sweet of you.
    hugs
    Susan

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  6. Beautiful Grace and I love the pics of your son and fiancee!!

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  7. Just took some pictures of these yesterday at a farm I was visiting...LOVE the vintage!

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  8. Great photos Grace!! I love weeds (wild flowers ) too.
    The vintage photo is really cool.

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  9. Beautiful photos...I really like the 2nd last one Grace, so I guess the vintage one for me with this subject matter. Is this a normal application on Picnik or do you have a premium membership?

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  10. The photos are absolutely stunning! I love the vintage look...you have done an amazing job!

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  11. For those photos, I love the vintage look! I love that weed, we have one similar here and I told my husband I wanted to plant them in our yard. He freaked out, aparently they are terrible and the government will pay you if you kill them so I don't think we want them growing around our house haha.

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  12. I like to look at the real-life colours, even though the vintage look is very appealing.

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  13. Thistles make wonderful pictures. Last time I was in CO I took bunches of pictures of them in a field. Yours look great. I like the different kinds of processing you did. :)

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  14. They all look nice. The faded ones are very soft and would be beautiful on a card.

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  15. Love the pictures and the effects you added on Picnik. Thanks for sharing :)

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