One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge

One-to-three is a monthly photo processing challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I’d love to have you join in: The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. Then share the results, with a link to this month’s post . I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month, including a round up of entries from the preceding month, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.

Here’s my February 2022 contribution:

This torii gate is a UNESCO World Heritage site on the island of Miyajima near Hiroshima.

Original jpeg, straight out of Canon A510

How to get the looks above:

For the artistic treatments in the gallery I used the GIMP.

For the sort of old-time-y look I made the image black and white then put a layer of the original on top of it and used the soft light blend mode. This effect brings to mind some of the pictures my dad took in the orient back when he was in the navy in the late 1950’s.

The second one used the waterpixels filter in the GIMP. You access it from the Filters>Artistic>Water Pixels.

For something totally different: The third uses the Kaleidoscope filter in the Distorts group (Filters>Distorts>Kaleidoscope). I experimented with the number of mirrors and orientations. I think it looks a bit like a St. Patrick’s day doily.

Prepping

Before applying the artistic effects I had to do a little work on the photo.

This is an old photo that I took in Japan in 2005. I had a Canon A510 point and shoot and didn’t know how to move it off of auto. The photos from that trip are low resolution and have blown out highlights and chromatic aberration and many other flaws. But they are from a wonderful trip so, along with saving up to go back with a better camera, I am experimenting with how to make the best of them with the tools I have on hand.

For this photo I used Raw Therapee to denoise, defringe, dehaze…and do other adjustments to get back as much detail back as I could while cleaning up the image a bit. Here is what it looked like coming out of RawTherapee. I think Raw Therapee did a great job.

Challenge Background

Since having to isolate due to the pandemic, last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with photo processing and I thought it might be fun to share some of the things I’ve discovered and see what others are doing.

I’m hosting the challenge on the other site to try and keep my WordPress.org skills.