I'm amazed at how good the average snapshot camera is these days. Even the cheap ones take great pictures. I've been experimenting with the settings and filters on my Elph and I can't believe what I get just by using the built-in presets.
Like this sepia setting, for instance. The picture above is Steve's kitchen. It's a nice cozy room with a good vibe, but you wouldn't expect to see it in Architectural Digest. With the sepia filter you get a version of the room that looks positively sophisticated. Chic, even. You feel that somebody famous must live there.
It's not just the sepia tone that accomplishes that, it's the camera's exposure computer.
Above, once again the camera set the exposure (above). I didn't have to do a thing!
Do you remember how frequently high end magazines used to use this effect (above)? Now it's a one-click option built into snapshot cameras. Haw! Now that everybody can do it the magazines will probably lose interest in it.
BTW, that's Auralynn and Jo Jo above, opening Christmas presents.
Auralynn took this photo (above) using the same filter as I used in the couch photo.
I forget what this filter's (above) called. It's monochrome with tints of just one color. It looks like it could use some tweaking in Photoshop, but I wanted you to see how it looked right out of the camera.
You can experiment with the aperture to get effects like the one above, and preview the result. There's nothing special about that, probably all digital cameras do it, but I grew up in the Kodachrome era and this commonplace convenience blows my mind.
BTW, I caught Jo Jo in the act of standing up and the awkward inbetween pose isn't very flattering. Sorry, man!
Wow! You can effortlessly do things like this (above) with a snapshot camera now! The future is here!
One last photo (above), but it's not mine. Steve shot this of Jo Jo with his hair messed up and with a five o'clock shadow. He put it up on his Facebook page and Jo Jo was inundated with admiring comments by girls.
You see? That's the power of photography. No. I'm not abandoning cartooning, but I think we should all be nice to Steve since he has the power to make us stars.
