Last Summer there came what is known as an "Aha!" moment. Google released a new version of Picasa, which included something called Picnik. I began to explore the free version. (I don't like to pay for anything unless it's absolutely necessary). There are tools there that just opened up a whole new level of creative manipulation. The most important feature, early on, was "Tint". It took a few minutes to figure out that, unlike "tint" on Picasa, you didn't have to render the entire image in a single color. You can mix a color, and apply it with the "paintbrush" to different elements of the image, hit "apply", pick another color and do it again. I loved how this worked!
The above image is the first, and still one of my favorites. The original is a fairly low contrast black and white of a fellow student at the Thomas Jefferson College of the Grand Valley State Colleges, where I was studying art, photography, creative writing, bowling and bicycling. She was gracious enough to model extensively over several days, which included this trip to the dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Once I saw the impact that localized color had on the overall image, you could say I was hooked. I'll have more examples of this technique over the coming days.
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