Metamorphosis Of A Photo

Today I thought I would show you the steps taken to make the final photo creation.

Here's the photo of a lovely coneflower (which, by the way, I did not take, it is a free stock photo. Free is good!)

 In this next picture, it has been cropped, bringing the selected image closer, and then changed to black and white.

This is a texture sheet; I added it to the photo in Photoshop Elements 13 (PSE13), blended it in the overlay mode with an opacity of 82%.

And this is the result. The writing shows, and the color from the texture adds interest to the photo. I could stop here, but I thought I would go a little further.

 Here I added a filter with Topaz, a wonderful plug in that works with PSE. I really like the resulting warmth and the immediate feeling that there is a story here.

Now the photo is ready to go into the Bellesouth Studio and will be available as prints, pillows, cards and phone cases!

Hope you enjoyed seeing how this was done!

The Tools Of Your Trade

If you are an artist or a photographer for any length of time, I know that you have heard the debate about whether something used differently than it was intended could possibly produce "real" art. Many of the artists and photographers that I chat with on an online forum have often come to verbal blows over this subject. Some of the photographers maintain that they only offer "pure" shots for sale, they don't dabble in the world of photo processing with the likes of Photoshop, or Corel, or any of the other programs that allow one to work with their photos. 

Here's the bottom line - it is very rare for a photo not to need processing of some sort. Even well respected and famous photographers such as Ansel Adams processed his photos - in a darkroom. He would dodge and burn under a special lamp, or use chemicals, to get the effect he was after. Today's digital cameras do the basic processing within the camera now, but they will not give you a pristine picture that matches what you envisioned when you made the shot. Your eyes see things with emotion, the camera is a mechanical object, and will take what it sees with the available environmental issues - the lighting, the wind, your hand not being as steady as you wanted, all these things affect a photo. But if you shoot in Camera Raw, you have left the door open for a chance to make the picture look more like what you wanted to convey by using post processing tools.

When Renoir was painting, he was part of a group of artists who were shunned by the older, established artists in his day. They did not accept these new artists into the fold, did not allow them to exhibit, discouraged art patrons from supporting them, and why? Because they did things much differently than how it had been done before. So, the older artists assumed that these young men (and a few women) were Wrong. And therefore, not real artists.

We all use tools in what we create. I use pottery scrapers in my encaustic work. There are many different types of brushes. There are as many styles of photography as there are people, almost. But often the generation which is older perceives the tools they were taught to use as The Tools. Period. No, they are the tools, and it's open ended. Refusing to take advantage of what's available to use is fine if that's your choice. Being critical of others, dismissing them for going way outside of the box, and condemning them as not being "real" artists is not acceptable, it's small minded and mean. And grossly incorrect.

I had a page in my journal where I had played around with some shapes and some colors. It always looked like it could go somewhere, but I was not sure how to bring it there. So I left it for a while to simmer in the back of my mind. Today I realized that a photo processing tool I had in my virtual toolbox on the computer might make a difference in the appearance and take it where I wanted it to go. So I put the two together, did some blending and tweaking and was very pleased that the final result was just as I had hoped! So it was a mash up between hand painting and digital photo processing. And it couldn't have been better! 

Transformation

No, I just didn't push a couple of buttons. Yes, it required some knowledge and skill. And Yes, I will give this another go with other paintings I have done.

I could expound with even more detail about this subject, and perhaps I will in another post. Meanwhile, I'm just enjoying all the different ways one can create!

The Image Keeps Giving

In a post written on the 7th of December, I wrote about how I had spent some time out in the mud after a rain storm to get some macro shots of raindrops. I showed the original photograph:

I shot this photograph in Camera RAW, which allows me a lot more room to sharpen and process the image. If you aren't sure what Camera Raw is, here is a quote from Wikipedia:

A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor.

Most DSLR cameras has this option now, or you can shoot in jpeg, which means the camera processes it before you get the final image. But you don't have much flexibility when you shoot in jpeg, so I have learned to keep my camera set on RAW now, no matter what I am shooting.

In the post I referenced above, I showed you an image I took from the  original:

Raindrop Face

Yesterday, I pulled the original image back up, wondering what else I could pull from it. I cropped out an area, and after it getting it to the size I wanted, I sharpened and processed it. I was thrilled with the results, and loaded it up to my website for selling prints, and also on my Facebook pages. However, I've had 2 comments already that the viewers weren't exactly sure what they were looking at! Do you see a water drop? I thought it was obvious, but hey - that doesn't mean everyone sees the same thing I do!

 Golden Raindrop

Let me know if you find it confusing! I may have to change it.

Photography Processing

I have always loved photography and am now expanding into that bit by bit. Since I can only travel once in a while, and then not very far, I have come to see that there is much in "my own back yard" that I can use as photographic fodder. I have also fallen in love with processing a photo, by using Photoshop and textures. I am still in the beginnings of understanding that, but it's fun. Because of the cognitive issues associated with ME, I tire very easily when doing it, because I am not at the point where it is second nature. But it's so enjoyable, and I am hoping my skills will expand over the next few months.

(click to see details)

This is a simple pile of rocks on the side area of our property. I took a shot while they were lightly dusted with snow and then processed it with filters and other steps to make a nice graphic image

(click to see details)

In an area we call "the meadow" (mainly because we don't mow there!), we have wild daisies in the spring. This shot was processed with several layers of textured backgrounds and then I colored in the middle of the daisies.

(click to see details)

The Iceland Poppy is a free stock photo which I again added to it texture layers, ending with one which had words printed from an old hymn. Someone purchased a copy of this with matting and a frame and it looked gorgeous. 

Enjoy!