The Challenge: Show us your Creativity – Textures/Layers
The Challenge: Using a particular stock image, and using it to create brushes, textures, and or layers on your own image, to create a work of art.
The Goal: Well, to make the most creative, eye-pleasing work of art, of course!
This was A Photographer’s Craft’s latest challenge. Once again I took the challenge. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds, trust me. Especially since, at the time, I was in my slump. The stock image we had to use was this:
The Catch: Not only did we have to try and be creative, we had to remember and share our processes in creating our pieces! Almost sounds like school huh? You can find the forum thread with these details here.
Being in a slump as I was, I didn’t have any new photography to play with, nor was I in the mood to take any. So, I dug through a bunch of “junk” images, old photographs I had no intention on using, but haven’t deleted them yet, you know the type. I came acrossed a photo I took this past summer of one of my miniture roses. Here’s what I started with:
And since I’m too lazy to go through all the steps I did again, I will just copy and paste what I wrote in the forum 🙂
Let’s see if I can fully remember this.
1. Overlayed a different texture over my original image. (Hey, there was no rule stating I couldn’t use additional textures!)
2. Did a layer mask and erased the textures from the actual flowers.
3. Played with the channel mixer.
4. Brought the stock image onto my image, free transformed it much larger than my image.
5. Flipped the stock image horizontally, moved it to where I wanted it.
6. Decreased the Red channel’s saturation on the stock image, almost all the way down.
7. “Overlayed” the stock image onto my image.
8. Did another layer mask to clean up over the flowers, so the stock image was behind the flowers.
9. Did a little dodge and burn (baby).
10. Went back to the stock image and did a select color rage on the background (the blue sky) Copied it, and pasted it on my image.
11. Set the new layer over as “Pin light”
12. Flattened image
13. Decreased saturation a little, upped the brightness, decreased contrast.
14. Did a little more burning.
15. Added a sepia photo filter.
16. Created a new layer, used a faux text paintbrush for the writing, switched that layer to “Overlay”
17. Adjusted the brightness/contrast again, this time increasing contrast a tad.And Done!
And my final image, and entry was:
I didn’t win, but I did take 3rd place!
The piece that took 1st place was:
Ode to Banksy by Adrian Rachele
The rest of then entries were:
A Year of Novembers by Dana DiPasquale
afraid of the light by andreasphoto
autumn collage by Adriana Glackin
Ghosts of the New Desert by smallfox
Breath in Deeply Autumn Wind by Freelancer
Memories of Autumn by Misti Hymas
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All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Or, if you are more interested in bulk items, or other products such as postcards, magnets, mugs, US postage, and more, visit the Art by Karri Store.
Example Product:
Feature: The Innocence of Youth- A Child’s Portrait
For those of you who don’t know, I also am one of the hosts of Redbubble’s High Key group. High Key is a style of photography/editing in which the image has prominant high key tones. If you would like to learn more about it, check out the groups forum.
The High Key Group just finished it’s first challenge, The Innocence of Youth- A Child’s Portrait. The rules were simple, all entries had to be high key, and a picture of a child(ren).
The Top 10
1st Place: My Dance by Rosina Lamberti
Such Potential by Damian Riches
Every Little Girl Should Have Fairy Wings… by Martie Venter
Beautiful Dreamer by Corinne Noon
Sibling Love by Karri Klawiter
Congratulations to winners!
Be sure to check out the artists other works too!!
Arachnid Feature – Color on Color: Camouflage
I am one of the hosts from Redbubble’s Arachnid Group. We recently hosted a challenge titled Color on Color: Camouflage. The rules to this challenge was to take or create (we welcome all art, just ends up mostly photographs) an image, in which the Arachnid had to be the same color as its background. i.e. A green spider on a green leaf, or a brown scorpion on brown dirt. You get the gist of it.
We only had 18 entries this time around, but they were a great 18 entries. If you would like to see all the entries, follow this link. Don’t forget to take a look at the artist’s other work. Their linked names will take you to their profiles.
On to the top 10 images:
1st place went to Gozza with her beautiful piece, Practically Invisible
The rest are as followed:
You Have to Look Twice… by Ann Palframan
Color Coordinated Spider by LoisBryan
Goldenrod Crab Spider #3 by KaneSlater
Goldenrod Crab Spider by Leyla S. Ismet
Come Closer…I’m waiting… by Yool
I would like to thank the participants for their outstanding work!
Congratulations to you all!
New Cards
I know, I know, I know, my last several posts were about Christmas cards. But what can I say? They are just so much fun to make! Here’s my latest set, available in my Zazzle Store.
Simple, yet satisfying 🙂
New Santa Holiday Cards!
I put together 2 more Christmas cards today. They are both available as high quality art cards at Redbubble, and in bulk on Zazzle.
*** TODAY ONLY (DECEMBER 2, 2008)***
****FREE SHIPPING ON ANY PRODUCTS AT ZAZZLE!!****
enter code CYBERZSHIP08 at checkout
offer valid till 11:59pm PST
On to the cards!
(note: clicking on the card images will take you to my Redbubble work, not Zazzle)
Click here for all Holiday cards through Redbubble
Click here for Zazzle Holiday Products.
Holiday Cards!
For the past month I have been trying to come up with an idea for holiday cards. My mind has been a blank. I tried a few things, but nothing jumped out at me. That is… until last night 🙂 So I bring you my lastest work in the form of holiday cards.
It’s a start at least, right?
New Calendar: Flora
I just put together a new floral calendar called Flora. I have been holding off on doing a floral calendar because I wanted it to have a theme. I wanted it to have simular editing, either all manipulated, or all natural photography. But then I thought, huh, I constantly change my techniques, bouncing back and forth from this style to that, so why not allow my calendar to reflect that too? So I bring you my latest calendar Flora!
Additionally, I have added my lattest Digital Abstract, Techno Luminescence, to my Digital Abstract Calendar.
Almost all of my images in these calendars can be puchased as premium art cards, matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here.
Example Card:
The Challenge: A Light bulb, A String, and A Key
Who doesn’t love a good challenge? Especially a photography challenge. It makes you think, it broadens your horizon, it pushes you outside your comfort limit. Recently I participated in a challenged hosted by APC. The challenge, of which I chose to except, was to make a creative image using a light bulb, a piece of string, and a key. You could add anything else to the image, just as long as those 3 images were clearly visible.
Although there was not a huge turn out in the challenge, some amazing images were created. All different approaches and all different styles.
My original idea was to take a light bulb, and try to stab a key into it. Or at the very least, get a whole in the light bulb, and stick the key into it. Then I was going to set it up to look like it is laying in blood. Well if you know anything about light bulbs, they don’t break with a nice neat whole, they shatter. So I ended up working with a shattered light bulb. I set out some plastic bags, covered w/ white paper, layed out the light bulb, well the pieces at least, and created my pool of blood. I knew I was planning on taking the image in black and white, so I used good old fashioned maple syrup for blood. Since I had to have the key and string in the image, I tied the string to the key, and carefully layed on my bloody scene. Then I set my camera to the sharpest, highest contrast, black and white setting, then upped the exposure. (I was also going for a high key look. ) Set it on the tripod (I was working inside with poor lighting) and started shooting at several different angles. After a short trip in Photoshop, honestly, I did some minor editing, decreased contrast, cleaned up the edges, where the sheet of paper ended, etc. This was my final image (You might recognise it from my new banner above):
I took 2nd place in the challenge. First place went to Adriana Glackin.
Here are the rest of the entries:
Are you up to the challenge?
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All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
TTV: Through the Viewfinder
What is TTV: Through the Viewfinder?
Well, it’s pretty much what it says. It’s a technique using two cameras, an old box camera and the camera you actually take pictures with, in which you take a picture of what you see through the other camera’s viewfinder. Make sense?
What is the point you ask?
For me, I love the aged retro look you get with TTV. Yeah, you can make an image look aged or antiqued using textures and filter in Photoshop, but it’s just not the same. Most of the old box cameras are dirty, covered in dust, maybe some scratches, all of which add to the character of the image. (The dirtier the better I say!) Not to mention the challenge of balancing 2 cameras, and the whole flip flop issue. Most box camera’s used have a top viewfinder, that uses mirrors, so you have to keep your good camera at a 90 degree angle to what you want to photograph. Oh, and everything is reversed. Do you know how confusing that can get, you keep turning the direction you need to to center the image, yet in the viewfinder it’s going the other way?!?
So what do you need to get started?
First off, you need a camera to actually take the picture. I’ll assume if you are reading this, you already have one of those 🙂 And to get a nice close-up shot of the viewfinder, you will need a macro lens, or zoom filters. You will need to be able to take a picture a few inches away from the object. If your camera has a macro setting that you are happy with, then by all means, just use that! Besides that, you will need some sort of old camera with a large viewfinder, and then something to block out the light between the 2 cameras.
After you have what you need, honestly, all you do is take a picture of the viewfinder.
Obviously the image above doesn’t have the light blocked out between the two cameras. I just wanted to show you the viewfinder.
My set up:
I have my Canon Rebel XTi for my primary camera (we’ll call this camera #1 from now on), an old box Argus 75 for my secondary camera (camera #2), my stackable zoom filters (I don’t have a macro lens), and my Tube of Darkness. Put together it looks like this:
You can pick up an old box camera fairly cheap at flea markets, antique stores, or ebay. Cameras like the Argus 75 were so overly mass produced in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, you can find them all over the place. I picked mine up on ebay for $4.99 plus shipping!
Here it is pulled apart:
The Tube of Darkness:
To block out the light between cameras, I used a 3 inch cardboard tube that I cut down to 6 inches long, and a black (fuzzy) sock (lost the match) of which I cut the toe off. I slipped the black sock over the cardboard tube, so that there is equal excess material at the top and bottom of the tube. Then I slipped the tube over the open viewfinder on camera #2, and used saftey pins to secure it around camera #2’s straps, making sure it’s pulled tight, yet not to cover camera #2’s lens. And viola! a Tube of Darkness!
And since I use an SLR camera, I just dip my lens into the tube, and pull the top excess sock material over camera #1’s lens. The sock works great because of the elasticity, it keeps a snug fit over the camera’s, keeping out the light. Sorry, I can’t show you a picture of the SLR in the Tube of Darkness because I only have one camera!
I took the picture, now what?
Honestly, that’s up to you and your taste! First off, crop off all that excess around the image. Most people leave a small border around though. After that, editing is all up to you! I have heard that a lot of people like to used the Urban Acid Photoshop Action. I have tried it, but usually end up just playing with the tones and colors on my own, so I can’t give you an example of it. Then why not upload it to Flickr? There are a ton of TTV Flickr groups! Not to mention the ton of information you can find in those groups! The largest one, Through the Viewfinder, has a blog with a ton of information, including a list of a variety of different secondary (base) cameras that can be used. Check that out here.
I hope you enjoyed my lil tutorial/informative blog! Now I’m gonna shamelessly self-promote 🙂
More of my TTV images
This is the very first TTV I took. This is my daughter. What I love about this image, is that it looks like a picture that fell out of my baby book!
This picture was actually chosen as the picture of the day on Absolute Michigan’s Michigan in Pictures Blog!
“Museum of Newaygo”
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Tutorial – Dark Skies
This may be a silly tutorial, but it’s really simple. I thought I’d share a quick photoshop trick I sometimes use to give skies a deep, darker color. I have used it in several of my images.
A few examples:
TUTORIAL
Open your image in Photoshop
My Starting Image
STEP 1: Dupilcate your image.
STEP 2: Got to Image > Adjustments > Black and White
STEP 3: Turn down the Cyan levels and the Blue Levels all the way to the black (-200%). Click OK
STEP 4: Change the Layer Mask to Luminosity.
STEP 5: Flatten Image, or merge down, whichever you prefer. Now the image may be a little grainy for you taste. I make another duplicate layer, reduce noise (a lot), then erase everthing in the top layer other than the sky.
There you have it! You are done!
Told you it was simple and silly!
Afterwards, you can change the image to black and white, and use contrast adjustments to get results like these:
