almost_abstract_2086
Originally uploaded by gtveloce
This image started as a photograph… I isolated one section and went crazy with layers and filters. Voila! It’s now… something else again….?
almost_abstract_2086
Originally uploaded by gtveloce
This image started as a photograph… I isolated one section and went crazy with layers and filters. Voila! It’s now… something else again….?
OK, you know all this stuff, but maybe someone out there doesn’t. If you are into either scanned or direct digital photography you will have noticed by now that you have a range of editing options at your disposal. Typically you will have a basic freebie like MS Paint, or a came-with-the-scanner powerhouse like Photoshop Elements. Now you can do some pretty useful stuff with Paint and its ilk – like cropping, for starters, and adding text. But I’m hoping that you lust for more control. So I’ll write here about Elements, but it applies generally to other editing programs like the GIMP, too.
Layers. Not productive chickens, but another layer of image added on top of the original. Just try it out. Open your image and maybe do so cropping first. Then start with a duplicate layer. That’s right, it’s an option up there on the top tool-bar. Elements defaults to viewing down through the pack, so it’s like you have simply added a another exact copy on a transparency, except it didn’t get darker. You can make it darker by using different types of layers and settings, or by using the filters (again, look at the tool-bar and pull-down a list of filters). In fact you can do so much it’s dazzling.
Try this one trick for starters. Select your original image and use the clone stamp tool (select tool, select size and ‘normal’, hold down alt and left-click) to select just a small part of your image from the background slide. Now make a duplicate layer, or go to it by selecting it on the layer panel to your right. Now select a filter – let’s use blur, then Gaussian blur, on just that duped layer. Just use a small blur to start with, to put everything ‘out of focus’ but recognizable. Now experiment a bit with the clone tool, try stamping once on the same feature that you copied. Once you have made that initial stamp you can move around and fill in the rest of the image, or just the detail you want.
Remember, less is more. Unless you want to go crazy (I know I do).
In this way you can stamp an unblurred original on top of a blurred copy, bringing a feature (maybe a face) out of a crowded background. Try feathering the clone stamp – or even easier, just use differing levels of opacity. Say 10% to just ink in a faint image, or 100% to really make it stand out. Experiment. You can always undo. In this way you can build up multiple layers with different effects to generate a final image. You can do a lot more but that gets you started.
OK, you know all this stuff, but maybe someone out there doesn’t. If you are into either scanned or direct digital photography you will have noticed by now that you have a range of editing options at your disposal. Typically you will have a basic freebie like MS Paint, or a came-with-the-scanner powerhouse like Photoshop Elements. Now you can do some pretty useful stuff with Paint and its ilk – like cropping, for starters, and adding text. But I’m hoping that you lust for more control. So I’ll write here about Elements, but it applies generally to other editing programs like the GIMP, too.
Layers. Not productive chickens, but another layer of image added on top of the original. Just try it out. Open your image and maybe do so cropping first. Then start with a duplicate layer. That’s right, it’s an option up there on the top tool-bar. Elements defaults to viewing down through the pack, so it’s like you have simply added a another exact copy on a transparency, except it didn’t get darker. You can make it darker by using different types of layers and settings, or by using the filters (again, look at the tool-bar and pull-down a list of filters). In fact you can do so much it’s dazzling.
Try this one trick for starters. Select your original image and use the clone stamp tool (select tool, select size and ‘normal’, hold down alt and left-click) to select just a small part of your image from the background slide. Now make a duplicate layer, or go to it by selecting it on the layer panel to your right. Now select a filter – let’s use blur, then Gaussian blur, on just that duped layer. Just use a small blur to start with, to put everything ‘out of focus’ but recognizable. Now experiment a bit with the clone tool, try stamping once on the same feature that you copied. Once you have made that initial stamp you can move around and fill in the rest of the image, or just the detail you want.
Remember, less is more. Unless you want to go crazy (I know I do).
In this way you can stamp an unblurred original on top of a blurred copy, bringing a feature (maybe a face) out of a crowded background. Try feathering the clone stamp – or even easier, just use differing levels of opacity. Say 10% to just ink in a faint image, or 100% to really make it stand out. Experiment. You can always undo. In this way you can build up multiple layers with different effects to generate a final image. You can do a lot more but that gets you started.
Originally an oil on canvas painting, then photographed and scanned and ‘shopped until…
Originally an oil on canvas painting, then photographed and scanned and ‘shopped until…
  I don’t know about you but I mostly learn software by trying it. The best tactic of all, I find, is to set myself a mission and attempt to figure out how to do it by any means possible. Mostly that means trying lots of things and occasionally – in desperation only – reading help files or web sites that I stumble over.
These bicycle pics illustrate that taking a fairly ordinary item and choosing to frame it just so and then to crop and alter it for impact can result in some interesting images. These were all 35mm film shots, mostly from the 1980s, using a Pentax K2 SLR and Ektachrome.
 
This gallery also takes some mundane but interesting (to me, anyway) pics from the 1970s and Photoshops them to death, until they are almost unrecognizable. (You could use any similar program, such as the GIMP, of course.)Well I like ‘em anyway. They demonstrate the use of filters, mostly, and give you a hint of how trial and error can take you places.
For example I go from here…   to here… and end up… there.
I’ve adjusted contrast and brightness, used a few fave filters like dry brush, cutout and plastic wrap and bingo!
And I go from here to there! And so on. It’s infinite, really. I end up with a few new skills, some ideas and a new batch of images I didn’t have before. Some of them will get reused in various ways, and the insight I gained in making them will be used again on other images. And I had fun as well. 
And when I have fun there’s no stopping me. There are many more examples of what can happen when you go crazy with filters, layers and contrast… and someof them are absolute rubbish. But gee I’ve learned something, anyway 
I don’t know about you but I mostly learn software by trying it. The best tactic of all, I find, is to set myself a mission and attempt to figure out how to do it by any means possible. Mostly that means trying lots of things and occasionally – in desperation only – reading help files or web sites that I stumble over.
These bicycle pics illustrate that taking a fairly ordinary item and choosing to frame it just so and then to crop and alter it for impact can result in some interesting images. These were all 35mm film shots, mostly from the 1980s, using a Pentax K2 SLR and Ektachrome.
This gallery also takes some mundane but interesting (to me, anyway) pics from the 1970s and Photoshops them to death, until they are almost unrecognizable. (You could use any similar program, such as the GIMP, of course.)Well I like ‘em anyway. They demonstrate the use of filters, mostly, and give you a hint of how trial and error can take you places.
For example I go from here… to here… and end up… there.
I’ve adjusted contrast and brightness, used a few fave filters like dry brush, cutout and plastic wrap and bingo!
And I go from here to there! And so on. It’s infinite, really. I end up with a few new skills, some ideas and a new batch of images I didn’t have before. Some of them will get reused in various ways, and the insight I gained in making them will be used again on other images. And I had fun as well.
And when I have fun there’s no stopping me. There are many more examples of what can happen when you go crazy with filters, layers and contrast… and someof them are absolute rubbish. But gee I’ve learned something, anyway
Really I am, I’m hard at work right now, playing with my fave filters…
Filed under Images, Photoshop by Rob.
Really I am, I’m hard at work right now, playing with my fave filters…
Filed under Images, Photoshop by Rob.
Not sure exactly what this is, but it’s certainly a gallery of art. Images, both photographic and painted, scanned and manipulated in Photoshop to be somewhat different from reality. I like the fact that digital imaging tools can do in seconds what used to take hours in the darkroom. Yes, I’ve succumbed to the “instant gratification” school.
A small warning, as some images may offend. It’s also a bit arty-farty and should be taken in small doses.
Not sure exactly what this is, but it’s certainly a gallery of art. Images, both photographic and painted, scanned and manipulated in Photoshop to be somewhat different from reality. I like the fact that digital imaging tools can do in seconds what used to take hours in the darkroom. Yes, I’ve succumbed to the “instant gratification” school.
A small warning, as some images may offend. It’s also a bit arty-farty and should be taken in small doses.
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