Art effect image
TRENT AND MERSEY CANAL AND POTTERY FACTORY
Creating a painting or art effect image like this from a photo can be quite evocative. From the original image, converging verticals were corrected as described in a tutorial on the blog. ArcSoft PhotoImpression software was used to create the painting effect using the Median, Painting and Wrinkle effects as described in the ArcSoft tutorial on this blog.
Sepia misty trees
This was an opportunistic shot taken one misty morning in July on my way to work at about 6:30 in the morning...I ran around like an idiot taking about ten photos before I had to dash off to work. Misty images like this lend themselves to a sepia effect. This was originally a colour digital image. I went into Photoshop, opened the file and went into Image/Mode and clicked on Greyscale. This turned it into a black and white image. I probably then went into Image/Auto Contrast to see if this improved the image. I then went back into Image/Mode and clicked on RGB. This turned it back into a colour image though in appearance it remained black and white. I then went into Image/Adjust/Colour Balance. You can get a number of sepia effects by moving the sliders. Try 0 -50 -79. Or try +31 -34 -79. This is just one way of producing a sepia effect in Photoshop, and a quick one. Once I was happy with the effect, I clicked on File/Save As and gave the file a new name and saved it as a JPEG. This means that I still had the original file to play with.
Three Shire Heads, near Buxton, Derbyshire - Painting from photo
Here is another art effect image using ArcSoft PhotoImpression 3.0 and the method described in the image of the Trent and Mersey canal at Stone.
Tutorial - Creating a painting from your digital photos - Trent and Mersey Canal, Stone, Staffordshire, England
Art effect images like this can be created reasonably simply from your photos and digital images. Quite modest software can sometimes be used...you do not need high-end programs like Photoshop. One program that I like is ArcSoft PhotoImpression. It is image manipulation software that came free with my Epson scanner. I use ArcSoft PhotoImpression 3.0. If you have this software, try this:
Get Photo: Click on From File and click on Browse. A box will open with your folders so you can click on the approproate folder and image. When the image is selected, click on Open and your image will appear. (The images I use are 4mega pixel images. The higher the resolution, then the intensity of the effects need to be stronger). As a rule of thumb, I tend to pick a detail in the image that I do not want to lose if I create too strong an effect. Each picture varies in the strength of effects applied - the ones below are a rough guide.
In the side menu, click on Edit. In the menu at the bottom of the window, click on Effects. At the bottom you will see a series of images of an eye, illustrating the effects. Find the effect labeled Median, and then set the Intesity level to about 15. This will create an effect halfway between a painting and a photo. When you are happy with the intensity of the effect, Click on Apply. Hint: Do not use this effect with too strong an intensity - keep subtle! Then find the effect called Painting. Use the Intensity between 40-80. If you have a smooth blue sky, this will create a posterised-like stepped effect, which may or may not be desirable. When you are happy, Click on Apply. Then find the effect called Wrinkle. Set the Intensity between 10 and 20. When you are happy with the effect, Click on Apply.
On the side menu, Click on Save, then Save As. Select File type: JPEG, give the file a name and Save. This whole process took me about two minutes, and can create the sort of image you see above.
Global warming
Photomontage of four elements: The sky, the lighthouse, the walker and the naked body. I like the use of a naked body to create a landscape...to create something a little abstract from the human form. A tanned body colour can certainly begin to look like sand. It can be enhanced using an 85b Orange filter, and of course, further enhanced in Photoshop using Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation and increasing the saturation slider control. using the camera flash for this kind of image is not much use...it is frontal lighting that gives no texture, but rather produces a flat looking image. This means either taking these shots outside or using a studio light or flash to the side. When doing a montage like this it is important to maintain the direction of light. The original lighthouse image has been flipped horizontally in Image/Adjust/Rotate Image, so that the shadow falls on the left, as it does on the body/landscape. If there was a sun in the sky, it would have to be on the right of the picture.
Avenue of trees
An avenue of trees in September on the Rode Hall Estate in South Cheshire. The road of course just leads the eye into the picture. Although in terms of left and right, the road cuts the picture in two by being in the centre, the focal point, the end of the road, is placed one third up from the bottom. This helps to give a sense of space and formality. Standing to the side so that the road came into the picture more from one side or the other did not look as effective...the formality of the composition was lost.
Southport couple
Opportunistic shot of this couple on the sea wall at Southport. Another minimalistic shot that just caught my eye. All the elements are important: the wall, the fence, the curve of the road, the yellow road beacon, and of course the couple. Because the man is leaning towards his wife, there is a slight sense of urgency, of action in this picture, which helps to make it for me. The main element, the couple, are placed one third in from the right and the horizon is one third up from the bottom. The yellow beacon acts as a counterpoint to the couple and stops the curve of the road from leading the eye out of the picture to the left.
Valetta boat
Opportunistic shot of this man on his boat in Valetta harbour, Malta. The unbrella on the boat gives this shot that little extra bit of character.
Valetta Harbour, Malta
Late afternoon shot of Valetta from the harbour. I love this shot. It was an opportunistic one taken while on a boat trip around the harbour, but for me, it has just come together. The light is fantastic, which when combined with these buildings, gives an almost renaissance painting feel to the image. It was taken about four o'clock in the afternoon in mid September, as the sun was lower in the sky. This means that the light is 'warmer', because more red light gets through whereas the the harsher, U.V. light, which can be picked up as giving a cold, blue cast to the picture, does not penetrate the atmosphere so much as it does at midday. Because the light is less harsh, shadows are softer. becasue the sun is lower in the sky, there is more texture and character highlighted on the buildings.
malta boat sunrise
Early morning boat ride. A contre-jour or into the light image. The automatic exposure based on the camera light meter reading was used for this shot. Care has to be taken that points of interest, in this case the boat, do not go too far into the shadow or dark areas of the picture. This sort of image depends upon strong shapes.
Malta hotel sunbeds
Early morning shot of hotel sunbeds. It was the symmetry and colour that caught my eye here on an early morning walk around the hotel grounds. Notice again that the focal point, the point where the sunbeds disappear into the distance, makes use of the principle and proportion of thirds. It is also important when taking this sort of shot to get it as 'square' as possible, that is, to make sure that verticals are truly vertical and that the horizon does not 'slope' at an angle.
Malta hotel sunbeds 2
Contre-Jour shot of hotel sunbeds. I love into-the-light or contre-jour images. I guess they have a similarity to the minimalist images eleswhere on this blog. Contre-jour images tend, like minimalist shots, to be simple and uncluttered, but whereas in minimalist shots, use might be made of bold colour, in contre-jour shots, use is made of bold shapes, which are usually silhouettes. It can be quite useful to obscure the sun in these kinds of images, as I have here by hiding it behind a flagpole. Nothing else was done with this image, it was taken using the camera meter reading as it was.
Southport beach - minimalist shot
Minimalist shot of Southport beach, Lancashire, England. Once again, I just love the emptiness and simplicity of these sorts of images. Notice again the principle of thirds: the horizon in one third up the frame, and the flagpole and person are each one third in from the sides. Convention is broken slightly by having the person walking out of the frame instead of into the centre of the picture. Knowing rules of composition and then breaking them slightly adds interest to the picture. Which do you think is more interesting, or looks more correct: the person walking out of the frame as they are now, or walking the other way, into the centre of the picture? Why do you have one preference over another?
Pleasure House - Photomontage
A bit of fun with photomontage. Using the techniques described below in the angel image, four images have been combined here: three girls and the house. Converving verticals were also corrected on the house image.
Angelicus Eroticus - Photoshop photomontage tutorial
There are three basic images in this montage: the sky, the angel monument and breasts. Using the magic wand and eraser tool, the background of the angel image was removed, leaving just the angel figure. To make sure that parts of the angel image itself were not accidentally removed, I used the Tolerance control situated just below the drop down menu headings at the top of the photoshop window. The file of the sky was opened. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, a rectangle was drawn around the border of the angel image and this was copied in Edit/Copy. I then clicked on File/New and set the background to Transparent. I opened the new file and clicked on Edit/Paste and the angel image appeared in the new file. Using the Magic Wand tool I clicked on the background and Cntrl/X to delete it. I carefully went around the angel image to make sure that all unwanted background was removed, revealing the checkerboard transparent background. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, I dragged a box around the border of the Angel image and clicked on Edit/Copy. I clicked on the sky file and then clicked on Edit/Paste and the Angel appeared in a new layer over the sky background.
An image of a topless lady in roughly the same position as the angel was then opened. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, a box was drawn around the outer edge and using the same procedure as above, it was copied onto the angel. This was was then undone in Edit/Step Backward, and any adjustments to the size of the image were made in Image/Image Size. When I was happy with the size of the image, most of the image was erased leaving the breasts and an area surrounding them up to the neck and down to the stomach. Using the Erase Tool in combination with Brush Size and Opacity controls at the top of the Photoshop Window, the area around the breasts was vignetted out to produce a very soft edge with only the shape of the breasts defined. I then copied this image into a new file with a transparent background as described above. Using the magic wand, the background was erased to leave a transparent area surrounding the breasts. In Image/Mode, Greyscale was clicked on in the drop down menu, to turn this to a black and white image. In Image/Adjust, the Contrast was increased. This new image was in turn copied and pasted onto the Angel/Sky image, and using the Move tool, the breasts were placed in position. On the Layers Box, (the bottom box on the right hand side of the Photoshop Window), the opacity control was altered to about 45%. Any retouching was then carried out as required on the layer concerned, before the file was saved in File/Save As with a new name as a JPEG file.
Angelica Eroticus - Photo Montage
I wanted to capture some of the monuments in the local cemeteries as I think that they have a beauty all of their own. They are fast disappearing now what with the politically correct brigade removing them if there is the slightest chance that they may topple over and yobbos defacing them. As I took these images, what struck me about some of them was the slight erotic quality that some of the angels had, so I decided to enhance this by using photomontage techniques in Photoshop. In all these angel photos, images of breasts have been added to increase the sense of eroticism.
FISH WEATHER VANES - Converging verticals Photoshop tutorial
Fish weather vanes at Southport, Lancashire, England, U.K.
When taking photographs of architecture, converging verticals can be an issue, as you can see from the original small photo at the top of this post. Sometimes, you want to take a picture of a building, but you cannot get any further away from it than accross the street. This means that you have to use a wide andle lens to get the whole building in the frame, and you also have to point the camera upwards a little to get the top of the building in the frame. This creates the effect of converging verticals: where vertical lines appear to slope inwards. In olden days, professional photographers used special lenses which had a bellows extension in the the middle, so that the front elements of the lens could be angled independently of the rear elements. This expensive type of lens corrected this problem. The same correction can be made in Photoshop. Open your image in Photoshop, and draw a Marquee around the whole image using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Click on Edit and in the drop down menu, click on copy. Click on File and on the drop down menu click on New. In the box that appears, make sure that White is selected for the background and click on OK. In this new file window, click on Edit and in the drop down menu click on Paste. Your image will appear in this new file windo as a photoshop file. Click on View and in the drop down menu, click on Zoom Out. Click on Edit and in the drop down menu click on Transform, and in the new drop down menu, click on Distort. Little boxes will appear on the corners of your image and in the centre of the sides of the image. Place the cursor on the top right hand box, click and hold while dragging the mouse to the right. This will begin to distort the image so that converging vertical lines begin to become properly vertical. Repeat the procedure on the top left hand box and drag to the left. Repeat these two procedures until you are happy with the result. If the image appears too squat or flattened, click on the box in the centre of the top edge, and drag upwards. When you are fully happy with the image, double click on the image and photoshop will perform the transform. Then click on File/Save As and the file a new name and in the format box, click on the arrow and change the image from Photoshop to JPEG. Then click on Save. The effect can be seen in the above two photos. In addition, Auto contrast was used and colour saturation was increased in the final photo.
While you are in the Transform menu, you can see what the other effects do to your image such as Skew and Perspective.
DEAD TREE
Dead tree near Buxton in the Peak District National Park.
I find that a wide angle lens is indespensible for this sort of shot. This was taken on 35mm film using a 24mm Wide Angle lens. Using this lens meant that I could stand very close to the tree (probably only about 15-20ft away) and still get the entire tree in the frame. The advantage of this is that the tree stands out clearly against the skyline. If I had stood much further away from the tree, which I would have had to have done if I was using a normal or telephoto lens, then the horizon of the distant hills would have cut right through the middle of the tree and the photo, dividing the photo in half and obscuring part of the tree. Wide angle lenses are very good then in helping to eliminate distracting backgrounds. I often find that I am also using a low viewpoint for such shots...lying on the ground or kneeling down. This also serves to lower the distracting horizon.
Malta
Hotel balcony in Malta. Another of my favourite style of minimalist pictures. Here again I am using the principle of thirds to divide up the shot. What I like about this picture is it's near abstract geometric quality and the balance of colour with the blue sky being balanced out by the blue in the wall and the colour of the clouds being also balanced by the ivory colour of the wall. I also like the way the straight lines of the wall are counterpointed by the curves of the globe light (the main focal point) and the bowl. The only after-treatment to this shot was a little cleaning up in Photoshop using pixel cloning to remove the odd blemish on the wall and floor, and an increase of colour saturation in Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation.
FOOTPRINTS Tutorial - Camera details
Footprints on a sand dune at Talacre beach in North Wales, U.K.
Most of the photos on this blog are taken with a Samsung Digimax V4 digital camera. It is now a few years old and has a resolution of 4 megapixels. It was was my first entry into digital photography, having used 35mm for some years. I chose it becuase of its low to mid range price and because of the features that it has. In the end I have only used some of its features, the most useful ones I have found to be are:
Night mode - for night shots
The +/- exposure control so that I can override the metering system when taking shots in difficult lighting conditions such bright sun on snow, or sand, or into the light shots.
S or shutter mode - if I want to freeze fast moving action. The ASM control gives me complete manual override over the automatic metering system which is sometimes useful.
The camera has automatic focussing and also close up or Macro mode, which I sometimes find useful for the ocasional close up shot.
The camera also has automatic flash - the flash works in poor light conditions, and again, it useful to be able to turn this off in certain situations.
The camera also has 3x optical zoom. Since I tend to do landscape photography, I often use the wide angle end of the zoom - I am a big fan of ultra wide angle. So much so that I still use my 35mm camera for some shots because I have 24mm and 18mm ultra wide angle lenses for that camera, which enables me to get some shots that I cannot get with the digital one. I rarely use the digital zoom, it just lowers the quality of theimage, though I may just use the lower end of the digital zoom very ocasionally.
Of course the great advantage of digital is the instant feedback of results and no film to load. So I can take lots of shots to make sure I get what I want, without worrying about film cost and wastage. Those shots that don't work can be instantly deleted.
LIFEBELT 2 Tutorial
Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.
I love these more austere, minimalist type of photos, so put me on an empty beach that runs for miles and I am in my element. These kinds of shots depend upon strong simple shapes and colour. here, the bold colour of the lifebelt is the point of interest in this minimalist shot and is enhanced by its strong orange colour. This is as the photo was taken except in photoshot I clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto contrast, and then I increased the colour saturation by using the slider in Image/Adjust/Hue and Saturation. I increased this to about twenty. Cropping this image to reduce some of the foreground would also enhance this picture
LIFEBELT 3 Tutorial
Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.
A minimalist shot. I love the austerity of these sorts of images - their bold simple lines and composition together with their use of colour. For me, because they require bold colour, these sorts of shots are best taken of sunny days, with the sun behind you to maximise colour brightness. This was taken about three o'clock on an August afternoon in Wales, when the sun was not too high. To enhance the colour I went into Photoshop and clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto Contrast, which gave it more vibrancy and sparkle, and then I increased the depth of colour further by going into Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation and increased the saturation slider control.
In terms of composition, this shot also makes use of the rule of thirds. If you can imagine your viewfinder with two vertical lines down it at equal distances apart, dividing it into three vertical strips and then imagine two lines horizontally as well, then where these lines fall and cross each other often makes a good place to frame an item of interest. In practice I find that these points of interest tend to be between divisions of one third and a quarter. Thus the life belt, our point of interest, is roughly one third along from the right edge of the frame. Where the dune meets the beach is roughly one third in from the left hand edge of the border. Perhaps a bit of cropping in Photoshop would improve this picture more by getting the horizon to fall about one third up from the base of the frame. Also I could go into Image/Adjust/Rotate and rotate the image about one degree anti clockwise in order to make sure that the horizon was perfectly level. It is a common error with seascapes to have a sloping horizon, whereas in fact it should be perfectly level. The lower the horizon is in this picture, the more sky there will be in proportion to the land and the more spacious it will feel andding to its minimalist feel.
LIGHTHOUSE 3
Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds and bold colour.
LIGHTHOUSE 1
Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. A minimalist shot making use of the rule of thirds. The column of the lighthouse is about one third from the right of the frame. The other point of focus is the red top to the lighthouse, which is about one third down from the top frame. The shape is simple and bold and the colour saturation has been increased also.
LIGHTHOUSE 4
Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. When using a wide angle lens, the depth of field is usually quite deep: items are in focus from about one or two feet to infinity. This can be capitialised on by having smaller items of interest placed prominently in the foreground to counterpoint a more distant item. In this case, the remains of a small concrete structure partly buried on the beach counterpoints the distant lighthouse. Notice that the horizon is not in the middle of the frame: this is a common mistake and serves only to divide the picture in two. Using the rule of thirds, the horizon has be placed on the lower third to maintain a feeling of space.
LIGHTHOUSE 2 - tutorial
Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds. The horizon is placed on the bottom third to maintain a feeling of spaciousness...there is twice as much sky as land. The wide angle lens enables the use of the foreground rocks to lead the eye into the picture from the bottom right of the frame to the line of the vertical third from the left. The lighthouse is slightly more than a third in from the left: it is not in the middle - this would split the picture in two. But it is not on the third because it competes with the figures on the beach. Thus the end of the rocks at one third from the left, lead the eye into the picture to both the people and the lighthouse, the average point of interest between them being at about one third from the left. Auto contrast and colour saturation in Photoshop were used to further enhance this picture.
HEN CLOUD, PEAK DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK, ENGLAND
Hen Cloud at the edge of the Roaches near Leek in Staffordshire, on the south edge of the Pennines, in the Peak District National Park, England, U.K.
The pleasure of martyrs - Photoshop Tutorial
Photoshop tutorial: The pleasure of martyrs – photomontage: how was it done?
The aim was to create an incongruent mix of themes of death and eroticism. Three basic images were used: The mausoleum, the girl and the angels. The mausoleum is the basic element, a slightly creepy building in a cemetery, but any psuedo gothic building would have a similar effect. The original was taken in colour. This file was opened and the Rectangular Marquee Tool was used to surround the whole image (using click and drag from the top left hand corner) which was then copied using Edit/Copy. Then I went to File/New and set it to transparent background and then created a new file. (This will appear with a checkboard pattern.) It will have the same size and resolution as the copied file. I then went to Edit and clicked on Paste and the image will now appear on your new file. To increase the austere theme of death, I wanted this image in black and white, but I wanted the doorway (symbolizing the doorway to the erotic virgins promised to martyrs) to be in colour, to help retain a warm, erotic feel. Using the rectangular marquee tool, a rectangle was drawn around the doorway to the mausoleum from the top left hand corner. Then using Edit/Cut, the doorway was removed revealing the checkboard pattern underneath. Then I clicked on Image/Mode/Greyscale to turn this colour image of the mausoleum to black and white. I then saved this image as a photoshop file under a new name. I closed this file and then opened it again, and clicked on Image/Mode/RGBColor. This returned the image to a colour image, though in appearance it remained black and white. Then I clicked on Edit/Paste and the coloured doorway of the mausoleum was pasted back into the black and white image of the mausoleum. If it did not paste into the right position, then I used the Move Tool to position it correctly. The original mausoleum image had two closed doors, so using the Rectangular Marquee Tool I drew a rectangle around the left hand door and went into Edit/Cut to remove it, again showing the transparent checkboard pattern. I saved this file as a photoshop file.
Next I got the image of the girl. I drew around the whole image using the Rectangular Marquee tool and went to Edit/Copy. I clicked on the Mausoleum image and went into Edit/Paste, to copy the girl onto this image. The size was not correct. I went into Edit/Undo to remove the image of the girl. I clicked on the original file of the girl again and went into Image/Size. I made sure that the constrain proportions box was ticked, and entered a new size in the width box. (The height changes automatically). I repeated the copy and paste procedure above to see if the size was correct. If not I went to Edit/Undo and repeated the sizing and pasting procedure until I was happy with the result.
I clicked on the Mausoleum image, surrounded it using the Rectangular/Marquee tool and clicked on Edit/Copy. Then I went to File/New and set to white background and then created a new file. It will have the same size and resolution as the copied file. I then clicked on the file of the girl, surrounded the image using the Rectangular Marquee tool, and clicked on Edit/Copy. I then clicked on the new blank file and clicked on Edit/Paste. The image of the girl now appeared in the centre of this file. Then I clicked on the Mausoleum file, (which should still have the rectangular marquee dotted line around it) and clicked on Edit/Copy. I then clicked on the New File of the girl and clicked on Edit/Paste. The Mausoleum image then sits on top of the girl on a new layer. I then went to the Layers box on the right hand side and clicked on the layer with the girl. I then used the Move Tool to position the girl in the transparent doorway. When I was happy with the image and its positioning, I saved the file as a photoshop file under a new name.
I then went to the image of the angel. I wanted to make this more erotic, so I got a picture of a topless woman who was posing in roughly the same position and angle as the shot of the angel. Using a similar procedure to that described above, I got the two images to match in size. I then went to the image of the topless woman, and using the erase tool, removed all the image but the breasts. I created a soft edge by altering the opacity of the erase tool in a series of brush strokes down to 5%. The shape of the breasts were retained but the image vignetted out to the neck and lower chest. The image was changed to black and white using the procedure described above. The image of the angel was clicked on and this too was turned to black and white. I surrounded this image by clicking and dragging a Rectangular box using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. I clicked on File/New and opened a new file with a transparent background. The image of the angel was pasted in using Edit/Paste. Using the Magic Wand, all background image from the angel was removed, leaving just the Angel on a transparent background.
I clicked on the image of the breasts and increased the contrast slightly using Image/Adjust/BrightnessContrast. I surrounded this image by clicking and dragging a Rectangular box using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. I clicked on File/New and opened a new file with a transparent background. I clicked on Edit/Copy and the breasts appeared on this new file. Using the Magic wand, the white background was removed leaving the breasts surrounded by a transparent background. I surrounded this image by clicking and dragging a Rectangular box using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. I clicked on Edit/Copy and then clicked on the New Angel image and clicked on Edit/Paste. The breasts appeared in a new layer on top of the angel. Using the Move Tool, I positioned the breasts into the correct place. Then in the Layers Box, with the breasts layer active, I reduced the opacity of the breasts layer to about 45%. Then I clicked on the Angel layer and pixel cloned the dress of the angel to the shape of the breasts. When I was happy with the image, I saved it as a photoshop file.
I clicked and dragged a rectangle around the new angel file using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. I clicked on Edit/Copy. Then I clicked on the new Mausoleum/girl file and clicked on Edit/Paste. The angel appears on top, or in the foreground of the Mausoleum. Any size differences were corrected as described earlier. Once the size of the angel image was correct, it was saved. The image was then pasted and positioned on one side of the mausoleum/girl image, then the angel was flipped horizontally in Image/RotateCanvas/Flip Horizontally, and copied and pasted again on the other side of the mausoleum/girl image.
When I was happy with the whole image and the position of all the elements, then the mausoleum/girl/angel file was saved as a JPEG file. (All layers are now lost by merging and individual elements can no longer be moved). Finally, this JPEG file was opened for fine detail retouching of edges and so on before being saved as a final file.
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