Tutorial - Photo montage

Here is an interesting montage that I have created for a book cover on feminine spirituality. The original sculpture is a large item in a stately home in England and I photographed it using the natural, available light coming into the gallery. I also tried to position myself not only to get a decent composition of the sculpture, but also to try and get a plain background - in this case a stone wall - instead of a background cluttered by other sculptures or windows.

Once I had downloaded it onto the computer, I then opened the image in Photoshop and used the rectangular marquee tool to draw a rectangle around the whole image. I then went into Edit/Copy. Then I went into File/New and the menu that opens then has the correct dimensions for a the new file canvas that I am going to create. At the bottom of this menu I selected the 'Clear background' option, opened the new file and then opened Edit/Paste to put this image of the sculpture onto a clear background. I then used the eraser tool to rub away all the backround, getting in very close with a small diameter eraser so that I could get into all the little corners and angles. I am then left with an image of the statue on a clear background. I then selected another image of a dramatic sky, making sure that the image of the sky was more than big enough to create a background to the sculpture image and that both files had the same resolution - in this case 72 d.p.i.  These settings could be altered and matched using the Image/Image size menu. I chose the largest sky image that I could because if the image was quite small, even though I could enlarge it to a decent size, the image quality would be poor, looking 'grainy' or having a coarse texture.

I opened the sky image, and then, using the marqee tool, I drew a rectangle around the sculpture image, copied it as before and pasted it onto the sky image by clicking on the sky image window to activate it and then going into Edit/Paste. The sculture then sits against a dramatic sky. Using the 'Move' tool, I could move the sculture image around over the sky to get the best position. I wanted the lightning to appear to be related to the vase/beaker that she is holding aloft. Once I was happy with the positioning and also happy that there were no remanants of the original background wall in front of the sky, I cropped the image and then saved it as a jpeg by going into File/Save As and selecting jpeg as the file type.

In it's original form, this image is made up of two layers -  the background sky (base layer) with a clear film (Layer 1) laid over it on which is printed the sculture image. However, once I save this as a jpeg, these layers are merged together and I will no longer have the opportunity to move the sculpture into a new position over the background. If I want to keep the option of being able to move the sculpture to a new position against the sky, I will also have to save the image as a Photoshop file rather than a jpeg.

Tutorial - Exposure compensation - Frigiliana, Costa del Sol, Spain

I think that these Mediterranean whitewashed villages present great opportunities for photographer. The blue sky compliments the white wall perfectly and the buildings and alleyways form a maze of lines and shapes creating interesting perspectives. I took a couple of pictures from this viewpoint, one of them with exposure compensation where the aperture was opened up by about 1 f stop. This of course is the opposite of what what you might think, but what happens is that the light is so bright that the camera is fooled into making the image a little darker than normal. The same thing happens with bright sunshine on snow or on a white sandy beach. So this can be compensated for by either opening the aperture up by 1 f stop, or by using the exposure compensation control, or by activating the bracketing feature on the camera, which then takes about three images: on standard and one opened up and one closed down by one f stop. Alternatively, a dark photo may be rescued by using Photoshop and going into Image/Auto Contrast or by using Images/Curves.

Tutorial - Photomontage - Elements and layers

The last few years have been a very arid period for my photography and creativity generally. It just seems to happen sometimes that I do not feel able to get motivated and inspired in my photography. Still, a few ideas have been buzzing around and they have all centred around photomontage work. Here is one example that I have done recently. This image is concerned with spirituality and unity. Androgynous forms have been used in a number of mystical circles to portray unity and the transcendence of gender and differences between existents.

This montage is made up of a number of images garnered from the web which are then placed on top of one another using layers in photoshop. The first layer in the background, with subsequent layers moving to the foreground. The order here is: stars, earth, moon, wings, nude and goats head. To make it easier, the planetary background and the figure were initially created separately. In this case, to create the earth element, the image file of earth was opened. Click on the dotted box in the tools pallette and draw a rectangle around the whole file. Then click on Edit/copy. Then, click on file/new and open a new file making sure that the box next to 'transparent' at the bottom, is checked. A blank file with a checkboard pattern opens to the same size as your earth file. Make this file active by clicking on it and then click on 'Edit/Paste'. Your earth image is pasted into this new file. Using the erase tool in the tool pallette erase everything bit the image of the earth and save as a Photoshop file. Open your starfield file. Click on your earth image file and as before, using the tool indicated in the tool pallette by a dotted rectangle, drag a box around this file. Click Edit/Copy. Make your starfield file active by clicking on it, and then click 'Edit/Paste'. Because the image of the earth is on a transparent base, the earth image now sits on top of your starfield file. You can move this earth image around by using the move tool next to the dotted rectangle on the tool pallette. You can continue to add elements in this way. Always save these files as Photoshop files or you will lose the layers. Only when you are happy with the final image can you save it as a jpeg file. All layers then merge into one single layer and elements can no longer be moved.

Poppies - Photoshop tutorial - Variations

poppy, originally uploaded by foto-art.

This photoart image is one of a series of poppy art pictures that I have done. Originally, this was a more formal composition involving a fuller view including the china vase in which the poppies are standing. However, a more minimalist approach seemed more effective and so the image was considerably cropped to produce this simpler, but I think, more effective image. The loss of resolution and definition by such severe cropping does not adversely affect an art effect picture, and indeed may enhance it by increasing the art effect. Warmth is essential to this image and the original weas a little cold in colour, so the whole image was 'warmed up' in photoshop in Images/Adjust/Variations. More yellow and red were added to create the necessary summer warmth.

Lone tree - Photoshop auto contrast turorial

Lone tree, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lone tree near Rode Heath, South Cheshire, England. This was taken with a red filter to enhance contrast. Sometimes the images come out a little flat - lacking in contrast. With almost every picture I do I go into Photoshop/Image/Image adjust/AutoContrast. Doing that with this image certainly brought out the vitality and contrast of the tonal range. It does not always make the image look better, but it can soon be undone in Edit/StepBackward.

Dune trees - Rotate image tutorial

Dune trees, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Trees near the beach at Formby Point. This little group of trees stood a little in isolation from surrounding trees and they stood out to me. I like the contrast between the softness of the grass and the hardness of the trees, and the complimentary colours of the grass against the sky. if I was going to do anything else to this, I would increase the colour saturation to make that contrast of colour more effective using Photoshop in Image/Adjust/HueSaturation. What is important in this shot is that the trees are vertical. The slope of the grass bank tends to make us compensate when taking a picture like this so that the trees end up at an angle. If this happens, it can be corrected in Photoshop using Image/Adjust/Rotate canvas/Arbitary. A value can be added here of say 2 or 3 degrees and the image can be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise to get the trees vertical. The image then has to cropped using the crop tool to restore a full image without angled backgound tone.

Wedgwood Hall - retouching photoshop tutorial

Wedgwood Hall, originally uploaded by foto-art.

The Georgian Hall of the Wedgwood family at Barlaston in Staffordshire is given an art effect trestment using Photoshop filters. The original image had a great big 4x4 car parked in front of the hall which of course completely ruined the shot. Turning ithe image into an art effect print made retouching the image a little easier. Getting in close using Photoshop by zooming in to a detail of the problem area and using the Pixel Cloning/Stamp tool, I was able to pick part of the image to the side of the car and stamp it over the car itself, thus replacing the car gradually, bit by bit, with the path and the wall of the hall. The secret is not to try and do too big an area at once.

Angelica Eroticum - Colour to black and white

angelica eroticum, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Another Photomontage on the angel theme. This one looked better in Black and White I thought, so though originally taken in colour, I went into photoshop and into Image/Mode/and clicked on Greyscale, to remove the colour information.

Sepia misty trees

Sepia misty trees, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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.

Angelicus Eroticus - Photoshop photomontage tutorial

angelicus eroticus, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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.

FISH WEATHER VANES - Converging verticals Photoshop tutorial

fishes, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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.

FOOTPRINTS Tutorial - Camera details

FOOTPRINTS, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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 3, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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 2 - tutorial

LIGHTHOUSE 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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.

The pleasure of martyrs - Photoshop Tutorial

The pleasure of martyrs, originally uploaded by foto-art.

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.