What Would You Do (#40)

[Ampersand]

Originally Posted by Teewinot

Nicole, great sunset sky!
FocalFrenzy, excellent work...that is really neat!
jiminyClickit, that is awesome! i agree, very convincing!

Ampersand, thanks for your nice comment. Ever since I got addicted to textures, I've been looking at the world in a different way....I now have a textures folder and I confuse my family by taking pictures of dirt, peeling paint, and road salt. The possibilities are limitless!!

Teewinot, I think I'm going to find myself doing the same thing!

Focal, that is amazing. I've never tried GIMP but I sure am going to now.

Jiminy, that looks like it was painstaking, but the result is worth it IMO. It's wonderful.

Nicole, I love what you did. I'm still learning how to cut and paste into layers without it looking clunky and obvious (in PS elements). Sometimes I find I lack the patience. But that sky you used really does something for the image.

[FocalFrenzy]

Teewinot, Ampersand,
Thanks for your comments. This is an easy effect to achieve in GIMP, and from what I've read (here on DPS), it's easy in Photoshop, too. Although dramatic in it's results, it pales in "Skill" level, when compared to most of the other edits here. It's nice to contribute, though, and I keep learning as I go.

[Sandie]

My best version so far. Now I have to try to tell you what I did
1) I used the wand to cut out all the sky (as much as I had patience for),
2) I found the 'post into' button and posted a sky I liked in a second layer and it worked!
3) Then I wanted the clouds to look like they were casting shadows on the buildings so I used an old tree trunk picture for texture in yet another layer!
4) I played with opaque levels until I 'liked' the image.
5) Then I erased the tree trunk from the sky.
6) I played with curves and saturations.
7) I lit the candles with the free hand paint brush, added a little extra gold around the candles for 'atmosphere'.
8) I corrected the rotation by about 3 degrees cw.
Why I feel like a dork!
I learned what the little eye balls next to the layers were for, I learned how to layer different images together, I learned how to use the eraser for artistic purposes
Thank you again and again everyone who posted in this thread, I learned everything I hoped to and then some!

[jiminyClickit]

Sandie,

Keep that open mind, trying new things, and patience!

Thirty-two layers (and then 20-some more) went quickly because they were each a light pasted/positioned, some behind others, some needing erasures, resizing, etc.

Edit was a few hours, edges preparation consuming most of that.

[Sandie]

JC, thank you for the encouragement. "Back in the day" I used to love the darkroom even more than taking pictures sometimes. I often took three to four negatives and layered them in the darkroom to create a new image. I never thought I would like PS or that I would use it for more that very simple adjustments. Over the last few weeks as I have played (mostly with other peoples pictures) I have started to "see" many new applications and possibilities for creating images similar to those I used to love to create. As I get more comfortable I know my patience will increase. I used to spend 6-8 hours in the darkroom working on just one or two images, then another day or two adding oils and 'finishing touches'.

Thanks again for having so much patience with us newbies

[jiminyClickit]

Sandie, You're welcome

Most of DPS has been very much a passing-along of experiences, from which I seem to learn best. I know how much time it takes to get the words and the functions and the hand/eye thing going on edits, so patience is a part of my Nature.

Some edits seem impossible to me, and then towards the finish, I am sometimes unable to believe it worked again! That's a reward, too. I have one handicap: my edit program (Adobe PhotoDeluxe) is about eight years old, discontinued (no updates/improvements available), and uses different function terms. So to explain how I do an edit becomes a semantic puzzle. Usually generics get close, and you guys take it from there. It unfortunately rarely works the other way.

Hope the enjoyment continues for you, both in-camera and with edits. This is one of my five favorite threads!

[Nicole]

I decided to use the technique for doing a selection that irishwhite typed up and shared. It worked really well for selecting the sky in this picture. So, here's an updated version with a little different of technique used than the first time I tried it.



This time, I used the selection technique to select the sky. Then I added in a sunset picture and used the selection to make the mask on the layer. Then, to help make the actual picture look like it was taken all at the same time, I used Match Color on the building layer and used the sunset picture for the source for the colour matching. I liked the way it came out.

[Teewinot]

Nicole, WOW! Awesome result.