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Self portrait for C&C

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  • 27-04-2008 7:36pm
    #1
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭


    2445693395_c41e5e846a.jpg

    Hi. I've never posted something for review here; just a few bits into Photoshop tennis, so before I go very much further, I'll give a little bit of background.

    I used to be a manual camera purist. Now I am not. I have some stunning fantasy art which I like, but I know I'm not really talented for sketching or drawing. So I'm a lot more interested in seeing how I can manipulate my images without having to do too much actually drawing and amongst the things which iinterest me are fantasy effects on photographs (more than just tweaking photographs for photographic effect, if you like).

    I've done some googling and found that for the most part, the two main books relating to image processing and fantasy techniques appear to be by Derek Lea, one for Photoshop Elements, and one for CS3. I have the PSE one and in truth I'm not sure that there's a whole lot I'm going to get out of it so - pretty much like the early days of the camera, it'll be suck it and see.

    This piece is composed of four photographs plus an assortment of effects.

    1) self portrait, cropped
    2) moon
    3) sunset near Malahide Estuary; and
    4) headlights near Malahide Estuary.

    The post processing is as follows:

    1) primary portrait is treated for curves and has three different coloured photofilters applied with bits removed using an eraser brush. Then the entire thing has a pink colour fill applied with bits erased and the opacity pushed down. Some lens flare put in as well.

    2) moon applied and extraneous sky and sharp edge brushed out. Opacity down.

    3) trees/sunset applied, with lots brushed out and opacity pushed down.
    4) lights added
    5) black frame added
    6) brush frame added.

    From this, I've learned that I need to get my act together in terms of designing my own brush and acquiring them from else where. I also perhaps need to learn a little more about using drawing tools hard and all as that's going to be me.

    I do, however, like this piece but then it's the first one I did, I feel like I "own" it. I probably could do with some unbiased opinions.

    I would also appreciate it if you could recommend either books of other people's work which is more photographic rather than sketch based, or websites. What I need is a sense of the possible beyond my own eye. Otherwise the odds of my getting any better at this are somewhat limited.

    Thanks in advance.


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