Framing "Sunlit Iris"

And it's back to photo editing this week...

A few weeks ago I got a lovely shot of an iris while visiting a local park. It was getting on into early evening and camera in hand, I was disappointed to find nearly everything in shadow—I have a strong preference for shooting subjects in sunlight as there's so much more hidden color that can be brought out with editing. I was wandering about enjoying the spring weather when I came across this iris, magnificently back lit with filtered sunbeams. I took around a dozen shots of it, but as often turns out, the first was the best, even capturing some of the crepuscular rays.

Later that weekend, my fellow blogger Firebonnet ran a feature she calls "Random Moments of Delight," a beautifully self-explanitory theme. She invites her readers to share theirs as well and I shared this iris saying I might yet do some artistic editing on it. This week I pulled it out to start playing with it, and here is the result, "Sunlit Iris":

This one went through a great many steps to reach it's final appearance, including multiple filters, masks and a subtle texture all blended together.

What I'll share here is how I experimented on the masked border.

In removing the edges of this image I could have erased them, but that would be a permanent change to the image, and if I didn't like how it was turning out, there would be a great deal of backtracking to start over.

Instead, I used a layer mask. Clicking the icon that looks like a gray rectangle with a circle on it above (or below, depending on your version of Photoshop) the layers palette adds the mask to the selected layer. When it's all white, it makes no change to the image, but wherever you put some black, the image disappears. It's very easy to adjust or start over by re-adding white.

A solid layer can be placed beneath the image to show through where the edges are removed, but if you want to save that layer to print without any background, be sure to make it not visible and save the image as a .png file.

With my iris picture, I started first with a larger soft brush, but not happy with the result, went over the edges again with a more jagged shape. That ended up looking too sharp, so I tried applying a blur to the mask, and ended up with a torn edge appearance that pleased me.

While working on this project I was reminded of the time I had the privilege of viewing Van Gogh's Irises, up close and personal. In the early 1990's I was on a visit to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (the old one in Malibu) when I turned a corner and there it was directly in front of me. The surprise took my breath away and I lingered before it in awe for quite some time. I always admired the simplicity with which it had been displayed, and while I would have enjoyed seeing it just as much had I waited in line to view it from behind velvet roping, the experience I did have made an emotional impact that lets me relive that experience over and over. Somehow I think Vincent would have appreciated that.



Thanks for visiting and please come again!

"Paddling Day"

With spring on the calendar (and the weather sometimes attempting to agree), my thoughts have been wandering to warm weather activities. Kayaking on a placid lake is one of my favorite ways to get some sun. Gliding along, glimpsing turtles and herons, feeling the refreshing coolness of splashing water... it's the most tranquil sport I've ever done.

I've been meaning to do something collage-y with my photos and thought of a particular technique I wanted to try. I'm not sure if it has a specific name...it fits with the definition of a "photomontage," though most examples of this have a different nature. (If anyone knows of a name for this, please comment and let me know!)  Anyway, the idea naturally collided with my thoughts of skimming the water providing me with an enjoyable subject. And here is the result of my effort. I call it "Paddling Day."

It takes more time and effort to properly load and secure a kayak to a roof rack than anyone who's never done it would imagine. Finally getting to that watery destination always finds me full of that "almost there!" excitement and for me this image sings of that joyful anticipation.

From the distance, it simply looks like an SUV parked at a lake waiting for a kayak to be unloaded from the roof. But this picture is actually composed of pieces from numerous other photographs. Can you recognize any of these in the picture? (hover to identify)



Using a photo of a kayak-topped car as a model (though parked in another location), I cut out matching pieces from these and other photos and fit them together like puzzle. Some were edited to alter their color... I either played with the hue slider or desaturated it completely then opened the color editor again to colorize it.

I really enjoyed this project and plan to do more like this in the future. If you like it too, check out the products on which it's available on Zazzle!


Thanks for visiting and please come again!

"Savoy" is up for scoring on Threadless

A while ago I saw a Savoy cabbage for the first time, and fell in love with the pattern on it's leaves. Succulent veins webbed across this vegetable creating deep enclaves of darkness that seemed to tunnel into eternity. And it was green--a fresh, spring green that I absolutely love! My immediate reaction was to reach for the camera.

Initially with this image I did some basic editing to enhance the color, lighting and sharpness. After that, I inverted the colors, which not only turned the yellow-green into a soft purple, but turned bulging veins into chasms and bottomless depths into mountainous peaks. Suddenly it became some other-worldly canyon.

I tweaked the lighting a bit more then desaturated the color, colorizing various copies with turquoise and deep red. From there, I played around with various filters, my favorite ending up the plastic wrapped effect. Looks rather like a close up of some ruby colored reptile, don't you think?

I may yet use this particular image, but as I've developed an interest in repeating patterns, I had to mirror it on itself to create one. Once again I desaturated the image, then colorized it in a variety of hues. They were nice, but with the intracacies of the texture minimized, it needed something more. When I used the color blending mode to add a reflected gradient, I felt I'd found the secret ingredient to give it that BAM! factor.

I'm not really sure how to describe the flavor of the overall design. Something about it looks tribal to me, as if it's a carving, perhaps from an area in the South Pacific or Southeastern Asia. If you have other impressions, please comment and share!

Anyway, the gods at Threadless.com had deigned to accept this design for scoring by their community (from now through the morning of April 25, 2014), and perhaps even consider it for printing. If you have an account there, please take a moment to score it and perhaps leave a comment. If you're not familiar with Threadless, do visit and browse their many designs on shirts and other products.

Now I really ought to find out how a Savoy cabbage tastes.

Thanks for visiting and please come again!

Variations on a Theme

Since I've spent most of my time these last couple of months researching the where's and how's of putting this blog together, I've not spent very much time actually working on art. I thought for this post I'd talk about a design--or rather, several designs--I made earlier, all from a single, seemingly boring, picture.

Here's the original:

These are roof shingles on a garage that accompanied a house built in a Neo-Victorian style. I liked their shape, the subtle color variations and how they all tied together with sturdy black outlines. Not quite so boring when you take time absorb the details. And while it didn't show up very well in the original image, these shingles were bathed in sunlight and reflecting it in their textured surface.

One of the first things I did once I got this shot into Photoshop was to turn up the color saturation and WOW did it pop! Blues, greens, yellows, and reds materialized as if chips of colored glass had suddenly been scattered, melted and fused.

From there I shifted the hues and distorted the shapes, playing like a child with Play-Doh.




Something about this image kept pulling me back, and these are among those that followed:




... and even this, where I pieced together copies of a distortion to make this lovely tile.

I feel the rich detail gets somewhat lost in this last one, given the diminished size and the attention drawn by the overall pattern, so I may have to return to it one day and pull out a portion to put in the spotlight.

In the meantime, too many other ideas beckon...

Thanks for visiting and please come again!

(By the way, the last four designs here (hover mouse over the images for titles)–"Stained Glass Vortex," "Throb," "Chasing Tails," and "Kaleidoscope in Pink"–are all available on many products at nharveyart on zazzle.  "Chasing Tails" is also available as "Swirling Seas" in which the design is predominantly blues and greens.)