Panorama for a glass splashback

[Rufus]

Since my update at the end of last year I have been preoccupied with the refurbishment of our new house.

Recently, I have been processing an image to be printed on glass for a splashback in the kitchen. The area is a little over 2m x 0.5m or 6 feet x 1 foot 6 inches. You will not be surprised to learn that the starting point for the image is not my own, but an Adobe stock image I downloaded.

I decided at the outset that I would not use Lightroom for this, but open the original image in Photoshop via Bridge. Thisis not my normal workflow. My reasoning was that this would avoid the to and fro between LR & PS and make it easier to save full PSD files as drafts along the way which would be easy to go back to if I subsequently made a mess of what I was doing at any given time. This was particularly pertinent prior to merging down layers. Also, I won't need thisimage in my Lightroom catalogue.

I first used the recently introduced "Super Resolution" (twice) to quadruple the number of pixels on each axis. Then I used "Content Aware Fill" to extend the image on the left- and right-hand sides.

That resulted in an extension to a horizontal stem of the orchid which cried out for an extra flower bud to be added, so I copied and transformed an existing bud, and changed the size and orientation a little so it it is not an exact clone. As the stem in the image is close to a waterline, I had to create a reflection in the water for both the stem and part of the new bud by cloning various parts of other reflections.

On the left was a rather dominant dark area which was the shaded side of a curled leaf. We felt it was too dark for such a large area so I cloned some of the leaf that was not in the shade and reduced the opacity of that layer thereby adding texture to the area while adjusting the tone to suit.

Some other minor tweaks were done plus a resizing of the image to suit the required dimensions.

I shall have the image printed and check the print carefully for anything I have overlooked and offer it up to its intended position before I commit to the cost of printing it on glass.

The original image and the draft edited version are below. There is very little difference at first sight, but the editing was required to suit it to the intended purpose. A lot effort on my inexperienced part, for little obvious benefit, but the final result will be much better than just cropping and resizing the original - at least I hope so!!

Original:


Edited (draft)

[Manfred M]

Nice work David. Content aware fill is a powerful tool. Super Resolution is also interesting, but I do find that it can introduce some strange artifacts at times and these have to be cleaned up.

I personally find all that space on the top right corner uninteresting, but then it's not my kitchen.

May main concern in the environment you are looking at using this print is not very friendly to prints; products given off in the cooking process are not kind to images. I can only assume that there is some kind of vapour barrier that protects the print that has been bonded to the glass from environmental contaminants and UV. The product looks expensive; what print life guarantee is the manufacturer going to give you?

[Rufus]

I personally find all that space on the top right corner uninteresting, but then it's not my kitchen.

I totally agree, Manfred, but I would not contemplate attempting to change the composition there as I could never do so in an acceptable way. Some tall items could be kept on the wroktop there - a spaghetti jar, perhaps!

My main concern is the environment you are looking at using this print in is not very friendly to prints; products given off in the cooking process are not kind to images. I can only assume that there is some kind of vapour barrier that protects the print that has been bonded to the glass from environmental contaminants and UV.

I am going to have a test print made by a business that specialises in large prints, canvases, banners etc. It will be on a gloss paper and it has a limited purpose. Assuming I am happy with that, the image will be printed onto glass by a different company that our kitchen design and fitting specialist regularly uses for this type of work. I am pretty confident based on their high standards in executing everything to date and I had a similar, albeit smaller, image printed on a splashback at our previous house which looked as good as new after 9 years, which also gives me confidence.

[xpatUSA]

Originally Posted by Manfred M I personally find all that space on the top right corner uninteresting, but then it's not my kitchen.

I totally agree, Manfred, but I would not contemplate attempting to change the composition there as I could never do so in an acceptable way. Some tall items could be kept on the worktop there - a spaghetti jar, perhaps!

Some painted splashbacks I've seen, albeit not that I've seen many, have been symmetrical in appearance.

With that in mind, I took the edited draft in the OP then flipped it and merged it with the said draft which certainly filled the void at right.

Came out pleasing to the eye but not necessarily what David had in mind. Can post it if interested ...

[xpatUSA]

Some painted splashbacks I've seen, albeit not that I've seen many, have been symmetrical in appearance.

With that in mind, I took the edited draft in the OP then flipped it and merged it with the said draft which certainly filled the void at right.

Came out pleasing to the eye but not necessarily what David had in mind.

I asked SWMBO and she preferred the original ...

[Rufus]

I asked SWMBO and she preferred the original ...

I agree with her. I did try flipping the image on the centre line but it was far too symmetrical for my taste. I looked for an opportunity to flip it and then use an irregular mask around inconvenient elements of the composition but nothing worked in that scenario.

[xpatUSA]

I agree with her. I did try flipping the image on the centre line but it was far too symmetrical for my taste. I looked for an opportunity to flip it and then use an irregular mask around inconvenient elements of the composition but nothing worked in that scenario.

I also tried to flip the right-hand side of the image including the pebbles and grasses so as to get more content on the far right - but the GIMP wouldn't do it for some reason, probably finger-trouble.

[edit]for some reason it worked just now but the result was merde.