English rose

[GrahamH]

I'm an old dog trying out a new trick.
Comments welcome.
Now to find other applications.
Graham

[allenlennon]

i love it! how did u achieve this?

[GrahamH]

Glad you like it Allen.

It was fairly complicated for me. I basically followed steps in Elements 10 - maximum performance, Galer et al).
There's a filter in PSE (at least 7 onwards) called Displace (Filter/Distort/Displace).
It displaces pixels based on a 'map' (step 1 below) horizontally and vertically.

Step 1 - create a displacement map. Take an image (rose) make it BW (perhaps adjust contrast). Save as PSD (not JPEG).
Step 2 - open second image (flag) AND first image (rose) in same file (i.e. two layers).
Step 3 - select flag image, open Displace filter. It asks for the level of variation (e.g. 40 - you can always Undo and try other values). It also asks for Displacement map (i.e. from 1, so remember where you saved it).

Now you have a distorted flag. However, it looks strange and difficult to see what the effect has done. You need to put it into context. This is where the first image (other layer, which is also the displacement map) comes into it.

Step 4 - You have two layers open in the file. Select the top image (flag) and select blending mode Multiply. This creates the variation in tone - shadows and highlights - that shows the rose beneath the flag. The distortion of the flag fits perfectly into the rose. Now you have a flag coloured rose.
See I told it was simple (well not so much for me).


What I did then was to select the central part of the rose and remove the rest. Put the flag back in (layer masks for both stages). That highlighted the central section. Brightened the central selection, darkened the outer selection. Added grain, and there you have it.
Didn't take more than 30 minutes once I decided on the images to use.
Gonna try face painting next (contouring an image across a face).

Hope this helps, if not I can try a more detailed explanation.

Graham

[Bobobird]

Great title and pp. Well done.

[FrankMi]

It looks like this is available in Photoshop as well. I would expect that we'll see a rash of these as folks give it a try. Thank you for posting, Graham, and explaining the process. This will be entertaining to play with!

[GrahamH]

Original images
Graham
Rose

Flag