ENTER MY WORLD--and thanks for the patience and support

[ggt]

One of the reasons I want to improve my photog skills is to improve the quality of my Photoshop artwork. Here is an example of how my mind works:

One of my early lighting experiements:



Easily and quickly became this:


Obviously having a better quality photo to start makes for a better final product. I want to thank everyone who has been patient with me so far. I'm still trying to focus my attention on photography only. It's very difficult as my mind moves in these *other* tangents.

I do appreciate your help!

[pnodrog]

Hey I like the last array. A non asymmetric element may be an interesting addition.

[enaiman]

INow, that's an interesting result Gretchen.
I can see that you have started with a glass on top of a glass sheet and you've combined/mirrored them 8 times in your first pic.
While a small imperfection (the glass bottom not being perfectly level) can be noticed there, it completely dissapear in the last pic.

You can correct such small things with a carefully employed "Liquefy" filter but since the end result is distorted, you can leave it as it is.

I am a big fan of patterns and I can say that I like what you did

[John Morton]

That is looking really good, Gretchen! I'm just wondering what you did to enhance the colors, though... since you have Photoshop there are a wide range of options that you can make use of to selectively edit each individual color (and/or color range) - very easy to do since you don't have a large range of colors there.

I'm not great with color choices so I use a plug-in called "Master Colors HVC Color Composer" located here:

http://www.master-colors.com/

It saves me an incredible amount of time that I once spent trying (in vain) to pick colors that went well together!

[dubaiphil]

Gretchen

Another good thing to try may be smoke trails. Lots of abstract and photoshop fun to be had!

[ggt]

Phil, very cool!

Eugen and John, Thanks! I know it's not as good as it should be. I'm still figuring-out all the ways it can be imperfect. There is only so much precision I can do on the laptop with the tiny screen. "Mending the seams" is a constant challenge.

John, I'm not sure I did much to the colors. I do so much in playing around, I can't always remember or reproduce it--which is a problem, I know. I usually layer frosted glass and plastic wrap and see what happens. It does interesting things with the shadows and can help restore edges if they get degraded.

Pattern work is what I used to love to do at the drafting board --back when there people actually used drafting boards . . .so much more fun than dry mechanical or architectural drafting! Celtic Knot work was easy to get lost in.

These days you can have your own pattern printed on fabric and wallpaper --have ideas for a bathroom ceiling, but haven't cost it out yet . .

[ggt]

Thanks Paul!

[Bobobird]

Very interesting.

Photography and art - you are doing well. Something that unfortunately is not in my blood.

[ggt]

John, you obviously never had to slog thru the Munsell Color Chart in college! I hated it, but it did help in learning the color wheel. So awful and project one can never forget. LOL

[ggt]

Thanks Bobo!

[enaiman]

If you javen't played with another filter "Distort/Polar Coordinates" yet - you might have a look there.

It leads to interesting effects - you can see one of them here:



and



The first one is using half your original image (some more careful crop is needed to get rid of the middle-up line).
Have fun

[ggt]

Now Eugene, I am trying to focus on Photography!!!! Yes, I've layered with polar coordinates. It is fun, you can rotate and layer different opacities or crop out parts you don't like and layer them to get rid of the connecting line. Oh, the curse of the creative mind!!!! My biggest challenge is finishing a thought and not letting ideas I have while working on one thought to take over. I really like how you did these.

Do you see the shape made by the shadows in the center? Now extend from that in a pie shaped wedge and think what it would like like if that was repeated --with every other one rotated 180 --it to make a straight repeating image. Could be a good wallpaper border --no?

I WILL NOT DO IT!!!! I am taking pictures!

[ggt]

More fun with the distort function. I have no idea what these started out as, I was learning PSE when I made them.
Rock Candy:


Satin and Rock Candy:

[ggt]

Bobo, mostly it's a matter of learning to see. You'd think photog would therefore, be an easy transition for me. I think it's the difference between the two media: pigment and light. Anyway, one book I've run across that is excellent if you'd like to increase your artistic awareness is called Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain. The author goes thru many of the same exercises I did in 2 and 3 dimensional design classes in college. I think it has actually been used by corporations to help people learn to "think outside of the box".

[enaiman]

I love the first one, absolutely

No more comments

[Donald]

I just think it's great that people are ready, willing and able to 'push-the-boat-out' in terms of experimentation and just seeing where it leads. One of the things that sometimes irritates me about my own work is that is is too 'conservative' and not experimental enough.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Very cool stuff here! Very creative and wonderful colors too. I wonder what some of them would do as blurred back grounds for say sweet sixteen's or something of the sort. Kids would probably go wild over them.

[ggt]

Thanks all! Now, back to lighting . . .

[Sergio M.]

Gretchen, I really like the first one. The pattern you created is like something that would be on a glass stained window of a church or other building. I definitely need to work on my post processing skills.

Serge

[Kris V]

One of the reasons I want to improve my photog skills is to improve the quality of my Photoshop artwork. Here is an example of how my mind works:

One of my early lighting experiements:



Easily and quickly became this:


Obviously having a better quality photo to start makes for a better final product. I want to thank everyone who has been patient with me so far. I'm still trying to focus my attention on photography only. It's very difficult as my mind moves in these *other* tangents.

I do appreciate your help!

I know exactly what you mean - I use close-up flower shots to play with in PhotoShop, just to see how far I can push the envelope.
And I love what you did here! Thanks for the inspiration!