Bubbles

I don't care what tutorials say about how easy it is to take these photos, how much fun it is............it is hard and I didn't have much fun at all. Will I try it again? Yes, but only because I have to get it right, not because I enjoy the process :(

Twirl........in Photoshop

Everyone is doing the twirl-thing in Photoshop. Thought I'll give it a try to :)

Started with this:

And changed it to:

And this is how to make a twirl: (Posted By: Ben Jamir)

Step 1: 

In Photoshop (I’m using PS CS3 but any version will do) open a new document 800px by 800 px resolution at 72. You can choose your own size. Make sure that the color pallet is atPhotoshop default that is foreground color Black and background to white.

Step 2:

Now go to filter- Render – clouds. So you get something like this.(shown below)

Step 3:

Now again go to Filter – pixelate – mezzotint and select “short strokes” from the drop down menu, and you will get something like this.

Render cloud effect

Pixelate – mezzotint effect

Step 4: 

Now go to filter Blur – Radial blur and apply Amount to 100, Blur method to “zoom”and quality to “Best” than click Ok. Apply this effect Twice , so that you get something like this.

Radial Blur

Radial blur effect (twice)

Step 5:

Next go to Filter – Distort – Twirl – set angle to 120. and click OK So you get something like this.

Twirl settings

Twirl effect applied

Step 6:   

It looks very boring at this stage. Duplicate this layer by going to the layer pallet right click and “Duplicate Layer”. Now select the top layer that is your duplicated layer and set the Blending option to “Lighten”

Step 7:

With you duplicate layer still selected go to filter – distort- Twirl – and this time set the angle to –180 and click OK. So you get something like this.

Step 8:

Now it looks good. Now to apply some color to these two layers to make it colorful Twirl. To do that, first make sure that the duplicated layer is selected than go to Image – adjustment –Hue/saturation. Make sure to check the “Colorize” option and play with the Hue and saturation slider to get the desired color, do the same with the other layer also, make some contrasting color to make it more colorful or you can follow my settings as shown below.

Settings for top layer

Settings for bottom layer.

Step 9:  

This is what I ended up with. May look strange but definitely beautiful. This can be used as a Icon, Logo, or for a web page Banner or anything you like.It can be of any size with hundreds of different color combinations, just play around with the hue/saturation slider.

Photoshop and 'actions'

I have read about actions and have seen lots of photos which had actions applied to them, but never really understood and never tried to find out more about actions on Photoshop - decided it was in the too hard basket and left it there. Until I couldn't sleep last night and saw this 'action' which transformed a photo into a 'sticker'. I clicked on download........then got very frustrated because I couldn't open it or find it on my computer. Opened Photoshop and went through the menu, looking for actions. Found it under Windows on the menu. Clicked and the window opened, and there was the one I downloaded. Clicked on it........nothing :( Opened a photo, clicked on it again......nothing...........luckily I saw the little typical 'play' icon, clicked on it and saw the photo changing!!!!!!! So easy, so simple to use. I want more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Original photo, before applying an action

Edited photo, after applying a 'sticker' action

Ferry mini planet

Thought I'll give this a try again with a photo of the ferry

Nearly worked except for the beach in the centre! I do like the colours

From photo to drawing

Lemon, lime and lemonade

Been wanting to play with lemon, limes and lemonade for a while now!

Setup:

• softbox 
• blue background 
• lights from left and right and top, through the softbox 
• macro lens 
• tripod 
• peg to hold the fruit 
• glass with lemonade and lemon and lime slices

Panography

When I saw the first panography I wanted to try it out. It was sunny today and I decided to take photos of the Beehive to use for my first panography. Took about a hundred photos, and before getting into my car, checked the photos........oh no, all the photos had a blue colour. Changed the WB settings and started clicking again!

At home I downloaded the photos and changed the size of all to 800 pixels max. Then opened them all in Photoshop, created a new and large RGB canvas to work on and copied 10 photos at a time to the canvas.

Settings for the canvas: Called it Panography, custom size, 80 cm x 50 cm, 300 pixels/inch resolution. RGB colour, 8 bit and the background white

Then changed the opacity of each photo to 50%, rotated those to be rotated (edit, transform, rotate) and moved them into position, like a huge puzzle!!!

Will definitely do this again, love the effect!!

Photojojo tutorial.

Paint blobs

Saw some lovely 'wave' photos with paint blobs and decided to give it a try. Bought some acrylic paint, took the soft-box and lights out, even the tripod for a change. Found out it is actually very hard to create a wave-effect with paint! Ended up mixing it together a bit on glass and took some macro shots.

One looked like faces in the paint and I quite liked it

Animation

Just created a .gif from a series of photos - so easy, I cannot believe it! Will have to work on the time settings, make it a bit slower, but this is a good start 

Used this wonderful tutorial:

http://www.ashleysisk.com/2012/03/tutorial-tuesday-creating-gif.html

 

Hippie milk

Saw this effect in a Flickr project and just had to try it! Milk, food colouring and drops of dish washing liquid.

Light Paintng

I want to do this soooooo much - I look at all the wonderful orbs others are creating and I am green with jealousy. One day I am going to do it. In the meantime I might start with this simple light painting, it seems simple enough to do: (this was posted by AccidntlTourist on flickr)

Light Painting



- pre-focused; manual
- set exposure for 30 seconds (f3.5)
- wide angle - 14mm
- laid camera on floor, lens facing up
- suspended a flashlight on a string above the camera and swung it in a circle while slowly pulling it up

1) - I turned out the lights.

2) - I stood on a chair above my camera and, as I recall (its been ten months), I began a wide circling with the suspended flashlight - pulling it upward as the circles, centrifically, became smaller and smaller. I think the flashlight moved slower as I raised it - so you see the beam brighter, yet narrower in width.

3) - Sorry, I don't remember - I think I pre-focused (manually) on something at a distance of about four feet.

Light painting is a lot of fun, I only dabbled in it for a short while (couple weeks).

Playing with light painting
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uBhxec2sM0&NR=1
is only a "hop, skip and jump" away form learning a lot about light in regards to photography and some serious creativity (not like mine) - layering lighting treatments - painting (in another sense) with light:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8xgM3m44AU&context=C3269393A...

Triptych

Went to Makara Farm to try out the wide-angle lens and decided a triptych has to be created - saw this on a photography friend's Facebook the other day and quite liked the idea.

 

There is a tutorial available but you basically use layers in Photoshop to create a triptych. To summarise:
PHOTOSHOP users:
Same principles as above, except you will be doing the strokes as layer styles.
Double click on the thumbnail photo in a layer to bring up the layer style box:

Make sure that "stroke" is both checked and selected (i.e. highlighted). You can then set the width, position, and color of your stroke. Just so you can see the results better, I chose 25 pixels, center, and red.

Click OK, and then either repeat the process, or copy and paste the layer style by right-clicking in the layer.

When finished, you will merge the three layers and repeat the stroke—but on the inside—for an evenly framed triptych.


Variations
You can use the same principles for any photo that needs a border and for any kind of collage. Don't feel like you have to make the photos the same size. Experiment with proportion and with horizontal and vertical layout.

Using the scanner to take photos

Something I would love to try - but I don't have access to a scanner any more. Posting this tutorial so that I know where to find it when I have the opportunity to try this. Absolutely love the effect. (Thanks Bruce, for the link!)