Flypaper Textures

Jug and Bowl

2012-02-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

I've always been fascinated by large austerely decrepit houses,
hankering back to my student house-rental days in Yorkshire.
Later in London, after seeing a big Gwen John retrospective exhibition,
I was reminded of those poor desolate student days where we'd burn furniture and even old platform shoes to try to keep warm!

Gwen John's small Parisian attic room with her pet cats were her world after her long affair with Auguste Rodin finished.
She was a master of the small austere three quarter portrait scenes on small panels and canvases.
Its said she slowly starved herself and finally disappeared in the coastal port of Dieppe, where she was perhaps trying to get back to England at the outbreak of the War in 1939.

Now, years later I also find myself living in France, where these three quarter scenes must have come back to inspire me subconsciously, as I've not seen her paintings for years!

Getting back to the image, shot in daylight only from a right hand window, in my small austere house. The first raw image was given a little 'glamor glow' with a program such as Nik Color efex. Then using our Spring Painterly textures, I quickly attained a passable Gwen John painterly look!

Creme Anglaise - Screen @ 70%
Sisley Pin Light @ 7%

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Mist trees

2012-01-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

It's always nice rediscovering forgotten photos on your hard drive, this one is from this past winter. It was taken early one morning as we were travelling to our winter hut. There had been a frost and the morning mist had just lifted. Scenes softened slightly by mist are like gold for textural artists!

So the processing
Sissinghurst @ soft light 53% (this helped soften and give a painterly touch)
Tapis Vert @ Overlay 53% masked from the foreground using a graduated mask
Copy of background @ Soft light 100% masked from the foreground as above.
Orris @ overlay 86% (added mainly to enhance the colours)
And it was done. All textures are from the new Flypaper Autumn Painterly pack.
See it larger on flickr

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Sweet Peas

2012-01-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

Sweet peas, I love them! When I was coming home from a walk yesterday afternoon, I ran into a neighbour who was cutting back her sweet peas which grow on a fence by the footpath and asked if I could have some seeds as hers are particularly nice ones and have looked wonderful for the past month. Can't wait to have a display like hers!

I gave this photo the soft effect, I find it suits flowers especially selectively focused ones like these. When we were putting together the Autumn pack, I made sure we included some soft easy to use textures especially for my flowers :-)
To start with I improved the tones by using Nik Efex White Neutralizer
then...
L'oxygene @ soft light 100% masked from the focus flowers
Aotea mist @ soft light 100% softly masked from the flowers
Aotoea mist @ soft light 100% masked as above
I find that doubling the texture layer often makes all the difference even if the blending mode and opacity is identical.
All textures are from the Autumn Painterly pack
See it slightly larger on Flickr

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Albion on Sea

2012-01-02T15:17:00.001-08:00

From Jill and I, 'Paul' hope you all had Happy Holidays! :-)
As its now midwinter, I thought it might be nice to revisit the summer,
last August on a balmy evening on England's Eastborne beach at sunset.
One good thing about post-processing is its always possible to go back and redo images with your new skills and textures, and I must admit I don't do it enough!

So armed with our new Flypaper Autumn Painterly and last Summer's Painterly Set,
I happily came across this unprocessed image.
Firstly to zap up the colours a little I used the new Nik 4
From now on I'll also try to include my NiK colour settings, and here's the first!

To get a nice green tone in the blue sky, I used Nik 4
Bi color filters no.1 (yellow brown) @18% Opacity, 100% Blend.
At this stage I also removed text on the red signs and blurred the guys face,
with an eye to selling the image without a release, this saves loads of later re-processing!

Textures
Orris - Soft Light @ 100% blue at top cleaned up with noise and dust
Stonehenge - Vivid Light @ 20% over sky area only
Pans Sky - Soft Light @ 65% over sky area mostly
Ambergris - Hard Light @ 17%

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Sheep on the Hill

2011-12-24T02:11:00.000-08:00

First of all, we'd like to thank you all for your support over the past year and to wish you a peaceful and happy Christmas.
I've just finished wrapping the presents, the baking is done and it's Christmas eve as I write this. I'm looking forward to a family BBQ followed by a relaxing holiday.
Now back to the photo, my woolly friends were in a paddock just up the river from our country hut/cottage and were watching me closely as I walked up the hill towards them. I think these ones are used to being handled as they aren't as flighty as sheep usually are.

I processed the photo when were were still trialling the new autumn Flypapers, and at that stage they had names like "November 10 gold" and "messy" and as we've said before, it's when we finally come to give them their proper names that they take on personalities, so to speak.

Processing was fairly simple in this case, I only used two textures both from the new Autumn Painterly Pack.
Demi Jour @ soft light 100% blurred and masked from the sky using a graduated mask (this layer was more for the tone than the texture. )
Capability Brown @ Soft Light 100%
I then merged visible and to increase contrast used
Nik Efex Contrast colour range filter.
and it was done!
See it slightly larger on Flickr

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Roman bridge into mist

2011-12-20T02:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Autumn seasons textured images! Here's another from my misty morning set, our local ancient Roman bridge into our little old Beziers! Of our several crossings Its my favorite bridge, its both narrow and winding and takes just one lane of light traffic.
Its also historic as its the bridge that the medieval army of crusaders crossed to slaughter most of the Cities inhabitants kicking off the start of the bloody Albigensian Crusade, all of which was chronicled in Kate Mosse's recent blockbuster mystery novel, Labyrinth which was recently filmed in our area for a big UK based studio TV mini series, due out next year!

The image was shot in portrait format, the excess sky being cropped off the top, which might be very useful negative space if used as say, a book cover for Getty, but for its pure drama, I felt this was the right crop.

There are two post processed versions, this is the final darker one, the other is much paler and more ethereal but also stands on its own.
In this new rectangular Autumnal set we used many French names to enhance its seasonal perfumed motif, here I used just two, Quelques Fleurs - meaning, some flowers. And Contre Jour, meaning fittingly, against the light!

Quelques Fleurs - Soft Light @ 45%

Contre Jour - Overlay @ 100%

I then flattened the image and was happy with it, but decided to push the processing by doubling up the image and used Multiply to beef up the image and bring out the blue tones in the sky.

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

New Autumn Texture Pack Launch!

2011-12-15T03:50:00.000-08:00

Click Here for a bigger, landscape view

Just in time for Christmas we launch our new Autumn Painterly Set, after several weeks of intensive shooting and creating, we now proudly unveil our selection box of treats!
For our third painterly launch we seamlessly move into the Autumn season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Join us on a fragrant walk through majestic country estates, where misty mornings mingle with soft sun on antique stone and Byzantine colours merge with swirling atmospheric incense . Stately aromatic scents were our muse for this autumnal set, spiced with classical timeless French named perfumes inspired by Patrick Suskind's novel 'Perfume'. More inspiration was derived from country house gardens and their famous creators pulling together this seasons aromatic and historical assault on the senses!

The Science bit!
These softer, smoother and, we hope, easier to use textures are now in the same larger landscape format as our evergreen Antique Edges of 4000 x 5000 pixels, giving an extra 20% approx acreage and textural value for money!
Shot using a professional full chip camera, so there is no need to worry about image quality with our new, bigger sizes!

Over the next few holiday weeks we'll be posting our full texture recipes here on the blog and will show the new pack in use along with our classic textures!
Textural Seasons Greetings!!

Autumn Painterly Pack

40 rectangular (4000 by 5000 px) Textures

$40

For downloads please click the add to cart button, a download code will be sent to you on payment.Please note that this is big file so the download may take a while perhaps a coffee break would be a good idea while you're downloading. However, reported downloads can take as little as 4 mins with a high speed server!

The autumn textures are high quality, 4000 by 5000 px at 300dpi and can be used for your personal or commercial work. All our textures can be used in any editing programme that supports the use of layers, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Gimp etc

Textures in the pack: Ambergris, Ambrosia, Ancient Stucco, Angelique Glace, Aotea Mist, Aquaflore, Artemisia Silver, Balsam, Capability Brown, Chatsworth,Contre Jour, Demi Jour, Eau de Giverny, Fleurette Occitane, Gertrude Jekyll, Greystoke, Hampton, Hidcote, l'ocean bleu, l'oxygene, Neroli Roc, Nuage Chantilly, Nuit, Oakmoss, Orris, Ozone Mist, Quelques Flerus, Sauvage Byzantine, Sissinghurst, Solsbury Hill, Stonehenge, Stucco Lite, Styrax, Tapis Vert, Versailles, Vetiver, Vieux Gris, Vita, Weta, Xeyrus.

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Voyage through canal mist

2011-12-06T03:44:00.000-08:00

A big thanks to Ellen for her kind texture feature on dpreview
and a warm welcome to their visiting fans!

Once again its the time of year for my favorite misty, foggy mornings in the Mediterranean! As soon as I open my shutters and spy mist outside, I need to work fast, as the sun tends to burn it off soon after 9 am.
This time I just drove to the edge of town to our famous Canal du Midi, which connects the Atlantic on the west coast to our local oyster beds at Sete edging the French Mediterranean. This part of the canal is the last high point before the famous series of ancient locks take barges and pleasure boats down to sea level and just a few miles on to the salt water Oyster lagoons and open seas. Thus this stretch of canal is very wide for the high season boat jams, as only a few can be taken down to sea level at the same time.

One great thing I discovered this week from Flickr was how good the Camera Raw program is for getting rid of Chromatic Aberration, I tend to see it mostly on tree branches with pale skies behind at the edges of images, when pushing the image in photoshop using the CS5 HDR program these effects are multiplied tenfold and its always been a problem even with expensive lenses such as my 24-105mm canon all-rounder lens. However after sorting this out in camera raw, I can now carry on without those nasty problem effects!

The base image has already been treated in Nik Color Efex pro-4 - Contrast color range - with the slider moved towards the red end of the spectrum, this zings up the leaves and grass, helping to wake-up the images full potential.

I then thought I'd try the Painterly textures, as mist is often a drab grey colour, it needed some nice pastel warm tones to help balance the bright colour from the right hand side of the image.
When using textures on mist its a good idea not to use a hard setting like 'Overlay' as this can make your mist disappear!
So I suggest Soft Light is used on Mist;

Brushed Rose - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped Horizontally and vertically
Pantheon Stone - Soft Light @ 85%

After which, to give the image a point of focus, I used Nik Color Efex pro-4 - Darken/Lighten Center, the lightest point of interest over the line of tree trunks.

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Chasing the wind

2011-11-29T04:12:00.000-08:00

Its always nice to wake up and find another one of your babies gracing
a published book cover! Here's today's, an American thriller,
heavily textured with our flypaper painterly textures.
Its just a preview copy as its not yet out, so I expect their colours will hopefully not be as muddled as this one with its quick run though our preferred Nik Color Bi Filters.
I'm reprinting the original recipe from this summer but we'll have a brand new image and recipe shortly!
Book synopsis and pre-sales Amazon

I'm no stalker, but when I see a great silhouette, and I'm armed with a camera, I will sometimes move just a few tiny paces to try to get a secret shot!

Our narrow medieval streets are perfect for this type of shot, though for the same reason our streets are often too shaded and thus too dark, and don't even get me started on my pet hate, parked cars! Here I used the trusty Lensbaby once more, lens wide open, at F1; no aperture. It was around 5pm, before the sun wasn't too low but also not directly overhead.

As we've been asked, Ive tried to recreate how I processed, step by step, and why I chose the textures used.

To the base image, to add more definition, I first slightly cross processed it and used a slight vignette darkening the edges. You can do this simply with free photoshop actions

To start with texturing I wanted to add more light. For my recent lensbaby shots I like to use the new Opal texture, here I used it twice, then I wanted to add a more beefy texture and darken the sky, I chose Tempest Sea, flipped vertically.
I loved the painterly/scratchy effect on the blue scaffolding covers brought by this texture, but found the overall blue a little too bright/fruity. So another favorite texture was pulled out, Newt to help tone down, which was okay but still not quite there, so I clicked it off. Finally I tried Swans Way for the first time, as I liked the look of that billowing canvas like movement this texture suggests, and Wow, happy days! It toned down the blue perfectly and pulled it all together and added a dramatic cracked grunge!

It was almost finished but decided there was now just a bit too much street clutter which the textures had highlighted.
So I clone tooled out a red road sign on the right, and a pale board on the left under the scaffolding, both clearly visible on the raw base image.

Opal - Overlay @ 74 % softly brushed from bottom edge and tot of sky
Opal - Overlay @ 100 % softly brushed from bottom edge and all of sky and right building
Tempest Sea - Overlay @ 45% Flipped vertically
Swans Way - Soft Light @ 100%

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Looking North

2011-11-14T01:32:00.000-08:00

Another photo of my favourite beach, taken on a warmer and sunnier day than the previous photo of it I posted here. I was lucky that I managed to catch a passing gull when I snapped this.
Onto the processing...
Beau Linge Paysage @ Soft Light 13% masked from the lower portion of the photo
Evening Veil @ Soft Light 100%
Oxford Parchment @ Soft light 100% masked from the upper portion of the photo
Nik pro contrast (though you could use curves) to increase the contrast of the sea. I masked this from the lower portion.
Villa Adriana @ Overlay 92% masked from the central portion)
Beau Linge Paysage and Villa Adriana are from the SpringPainterly pack, Oxford Parchment and Evening Veil are from the Summer Painterly Pack

See it larger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

The King and I

2011-11-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

Over in Thailand they are now suffering badly from flooding,
when we were there at this famous Unesco protected site we learned that this area of ruins was the original setting for Rogers and Hammerstein's - The King and I musical!
The blockbuster movie was about a widow who accepts a job as a live-in governess of the King of Siam's children.
Later, it was attacked by the Burmese and was ransacked, so the Royal family moved south to the impressive capital city it is today, Bangkok!
This abandoned site was always prone to flooding, being on an island on a monsoon river, so unsurprisingly this stupa is today standing in floodwater, and ironically Bangkok is also suffering as the rainfall has been unprecedented.

Back here in sunnier times as illustrated, its nice to be able to share dramatic before and after transformations here on the blog.
That tree, I ummed and ahhed about, should it stay or should it go?
I even started processing with it in place but then thought;
"When I add textures its going to get too cluttered",
so thats when it had to go.
Firstly as the image was a little bit soft I used Photoshop Water colour filter effect, very lightly with a Normal layer @ 50% for the painterly effect.
I started with Nik colour filters, I chose their Bi Color Filter, its a lovely blue on one side and yellow on the other, you can easily spin it around so I made the sky on the right bluer and darker and the Stupa lighter and sunnier. I was very happy with this but it need something else, something more than cheerful colours? Of course, it needed our flypaper textures!
I pulled Pantheon Stone out of the Summer textures pack and popped it on top of the whole picture, this lightened the stupa even more, I always think stone textures look good on architecture!
Next, I wanted to balance the sky and add depth so out came our famous Pans Sky from the Summer textures pack and I pulled it over the image pulling it to the bottom, not worrying about distortion. It worked beautifully, it was like the sun coming out and highlighting the stupa where it needed it most! I removed some of the sky texture from the stupa but left about 50% in the middle, but more like 80% at the top and bottom.

recipe
Duplicate of Base - Photoshop Water colour filter effect Normal @ 50%
Nik Bi Color Filter Normal @ 75%
Pantheon Stone Overlay @ 34%
Pans Sky Overly @ 100% 50% softly removed from mid stupa

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Lily-of-the-Valley

2011-11-02T02:12:00.000-07:00

Another small scented treasure that's flowering in my garden at the moment. Lily-of-the-valley is one of my favourite flowers and I look forward to its season every year. It's amazing how such a small flower can give so much fragrance, a tiny sprig can fill a room with it's scent.

Now the processing, I didn't like the darkness of the wood in the background of this shot so used textures to lighten and brighten. The recipe is very simple.
Lyme Fossil @overlay 47%
Peach Blush @ Hard light 100% masked from the focus areas (it's this texture that did the lightening of the wood.
Copy of Background @ soft light 50%
I could have left it at this but to soften things slightly I added
Gelato Ice @ screen 10%

Lyme Fossil and Gelato Ice are from the Spring Painterly Pack, Peach Blush is from Tex Box 2
See it slightly bigger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Pumpkin seat son!

2011-10-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

Summers strong clear light is great but Textures and Autumn were made for each other!
Less than 2 weeks ago we were bathing in the sea and basking in 90F here in the south of France, now the heaters are on low as there is a chilly north wind a-blowing. With it comes the Mediterraneans smoky evenings as many people burn old Vine stumps in their kitchens and cook in their ashes. The downside is that those Vines are steeped in years of sulfur applications against mildew, and I'm quite allergic to this in the air. Still it has its upside, the seasonal celebrations are a fun distraction and give us an excuse to do a shot or two, with tongue firmly in cheek!

Shown here in front of my new chocolate colored wall, did I say chocolate? Because look how the lighting has changed it to green!
Shot very simply with reflected sunlight from the right and a cheap, 120w small halogen lamp's light is reflected from the left hand white wall.

Nothing was planned, I sat on the floor and snapped a couple of fast shots as I had an appointment to go to. I'm glad I did as we now have a week of low light and rain forecast!
Processing was fairly simple, I wanted our flypaper texture showing on that back wall, which has already been slightly enhanced in CS5 HDR, or with the Nik HDR Efex Pro I'd recommend number 26 Friendly scenery, and take down their effect with their sliders.
Before merging I removed around 50% of the HDR enhanced layer.
I also used Nik - darken lighten center moving the brightest part to the pumpkin and finally after the textures were fattened I gave a slight Glamor Glow from the Nik filters. Naturally, you can do all this with photoshop, but I like Nik these days for its speed and ease of processing.

Finally, I clicked auto tone in photoshop on a duplicated layer giving an effect like turning on a spotlight, however it was in the wrong place above the chair, so I brushed away most of this final layer leaving the brighter Pumpkin, nicely highlighted!

I chose Flypaper Summer Textures, as I didn't want the Spring paint brush effect, but I could have chosen any pack in reality, perhaps it was a hankering for those balmy summer days?
Anyhow, I opened Dawn Grunge, and it brightened up the chair a little too much so I removed a little from the chairs top fabric. Then opening up Sariel Leather, thinking it might enhance the autumn tones, and it worked a treat.
Sometimes the first textures you choose work perfectly and this was one of those spooky days!

Happy Halloween!

Dawn Grunge - Overlay @ 65% brushed from chairs highlights
Sariel Leather - Soft Light @ 48%

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Vase of Lisianthus

2011-10-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

After a hectic summer working non-stop, I decided to treat myself by reinvesting my earnings in a Photographic lighting studio set-up. Its still very basic.
(more about that next time) And as Canon 5D had no flash I had to buy one. At least i'm ready for those darker Autumnal months!
I painted my top floor studio wall a chocolate brown, Id give you the colour, but I mixed it by hand from old Farrow and Ball British paints,
I bring this up because the local French paint is terrible, you buy a big can and only get around two thirds of very watery paint at twice the price of UK paint - Lol, don't get me started! Anyhow, I use Farrow and Ball because its organic, doesn't smell and is dead flat Matt, giving a ready distressed effect if you use just one coat.

This vase is illuminated from a right side window, with reflected sun from the opposite yellow house. I used a fill-in flash bounced from a sheet of white card to the right of the camera, there is a white reflector to the left of the table. The Flash is on the camera, but pointing to the right.
Its well worth investing in a good all round orienting Flash, mine is the Canon 430EX II.
The camera was mounted on a tripod and tethered to my laptop with a USB wire, so I can view as I click, Its a luxury to see the image at large size as you shoot so you can sort out hot spots and snags.
Using a tripod helps get your composition sorted out, so you don't need to keep doing this, it saves time and shakes!

I used one of my old free negative textures, and you can find it here on Flickr The base image is already treated with CS5 HDR effect to brighten and then a De-noise.

Free Neg Texture Overlay @ 100%
Free Neg Texture Soft Light @ 100
Heather Overlay @ 100% - brushed from table area
Fly Edge no.10 Colour Burn @ 23% Dust and Scratches cleaned and softened.

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Bluebells

2011-10-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we updated the blog, we've both been busy with other things. I've been trying to get my garden organised amongst other things, I spent some of today planting my vegetable garden, I'm looking forward to heirloom rainbow carrots this season along with golden globe beetroot and celeriac, providing they grow that is.

In the flower garden the bluebells are still flowering, I love their elegant arched stems.
I gave these ones the Flypaper Texture treatment.

Eau de Nil @ Overlay 100% I converted this layer to a smart object and blurred it using a gaussian blur and because I wanted some of the texture showing I removed the blur from the edges using the smart object layer mask.
Cobalt Cloud @ Soft Light 100%

Eau de Nil is from the Spring Painterly set and Cobalt Cloud from the Summer Painterly.
See it larger on Flickr

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Stormy Sunday

2011-09-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our daylight saving/summer time started here in New Zealand, the weather was far from summery with showers and a biting cold wind. In the afternoon we decided to go for a walk at one of the city beaches but on arriving we discovered that the tide was too high to actually get down to the beach added to this it started to rain and sleet!
The sea however was wonderfully dramatic -just the kind of seas I love and getting photos like this one made braving the weather worthwhile. We're hardy souls down here in Dunedin -there was even a surfer out amongst the waves, I suspect the water may have been warmer than the air yesterday.

So onto the processing, and it was relatively simple....
Villa Adriana @ Overlay 77%
Umbra Eclipse @ Soft light 100% and masked from the lower portion of the photo using a graduated mask.
Curves layer to tweak tone/contrast
I finished with a Brilliance/Warmth filter from Nik Color Efex to add a tiny amount of warmth.
And it was done.
Both textures are from the Spring Painterly pack.
See it larger on Flickr

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Tower Bridge

2011-09-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

During a recent summer stay in London, I visited some old friends who have moved to the now very fashionable South Bank of the Thames. As it was my first trip to this area I was amazed to see such regeneration and life in this ancient, and once shabby area! We did a several mile loop of both sides of the Thames with the black pug - you can see him in the first image, edited out with a clone tool as he looked, well, too blobby!
Also edited out was the company name on the left-hand building. I almost removed the lady in red but thought she added a bit of interest, and anyhow, it would have taken me ages to match up those floor tiles!

This is a modern day London Canyon view of the old Tower Bridge, recently shown in all its close-up glory in the recent sherlock holmes
movie. Unfortunately it was a very gloomy and overcast day, thus my pictures were a tad on the dark side. However, by running the image through Nik - HDR I was able to bring out the colours.

For a final tweak I used just one Flypaper texture, mostly over the over-bright sky area and also to rebalance the picture.

Orange Blossom - Multiply @ 50% over bright sky areas only.

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Combo Pack Offer

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Flypaper Textures as seen in Photoshop User Magazine!

2011-09-13T09:24:00.001-07:00

This month's September issue of Photoshop User we were both surprised and delighted to see our Flypaper textures recommended in a double page texture feature spread!
Katrin Eismann, the famous Photoshop writer, told us that she really loved the Flypapers quality, just before flying off on a lecture tour of the US!
Its a great issue, lots of other textural goodies and tutorials!
Our little texture rave is on page 66!
Just thought you guys would like to be given the heads-up! :-)

Spring Painterly Pack

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$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

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The Girl Who Read To Birds ~ Michael Titus

2011-09-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

For our first book interview we have Michael Titus, an American based on the east coast. The Girl Who Read To Birds is the first Children's book by Michael, alias frogmuseum2 on Flickr
We're old admin friends from several flickr groups along with Julie Miller who is the illustrator and the book's designer.
Unfortunately she cant join us here as she's on a well earned vacation, but perhaps we'll catch up with her later!
After receiving and having read The Girl Who Read To Birds over the weekend I was delighted to see it had the grungy, modern textural feel that we love here at Flypaper central!
It reads as a classic children's fable, and would delight both the young and young at heart, with a message for all.

Hi Michael, can you place yourself on the world map for us?

I was brought up in Morgantown, WV. Now live in Spencer, WV a tiny rural town, surrounded by hills -- rather isolated, but beautiful.
~ I'm a bit of a hermit!

When you started this project, did you have an illustrator work with you from the outset, or at what stage did you bring Julie to the project?
Also, did you issue pre-instructions such as full colour, ect?

I was fortunate in already knowing Julie Miller, the illustrator/designer of the book. I sent her the manuscript, she loved it and was enthusiastic about doing the illustrations. We communicated by phone and email to discuss which scene should have its own image. There was some give or take, but it was a joyous collaborative process. Because I already knew Julie, I trusted her judgement. She'd send me each new image and we'd discuss it. It's our book, because of the close collaboration. Julie's input was phenomenal. With any other artist, I'd have to give more direction. With Julie, the book emerged from its cocoon in a very natural manner!

They say you should only write about "what you know", so where did you get your characters from, are they based on people you know or have met?

I don't necessarily believe in writing "what you know". What I can say about this book is that it is based on people I know and those I don't. For example: the character of Avery is partly me. There is probably a bit of me in every character I write. In this book, it is mostly Avery Street I identify with. But I did not live her life. She did. I was encouraged by my parents to read. I was read to as a child and though we had little else, we had a library. The characters basically come to me. I'm a sort of raconteur. I let them tell their stories to me. I don't mean that to sound mystical. It's not. It's a dialogue between myself, as a writer, and the characters, as living beings. Back to your original question: I do write about what I know, or think I know. But that's not to say I follow a certain logical pattern. If I only wrote about what I know, it would be of little interest to me. I mainly write because I want to read a story. If that story has not been written (or I have not discovered it), then I must write it. I suppose I'm first a reader!

Thanks, I could sort of see that Avery was you, with the bowler!
When I write, I agonize about the "voice" of the story, was it easy for you to find "your voice" here and did you ever consider writing the story in 'the first or second person'?
Also, when you started writing, had you an ending in mind or did you just allow the story to develop?

I've never had trouble finding a "voice". I'm only conscious of writing what the characters might say according to their age. In a strange sense, the characters "lend" their voices to me. I don't understand how that works. I personally do not like to write in the first person, so I never considered that. I think it's harder to do; you have to really become the character and constantly think "I." I prefer to let the characters unfold, so that even though I'm writing their stories, I'm also discovering more about them as I go. I like the idea of going hand-in-hand with them -- and I'm not always the leader.
For The Girl Who Read To Birds I actually worked backwards. I had the ending in mind, and written, before I began. This was new to me, as I generally outline a story before I start. In the novel I'm currently working on, I don't know the ending. I'm letting the characters take the lead in this dance. There's much more dialogue in this novel. And each character has a unique voice and manner. Again, I don't find this difficult, although dialogue isn't easy. You, as the writer, have to believe absolutely that these characters are real. I've put down many a book because, after "hearing" the dialogue, it just didn't sound authentic to me. I visualize the characters and the scene. This runs in my mind like a film. When writing the dialogue in Chapter One, I could barely keep up with what the characters were saying. It was like taking dictation. I remember thinking "Hey, slow down! Could you repeat that last sentence?"

I totally agree about writing in the first person being harder, my first and last was agony, I'm now writing a follow-up in the third removed and it seems to write itself! Its also good to detach yourself when the baad things happen! - I digress. Knowing you have a famous affinity with cats, do you also have the same love for birds?

Yes, I adore birds! Always have, even as a child. There is something magical about them to me -- especially the Corvids: Ravens and Crows. Fascinating!

Getting back to you, and um, delicately killing off a character ... as you've already said you have to believe in them, so don't you then find it's hard, even if its a necessary plot development?

Yes, I do find that difficult. It often makes me melancholy for a bit. In "The Girl Who Read To Birds" all the characters are gone at the end. That was heartbreaking, but it's also the way of all life. Each human life is a book, with a beginning, middle and end. Lots of bad things happen in the new novel. It's darker in setting and tone. But it also has humorous moments. And scary moments. Bad things are going to happen, although I'm unsure about what they are or when they'll occur. But, as you say, sometimes saying fare thee well to a beloved character is a part of the plot development. You can't be afraid of going through with it.

When you were growing up, which children's books stuck in your mind, I suppose, what I'm getting at is, who are your greatest influences?

I grew up surrounded by books. I read Milne, Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll, Swift, Poe, Dickens and so many others. My main literary influences have been Edward Gorey, Charles de Lint, Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman, Nick Bantock, Mervyn Peake, Borges and Ray Bradbury. I know I'm forgetting some important names! Reading is like food.

Finally, If any of our Flypaper readers have manuscripts under their beds, what advice could you give them for getting published?

First, make sure the manuscript is complete. Read it again. Make any changes you want. Revision is the key to good writing. Then send copies of the manuscript to friends who are willing to read it and give you honest and unbiased feedback. Take notes of the feedback. Ask yourself (and this can be hard) if you want to make changes according to what others have said. Then find someone who actually edits for a living. Chances are you know at least one. Writers are often poor editors. Have the editor go over the ms. with a red pencil. Ask them not to be merciful. You will find you've got some punctuation or syntax wrong. Again, decide, from your gut -- and keeping your intended audience in mind -- what changes you will make. Revise again. Submit to a literary agent. It's not so easy to get one, but do your research and try. Follow their submission guidelines to the letter. They get so many manuscripts that they will look for a reason to toss yours away. There are also many very small presses that might choose to accept your ms. Independent presses are growing. They are often a very good choice to see your book in print.

If you decide to self-publish, be very cautious. You might end up spending your life savings only to find a crudely finished book in your hands. Do a lot of research. Ask around. Most of these companies will take much and give little in return.

And remember: no matter which way you go, you're going to be signing a contract -- some sort of Terms Of Service or agreement. It might not be written. Take the time to read every sentence, so you do not give away rights that may cause you a lot of grief and regret.

I know that's rather long, Paul, but it seemed necessary to help others avoid some common mistakes that might return that ms. under the bed!

Thanks for that comprehensive check list, Michael, I'm sure this will help many people! Good luck with the second novel and we hope you'll return to share it here!
Many thanks also for kindly allowing us to reprint a few images from the book.

Thank you very much for the interview, Paul!

Hit the blue link to go directly to the books website and sales!
The Girl Who Read To Birds

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Another Beach

2011-08-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

I textured and posted this one to flickr soon after we launched the spring painterly set, I especially loved the effect the impressionist Sisley texture gives here.
Often you can get away with using just one texture in processing, but I tend to build up the layers to add depth, even repeating the same texture twice at different opacities often works wonders.
Anyway here's the processing....

Curves layer to tweak tone this was masked off the upper portion using a graduated layer mask
Spring Equinox @ Soft Light 62%
Syrinx @ Soft Light 100% masked from upper portion using graduated layer mask
Syrinx @ Soft light 100% masked as above
Hue saturation layer to warm the image slightly
Sisley @ Soft light 77%
Spring Equinox @ Soft light 100 % masked from the central portion as I just wanted the texture on the edges
Gelato Ice @ Multiply 100% Masked from the sea

All textures are from the Spring Painterly Pack

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Thom Cross - Standing on the Edge of the World

2011-08-22T08:55:00.001-07:00

Extended Play - EP by Thom Cross

Yet another Flypaper product to share, this time an indie pop CD/EP!
Several months ago I was contacted by Thom, originally a New Zealander, and now a London based musician who wanted to use one or two of my images, naturally I was delighted to help, and sorted him out with this and another image, as yet unused.

The Graphics were designed by Dublin based Steve Avrill, who many might recall designed the most famous U2 albums!
The original square format was left intact, - always a good sign!
We leave a music link here, kindly supplied by Thom, who is said to sound a little like David Bowie spliced with U2, but I can also detect a smattering of Suede!
Have a listen yourselves and let us know what you think, Im sure Thom would love to hear feedback, as for us here at fly, we love it!:-)

The recipe was shown some time ago, but I'll republish it here, using Flypaper Summer Textures.

Back in Brighton where I took many photographs on my late afternoon
visit, walking from one pier to the ruined West Pier. I remembered seeing it before I left England in the 1990's, It was being renovated into a huge restaurant/night club but had mysteriously caught fire.
Today this is all that remains of this Victorian iron construction, impossibly expensive to repair and left to rot gracefully like a whales skeleton.
For now this wreck is the perfect roosting place for thousands of migratory starlings!

The first landscape version had already been brightened and had Matmos Lake added,flipped vertically and desaturated. Jill suggested it would also be nice cropped square and re-textured. This is the result!

Simple, light processing was called for as there was already quite a lot going on texturally already.

From Summer Painterly I used:
Aquarius - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated to a pale blue tone
Brushed Rose - Soft Light @ 100%

A final tweak of the merged image to pull the sky tones together.

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Daydream

2011-08-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from a short holiday at Kaikoura, a lovely coastal town several hundred kilometres north of here. Kaikoura is famed for its whale watching but there's much more to do...wildlife, fishing seals, wild beaches, walks etc etc....
My holiday coincided with one of the most widespread snow falls we've had in New Zealand for many years and while there wasn't much snow in Kaikoura itself, it was freezing and the surrounding mountains were covered in a good dusting of snow. The bad weather meant grey overcast days, not the best for photography unfortunately. I haven't had time to do much processing of the photos I did take so here's an old one featuring the kind of weather I'm dreaming of at the moment.

The processing....
Brushed Rose @ overlay 51%
Scotch mist @ overlay 100%
Peacock @ Soft light 36%
Tempest Sea @ Overlay 51% (masked from the sky using a graduated mask)
At this stage it looked fine but I thought a bit of contrast wouldn't go amiss so I added...
Nik Contrast Colour Range (but lacking Nik you could use curves or PS Hdr to give a similar effect)
And it was done.
With the exception of Brushed Rose which is from the Summer painterly set, the textures are from the Spring painterly collection.

See it a little larger on Flickr

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$40

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

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Books

2011-08-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

In recent times I've been going through a slow phase, photography wise, it being winter here in New Zealand is probably something to do with it. Anyway I was getting sick of going through my archives looking for something to process so decided to do a quick still-life with the first thing that came to hand...these old books.

My set up is as always very simple, I put them on the living room table and they were lit by afternoon window light.

My processing was equally simple. Both textures used are from the Spring Painterly pack.
Catacomb Frieze @ soft light 60% desaturated using a hue saturation adjustment
Swanns Way @ Soft Light 83% masked from the focus areas as desired
Finally the very useful Nik Tonal contrast (from Nik Color Efex Pro) to add drama and bring out the details.

See it a little larger on Flickr

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Sunflowers at days end

2011-07-27T08:20:00.001-07:00

They say you have to suffer for your Art, and here is a prime example!
Who would have known that sunflower fields had to have many bee hives to pollinate all those flowers, and who would have known to carry a bee sting antidote in the car?
I do now... Ouch! I was stung on the palm of my thankfully left hand, which blew up to twice it's size!
Now I carry a small pot of Bicarb powder in the glove compartment, next to my photo filters!

Here is a square crop with a very simple, yet effective, one texture combo use, later zapped up in Nik color Effex Pro 3.
I simply upped the color brightness, the effect was like turning on a light switch!

Lyme Fossil - Soft Light @ 100%
Nic Color Pro 3 - Color brightness tweak.

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Combo Pack Offer

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Fly Edges Pack

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Three Pears

2011-07-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of pears! They're such photogenic fruit,
I especially love Bosc pears with their elegant long form and stems.
The other day when I was looking a photo to process I came across this one taken a couple of years ago and rejected at the time because it was a little flat looking.
With the additon of textures and some wonderful Nik filters, I think I've added drama and depth. I can't rave enough about the Nik filters, they're wonderfully versatile and so easy to use and work so well when used with our textures.
Okay the processing...
Catacomb Frieze @ multiply 100% (masked a little off the focus areas)
Pantheon Stone @ Overlay 33% masked as above
Villa Adriana @ overlay 27%
Nik filter Darken lighten centre (from Color Efex pro)
Nik Tonal Contrast (from Color Efex pro)

And it was done!
See it a little bigger on Flickr

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

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Fly Edges Pack

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empty vessels

2011-07-12T04:02:00.001-07:00

Here's another still life I threw together.
The tall antique glass vase is probably a french apothecary jar and would have had a big cork stopper, its one of a pair that Martine and I bought from an outdoor flea-market, here in the south of France.
The tiny cracked olive oil decanter and stopper I found on our local communal bins and the small vase came with my little French house!

Its no secret we've recently been wowed and bowed over by Nik processing, and this is my first HDR Pro Efex and Color Efex Pro 3.0 Nik combo image. We're often asked how we manage to get brighter pictures after texturing, and often we cant say because we used our photoshop curves and color tweaks.
But now we've found this great set of enhancement programs we should be able to fill in more gaps that until now have missing from our past recipe blogs.

In the above before and after version I used two layers of a black and white HDR Nik enhancement, just to beef the contrast as the room was fairly dark. Then I applied several Flypaper layers on top. The final layer I'm happy to say is Sisley, probably the most difficult, yet I find, endlessly adaptable texture we've ever made!

If you don't yet own Nik programs, you can simply click the side buttons for a 2 week trial period, we promise you'll not regret downloading these easy to use Photoshop plug-in's!
Also, just for our US based readers, there is a fabulous one-off Nik sale which ends this Friday 15th July - So Hurry!:-D

B/W Nik HDR copy Normal @ 17%
B/W Nik HDR copy Soft Light @ 30%
Opal - Overlay @ 40%
Paysage Linge - Soft Light @ 65%
Sisley - Pin Light @ 9% (flipped vertically and brushed from table top)

The final cleaned-up published version of this image was given a slight treatment of Glamor Glow from Color Efex Pro 3.0 just to soften the hard HDR edges.
See the final, bigger version on Flickr

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$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

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Fly Edges Pack

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Jim Zuckerman Nik ebook

2011-07-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Back in the new year we supplied our writer friend Jim Zuckerman with complimentary copies of our textures, updating him with the spring pack as it was launched.
Jim has finally furnished us with a copy of his lavishly illustrated ebook We were delighted to see he has used several fly textures as examples of colour mixing and blending with this superb new Nik Software!
We've now tried this Nik program and we absolutely love it!
"But what does it do" - I hear you asking?
Imagine all the Photoshop actions you could ever wish for all in one Photoshop plug-in filter! Its 64 Bits too, so you don't get that nasty banding you normally get with even the most expensive actions.
We'll talk loads more about all the fabulous Nik software in upcoming blog postings with our usual before and after mouse-overs, but for now here's the science bit from our Nik guru!

About the Book
Nik Software makes many essential Photoshop plug-in filters that enhance and embellish your images, and this ebook explains how to get the most out of these tools. Think of this as an idea book.
It is not a how-to manual for each filter in Nik’s programs; rather, Jim explains in his easy-to-understand manner of writing how you can produce remarkably creative imagery using his favorite Nik Software filters. His beautiful examples will inspire you for sure, and with his guidance you will learn to think outside the box in applying these techniques to images that are already in your files waiting to be rediscovered.

To purchase downloads of Jim's lavishly illustrated ebook simply press any of the blue ebook links in this feature!

Forgetmenot

2011-06-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to find these still in flower in my garden a couple of weeks back, usually I'd have to wait till spring to see them but our winter here in Dunedin has been relatively mild so far, but as the old saying goes "as the days grow longer, the cold grows stronger" and we often find that this is the case.

Sorry, I don't do long posts like Paul in his blog posts or rambles as he puts it, there's only so much you can write about flowers after all, but I was surprised when I did the mouse-over of this one how dark the original photo was compared to the finished one.
*notes to self to try this recipe again*

Gelato Ice @ hardlight 36%
Orange Blossom@ softlight 100%
Copy of background @ soft light 100%
Peacock @ screen 53 % masked from the focus areas.

See it on Flickr

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Combo Pack Offer

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Lemon preserve jars

2011-06-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

Our supermarket had a stock of large, knobbly photogenic Lemons, which inspired me to use a few in a new still life.
I have no fancy lighting, I just use daylight from a side window with the Mediterranean shutters most people have, mine are both internal and external. I can direct the light by opening one or both part way, but the same can be done with curtains, you don't need to have shutters!

I shot this in my little kitchen where the walls have their original gloss cream paint, which I expect has faded from its original white!
Before you go thinking "does this guy ever decorate"? I'd answer cheerfully that I've purposely left the original retro finish as I had photographic location shooting in mind!;-)

Back to the shoot, its just the fridge top, no need for fancy marble or stone slabs! The refection at first bothered me but in hindsight its added to this simple grouping.
During my scenic artist career in London I had a big scenic paint order to decorate several huge sheets of plywood for a famous British lighting catalogue. The eccentric photographer worked in a windowless WW2 Air raid shelter, his results were stunning, simply by wiring the wall lights through my sheets of scenically painted plywood and reflecting the light back with sheets of grubby white polystyrene, approx 2" thick. Normally one side would have a coat of Black Matt emulsion, he used this to reflect black or negative light.. I digress, here I used two sheets of Polystyrene from my new LED monitor. No need to buy reflectors and you'll help save the planet!
I shot bending down to the same low level, no tripod needed but probably would have helped!

The before shot shown has already had a few pale textures but unfortunately I didn't save half the recipe but will give approximate percentages for the before state.
The original picture was perfectly focused, here I had purposely softened the image with Gaussian blur and painted out the blurred insides of the objects leaving the outside edges slightly blurred.

In the second half of the recipe I used Sisley, our dramatically ugly painted Linen texture in an unusual way, firstly it was desaturated to a dark blue, then It was used with the rarely used, Pin Light mode at just 11% I loved the bottom part but the top wasn't showing so I flipped it vertically and softly removed the bottom half. A later layer of Creme Anglaise partly obscured this, but all the layers add up to form a kind of heavy impasto final effect.

First half recipe
Lime Wall - Soft Light @ 50% Approx - flipped vertically
Orange Blossom - Soft Light @ 50% Approx
Heather - Soft Light @ 50% Approx

Second half recipe
Sisley - Pin Light @ 11% Desaturated to dark blue
Sisley - Pin Light @ 14% Desaturated to dark blue, flipped vertically, the bottom half removed.
Creme Anglaise - Screen @ 47%
Base image copy - Overly @ 27% totally desaturated to B/W

See bigger or purchase cards and prints on Redbubble

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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Pretty pastels

2011-06-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

This is another lensbaby photo, I love the extreme bokeh the lens produces as well as the unpredictability of the results, I also love how well lensbaby shots work with textures.
Okay, the recipe and it was a fairly simple one, only one texture and one of the blending modes was one you'd not expect.

Gelato Ice @ colour burn 100%
Gelato Ice @ Hard light 88% gently removed from the focus areas using a layer masked
Copy of background @ Overlay 64%
Curves layer to tweak tone and contrast
....and it was done!
Gelato Ice is from the Spring Painterly Pack.
See it a little bigger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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jug and fresh soap

2011-06-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

One of my greatest little luxuries is a really hot deep bath!
And then from that bath my favorite view would have to be of freshly scrubbed, bleached pine tops, scented with French hand made lavender soap. So I'm lucky, here in my little French house to have such a bathroom!

The thick pastel coloured oil painting on rough stretched linen behind the Habitat sourced bowl has only just dried after several months and was added for height. The water jug is antique English.
Normally I'd have an antique shaving mirror, but that's for a future picture! :-)
The French white painted antique washstand was purchased from Ebay France, I liked the two little underside drawers, where little things can be hidden.

Shot this morning in reflected sunlight, no tripod needed.

Recently we've been crazy about Lensbaby pictures, however, they can be a bit hit and miss, so I've come across another way of softening images before texturing to get a nice dreamy, hazy effect. Its simple, just use the old Orton effect free action at our friends Coffeeshop before the use of textures!

The before image above has already been desaturated, than a gentle Orton effect applied. The finished image has just two textures from Tex Pack 2.

Lime Plaster - Soft Light @ 47% - Flipped vertically
Copy of base image Soft Light @ 30%
Lost Void - Screen @ 47% - Flipped vertically.

See it larger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

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Fly Edges Pack

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Cosmos

2011-05-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

This comes hot off the press (or camera) so to speak. Taken a couple of hours ago with my lensbaby while I was out walking. Winter is fast approaching here in New Zealand so I have to make the most of the lovely day we're having and finding these in flower was an added bonus.
And now that I've processed and posted this I'd better get back to tidying my own jungle of a garden!

Fairly simple processing.
Sakura Skies @ screen 18%
Pantheon Stone @ soft light 19% masked off the focus flower.
Syrinx @ Overlay 55%
Sakura Skies @ Overlay 100%
Curves layer to tweak tone
All textures are from the Spring Painterly pack.

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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Women under Scaffolding

2011-05-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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Girl with teddies

2011-05-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

In England I bought a full size double hospital X-ray light box from Ebay, cost me next to nothing, but boy did I get burnt for the extra baggage on the flight home!
So, I've been going through the old negatives, and came across this shoot with my niece, proudly showing her party outfit in their garden.
The late spring weather was very soft and thundery and she's looking up at me, being tall I don't think I'm standing on anything, but that would be the best way to get this effect yourselves!

The base negative scan has been though the CS5 HDR filter to brighten and slightly smooth the 35mm film grain, Ive also hand spot removed with the spot remover tool.
I scanned at 1200 DPI in Tiff mode, saved in 300 dpi in CS5 and converted this landscape format shot to 4000pixels high, cropping square. Using textures from both the Summer and Spring painterly Flypaper sets;

Pantheon Stone Overlay @ 49%
Creme Anglaise Normal @ 100% brushed from figure
Creme Anglaise Soft Light @ 54%
Brushed Rose Overly @ 100% desaturated and brushed from figure and top left
Iorek Ice Overlay @ 43%
Followed by a final use of curves to tweak tone.

Spring Painterly Pack

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$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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Grunge Hydrangea

2011-05-14T18:26:00.001-07:00

I reprocessed this image for Mary's article over at the Digital Photography School, to help illustrate how using different textures on the same image can completely change the feel of a photo, it's one of the things textures are so useful for. The earlier version is much more soft, dreamy and subtle.
Anyway, here's what I did.....

Catacomb Frieze @ Overlay 100% masked from the jug
Lyme Fossil @ Overlay 100% masked carefully from the focus areas as desired
It looked okay like this but to give it more of a grunge feel I added a Fly Edge
Fly Edge 13 @ Overlay 100% this layer was inverted using the invert adjustment layer and masked from the central portion so the grunge didn't overwhelm the subject.
Catacomb Frieze and Lyme Fossil are from the Spring Painterly pack.
See it on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

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$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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at the watermark

2011-05-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

three girls running

2011-04-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

Firstly, Jill and I would like to say a big Hi to the fans of the DPS site!
It was a pleasure to answer questions for Mary Andrade's feature on -
'Tips for Texturing Photographs' over on the DPS site.
For all newcomers to to Flypaper, simply mouse-over the images for a fast before/after effect!

Just back from England where I was lucky enough to have mostly fine weather over Easter. A couple of times I drove to the coast and stayed in a beach front hotel in Eastbourne, with its dramatic white chalk cliffs,
it made an ideal base.
Its also my first time with a Lensbaby Compositor to try-out in cooler climes with their more opalescent light are ideal for the soft retro look. However, you still need to take care in over-bright, flat light conditions. Thus, most of my pictures from this trip were taken during the golden hour in the morning or evening.

With Britain's real high and low tides, you get these lovely wide expanses of wet reflective sand, something we don't get in the almost tideless Mediterranean!
Armed with tall wellingtons, I paddled out, when these three girls ran past, facing the setting sun I quickly snapped a few silhouetted pictures of them, this one is the best, but perhaps sensing a camera, the final girl running did an amazing cartwheel! I hope to try and rescue this more blurry image later..

The processing was fairly simple, just two Spring Painterly textures. And btw, the Lensbaby had no apertures inside, as I like as much light as possible to reach the camera. The sweet spot being towards the top of this portrait orientated image.

The bottom of the image was fairly dark, so I lightened it to the base image shown, then added these two textures;
Opal - Overly @ 100%
Creme Anglaise - Overly @ 100%

See it larger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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Ode

2011-04-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

Another photo of one of my favourite photographic subjects, I never get sick of the climbing hydrangea! The photo was taken with my wonderful new Pentax 50-135 f2.8 lens, it produces some lovely bokeh. I textured this on the laptop while I was at our country hut this past weekend and since our hut isn't connected to the electricity grid, it was done by the light of a gas lantern with me hoping the laptop battery wouldn't run out before I got it finished. It was a quick one to process though, I think I used the first textures I tried which were....

Ovid Banished @ Soft Light 100%
Giverny @ Overlay 100 % (this was responsible for much of the green tone)
The focus flower was using a curves layer masked from the rest of the image.

See it a little larger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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NEW Spring Painterly Pack!!

2011-04-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Click on image for a bigger view

After the success of our Summer Painterly pack we're back with a further addition to the Flypaper line-up. We're thrilled to present this new Spring seasons Painterly pack!

Inspired by the French Impressionists, we've produced a pack with soft painterly brush strokes, pastel spring skies, French country linens and impesto painted linen effects. All designed to be just as easy to use as our previous offerings. This fifth set will also compliment the highly popular Lensbaby and soft focus photography.
Amazingly, we've crammed in 40 full size professional textures; 38 squares and 2 bonus landscape formats, all for just $40!

Over the next few weeks we'll be posting our full texture recipes here on the blog and will show the new pack in use along with our classic textures!
Happy Spring Texturing!

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

For downloads please click the add to cart button, a download code will be sent to you on payment.
Please note that this is big file so the download may take a while perhaps a coffee break would be a good idea while you're downloading.

The textures are unique and high quality, the 38 square textures are 4000 by 4000 px and the two rectangles are around 6000 by 4000 px, all are 300dpi and can be used for your personal or commercial work. All our textures can be used in any editing programme that supports the use of layers, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Gimp etc

Alphabetical list of textures in the pack: Apple Moss, Beau LingePaysage, Catacomb Frieze, Cirrus Skies, Citron Vert, Creme Anglaise, Eau de Nil, Galatea, Gelato Ice, Giverny, Heather, Lemoncello, Lyme Fossil, Medusa, Mistral, Moth Wing, Mystic Hues, Naissant Border, Newt, Omega, Opal, Orange Blossom, Ovid Banished, Pantheon Stone, Paysage Linge, Peacock, Printemps Vert, Prospero, Sakura Skies, Scotch Mist, Sisley, Sonnet, Spring Equinox, Swanns Way, Syrinx, Tempest Sea, Temps Retrouve, Umbra Eclipse, Villa Adriana and Xavier.

Powder Blue Hydrangea

2011-04-20T00:06:00.001-07:00

I am enjoying playing with the new Spring Flypapers, although we trialled them extensively prior to release it's always fun coming up with new combinations and finding out what works with a certain style of photo. Over in our Flypaper flickr group there's a thread where you can tell us which your favourites are from the new pack so far, we'd love to hear from you.

In this first fairly simple recipe I used 3 Spring Textures
Peacock @Soft Light 100% masked from the jug
Paysage Linge @ hard light 43%
Apple Moss @Overlay 75 % toned blue using a hue saturation adjustment and gently masked off jug and flowers.

See it on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

The Art Critic

2011-04-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

Another image taken during the recent spring high tides.
The model is standing on the shoreline with a sand pool in front.
These strange wigwam structures are built from driftwood, we have no idea who makes them or for what purpose, however any structures add photographic opportunities, and we're all for that!

The image shown is unfinished, after deciding the shoreline was too hard, I later re- processed to soften and add some a surreal style, by pulling up the waterline and pulling down the top half as is shown on Flickr.

Opal - Hue @ 36%
Giverny - Soft Light @ 60%
Sisley - Soft Light @ 43%
Naissant Border - Overlay 59%
Moth Wing - Soft Light @ 100%
Base Image duplicated - Multiply @ 30%

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

À la recherche du temps perdu

2011-04-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first Flypaper Spring texture recipe! We're really pleased to be able to use the freshly named textures, as before naming we used various numbers and joked that they only really come to life once they are named!
During the extraordinary high spring tides a few weeks back, I tried out my new Lensbaby Compositor in the sea mist. Normally our beaches are dry so I always try to take advantage of the reflections from sand pools whenever there are high seas.
Processing was fairly straightforward, I wanted the paler Spring Textures to add lightness and heighten the ethereal quality of this cloud covered image.

Opal - Overlay @ 100%
Mystic Hues - Overlay @ 100%
Apple Moss - Soft Light @ 50%

Later I double processed the image to beef up and define the the overall look.

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted

2011-04-03T10:09:00.001-07:00

This publication has just been released so we're delighted to share!
This book cover Designed by Natalie Winter and has to be our favorite production so far! Lavishly produced with folding flaps, embossed type fonts with lavender textures and of course, our dear old flypapers !
Complimentary copy very kindly sent from Allen & Unwin; A famous Australian book publisher, who were a pleasure to work with.

Description;
Every good love story has another love hiding within it.
Brokenhearted, still mourning the loss of her husband, Heidi travels with Abbott, her troubled eight-year-old son, and Charlotte, her intolerably jaded sixteen-year-old niece, to spend the summer repairing their family home in a small village in the south of France.
The rundown stone house in Provence has been in the family for generations and is the center of a lovely myth. The family tells and retells stories of the magical properties entwined around the old stones - in many different ways, this house has healed broken hearts and made miracles happen.
There, thousands of miles from home, Charlotte makes a shocking confession, and Heidi learns the truth about her mother's 'lost summer' -- a time Heidi and her sister had learned not to ask about many years ago.
As three generations collide with one another, with the neighbor next door, who seems to know all their family secrets, and with an enigmatic Frenchman, they'll journey through love, loss, and healing amid the lavender fields, warm winds, and the delicious pistou soup of Provence.

This is one of those lucky shots that came about from shooting a blood red poppy field. Its just the horizon, with the foregrounds over-bright poppy field removed. That cloud is as it was, where it was, and I just left it hanging pensively in the corner!
From Summer Painterly;
Verdigris Overlay @ 44%
Copy of base image, desaturated with more contrast.
Iridescent Brush desaturated, Soft Light @ 100%
Matmos Lake - flipped vertically, desaturated and blurred, Soft Light @ 100%
Labyrinth-desaturated, from flypaper set 2, Overlay @ 100%

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Roses transformed

2011-03-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

This is a photo that's been sitting in my archives for ages, I didn't like the dark wood I had shot against so it had been rejected. This afternoon I had a bit of time to play and managed, quite easily too, to disguise the darkness. It's inspired me, so hope it might inspire you too!
So here's how I did it...

Oxford Parchment @ Hard Light 75%
Peach blush @ Screen 100% Masked as desired from the focus areas
Aquarius @ Hard light 52% masked as above
Brushed Rose @ overlay 8% this just added a little warmth
Curves and levels adjustments to tweak tone
And voila! An image transformed!
See it a little larger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Blueberry

2011-03-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

First of all I thought I'd tell you about the Photoshop texture blending scripts created by our friends over at Digital Outback Photo, they're pretty easy to use and great for the photographer in a hurry!

I do have a blueberry bush in my garden but this year for some reason they didn't crop very well, so I bought these ones for photographic purposes and had to hide them in the fridge so I actually had some left to photograph.

This image went through various incarnations before I came to the finished image you see here, it was the addition of the Basalt texture (from the tex box 2) that made all the difference.
So the processing...
Fly Edge 16 @ Screen 20 % to brighten masked from the focal points of the image.
Ming @ soft light 100% this added much of the bluish tone masked as above.
Basalt @ Subtract 67%(new blending mode in CS5, if you have an earlier version of photoshop you'll have to experiment) The brightness of this texture was brightened using a levels adjustment.
Curves layer to tweak tone.

See it a little larger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

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Wilted

2011-03-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I took delivery of a Lensbaby composer lens, it's something I have had my eyes on for ages but spurred on by Paul's photos taken using his, I decided to take the plunge. I've loved it so far and it's hardly been off the camera though I'm still coming to grips with finding the sweet spot if the lens is in anything other than centred.
Most of the shots I've taken so far have been landscapes so yesterday I decided to see if I could take some closer ones. The focusing distance is about 12 inches and although you can get a lensbaby macro filter for closer work, I don't have one of those, I do however, have a set of 52 mm close-up filters which screw onto the front of an ordinary lens, so I thought I'd see how they'd work. Since I lack an adapter to attach the filter on the front of the "baby", I just held it in place in front of the lens and moved the camera in and out till I achieved focus and voila, this here is the result! The processing was relatively simple....

Fly Edges 3@ Soft light 100% removed from the flower using a radial graduated fill
Curves layer to add a little contrast
Dawn Grunge@ Hard light 83% removed from the flower and lighter parts of the image
Brushed rose @ Soft Light 100%

See it a little larger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

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Cone Flower

2011-02-19T23:01:00.000-08:00

These cone flowers or echinacea are such beautiful photographic subjects with their bold spiky centres and pretty colours. This is a white form that grows at my local Botanic Garden. I do have a plant of my own which I notice is just coming into flower for the first time, it's been slightly overshadowed by some taller growing plants next to it so I think I'll have to move it if I want it to thrive.

I could have easily left this one without textures but I wanted to show a slightly different processing using a Fly Edge.

Brushed Rose @ Soft light 100% Toned slightly orange using a hue saturation adjustment
Fly Edge 16 @ Subtract 59% This layer was inverted. Subtract is one of the new blending modes in CS5, if you don't have it and want the same effect you will have to experiment, using colour burn without the inverting seems to give a similar effect.

See it slightly larger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

See all our packs and deals on one Page

my own private little vineyard

2011-02-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning was misty with freezing fog.
Thus not to miss a perfect texturing opportunity, I drove out of town to get some bleak countryside pics. This cute little scene was glimpsed from the car, and so I did a fast 'u' turn to get back to it!
The other pictures had the Cabana or Mazet with the vines leading up to it, this was the wild card, as is often the case, spotted as I left the scene. The recipe is correct, I always save the layers in their own job files. Thus I could, if I wished, just open up an old picture, and just click and drag the old textures across onto new pictures, it can save loads of time! Both Jill and I sometimes do this! :-)
Finishing touches were cloning out litter on the left and softening the top of the tree before adding the final Mulberry Silk texture, this pulled it all together. Some colour softening was also done with the colour sliders, to warm the tones.
I wonder if anyone else see's the similar cracked face in this image as seen in - 'My Own Private Idaho' Movie?:-)

Leadenhall - Linear Burn @ 20% - over sky only, rest brushed away. Flipped vertically and skirt pulled above image and cropped off.
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% slightly desaturated.
Pompiii Stucco - Soft Light @ 100%
Apple Blush - Soft Light @ 67%
Leadenhall - Color Burn @ 20% over sky only, rest brushed away.Flipped vertically and skirt pulled above image and cropped off.
Antique Liaisons - Luminosity @ 11%, Flipped vertically.
Mulberry Silk - soft light @ 100%

See it bigger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

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Grunge flowers

2011-02-10T12:45:00.001-08:00

Just to show that I don't just do pale soft flowers and also to show how textures (and toning) can change the entire feel of an image. Our fly edges work well on black and white images especially if you want to portray a gritty "early photography" look.

I started by converting the base image to black and white using a black and white adjustment layer, tweaking the colour sliders to get the tone and contrast I wanted.
Fly edges 18 @ multiply 65% desaturated
Curves layer to tweak tone
Then I merged all, ctrl -alt -shift-e on a PC
Converted the layer to a smart filter so I could go back and edit then used the render lighting effects filter to add a bit of drama and light. I used a bluish light hence the blue/grey toning of the finished work.
For a little added grunge I added
Stygian Tin @ Soft light 100% desaturated

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

See all our packs and deals on one Page

cowscape

2011-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

As its still winter over here and too cold to get out much, I've been revisiting some of my old images from last summer.
I said summer but my visit to England in August was more like our winter in the south of France! This day was freezing, and more so on top of the white chalk cliffs at Birling Gap, near Eastbourne on the south downs.
These young cows were happily munching away, and I guess more so than usual as the strong cold sea winds kept the pesky flies away from them! Speaking of flies, this recipe is also refreshingly simple, I pulled out the original Necropolis from tex pack 1, dragged it over, pulled it down much lower than the actual base image as the corners do get darker and above also, I then cropped the middle out, discarding the rest.
A re-balance was important because the grass was too dark and heavy, the extra use of the same texture bleached to a milky colour sorted this out. I finished with a general brightening of the flattened image.
I could have carried on, cropping square perhaps and using more textures, but not today, today I draw a chalk line at just one texture! :-)

Necropolis soft light @ 20% on grass and cows only
Necropolis soft light @ 100% lightened to a very pale/milky green with colour sliders
Necropolis soft light @ 100% over clouds only

See the photo in glorious Cow 'o' rama on Flickr

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Chalk path into mist

2011-01-30T04:20:00.000-08:00

Here's another example of why we should always carry our camera on airport runs! I drove through thick fog banks from melting snow on the way to Gatwick airport in England over Christmas, being on the motorway it was impossible to stop, so I changed my route home to the minor country roads to capture some serous fog!
This was taken at a beauty spot, a big picnic area, that normally has a superb view of the surrounding chalk hills, you can see the white chalk path in this image, in fact the chalk is always just a few inches under all the grasslands in this protected area of the Surrey Downs.
Shot with a soft grad Cokin filter.

Continuing the conversation about texturing improving images rather than rescuing bad ones' here's an example, the base was ok, but needed some re-balancing.
Textures were used all over then gently brushed away at the darker sides, to try and even things up. A final colour tweak at the end with a flattened version helped pull all the colours together and cool the overall look.

The final result has, I've been told, the timeless quality I was looking for, possibly for a Romance period bookcover? Just a few days after publishing, Getty Images snapped this up as a rights managed image, so I guess they thought so too! :-)

Aquarius - Overlay @ 100% Bottom left hand corner brushed away
Europium - Soft Light @ 100 % all 4 corners softly brushed away
Rose Blush - Overlay @ 100% Bottom left and top right brushed away
Elysium - Hue @ 50% Blurred with Gaussian Blur

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

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orbit around the winter sun

2011-01-26T11:09:00.001-08:00

In January we often get these midwinter fairs, we think they all come south to over-winter, only returning to northern Europe in the spring.
It was nice to see this fresh white painted Ferris wheel as they're normally brightly colored.
Taken from the ground, with a circular polarizer, the camera turned portrait format.
A few snaps later, I was off to Apple Mac to buy a new 15" Macbook pro, to hook up to my 27" apple cinema display.
I'd been constantly warned these Macbooks weren't really strong enough to process huge Raw files, well I'm happy to disprove this myth!
I really wanted to be able to travel and process whilst away, but I still have the 2008 circa Imac and will now use both. I hope this info helps others decide!:-)
feel free to ask more mac set-up questions.

Processing was long, so I've shortened the recipe as much as possible,
I think it took all afternoon to get this looking something like the way I'd envisioned it. Remember, if you find your image getting too muddy, just add a base image copy as I did here.
My main goal was to get rid of that blue sky, and add a bit more mood.

We've recently heard that people think textures are just used to hide poor photography! Well, nothing could be further from the truth,
as we show in our before and after tutorials, everything is out in the open! Here at Fly we tend to use textures to enhance and bring out more mood from images, filling negative space with mostly organic texture, and some painting with light. We'll have more to say on the subject later!

Brighter HDR version of base image - Luminosity @ 100%
Pans Sky - Overlay @ 61%, softly brushed from parts and white frame.
Muscatel - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped vertically, softly brushed from top and bottom cabins.
Aquarius - Soft Light @ 100%
HDR base 2nd copy - color @ 100%
Muscatel - Soft Light @ 100%, softly brushed from top and bottom cabins.
Luminescent - Saturation @ 93%
Iridescent Brush - Soft Light @ 100%
Iridescent Brush - Soft Light @ 68%, middle brushed away
Iorek Ice - color @ 24%
Aquarius - Soft Light @ 14%

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

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The miracle of positive thought

2011-01-24T03:08:00.000-08:00

Its always a pleasure to share our published images.
This book came out a few days ago, shot last summer, we've already shared the recipe, but here we've brought the two together!
Translation: Where there is a will there is a way!
The miracle of positive thought.

This was shot a few mins after sunrise over a green wheat field and a vineyard on the horizon. The camera was very low, almost in the wheat, and I shot on automatic in raw mode.
Processing was simple, I used just one texture,
Muscatel, desaturated, Hard Light @ 100%
And a base copy which was altered in curves, changing the saturation to more of a purple tone. This final top layer was Normal @ 44%

Summer Painterly Pack

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

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Trio

2011-01-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Our country hut (or crib as they're called in southern New Zealand) is situated beside a river in the midst of farmland. We have sheep on one side and cows on the other so I have plenty of four legged models. These "models" were in a paddock up a hill just a short distance away, thankfully they weren't too scary when they spotted me and stood still long enough for me to snap a few shots.
The photo was taken just prior to sunset so the light was lovely.

I started processing with a gentle levels adjustment to brighten the shot slightly.
Peach Blush @ Overlay 39%
Brushed Rose @ multiply 100% the colour of this layer was desaturated and toned more yellowish using a hue saturation adjustment. I also removed some of the texture from the sheep using a layer mask.
Necropolis @ overlay 22% desaturated slightly and with its colour tweaked a little using a hue/saturation adjustment.
Next I did a little gentle dodging/burning to brighten the sheep.
To do this I made a new layer and filled it with 50% grey @ Overlay , then with a soft brush at a low opacity (about 8% or less), I painted with white to brighten selected areas, or black to darken.
I finished with a subtle HDR adjustment layer on the merged layers.

Peach Blush is from Tex Box 2, Brushed Rose from the Summer Painterly and Necropolis from Tex Box 1
See the photo a little larger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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lone tree on Christmas day

2011-01-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

Another picture from the same Christmas day sunset shoot as the previously blogged snowman. I knelt down in the snow for this shot, and used the same Cokin mild ND2 graduated filter as before. Processing was simple, and with the addition of a slight clone-over, removed the distracting buildings behind the tree.

Base copy slight HDR enhancement in CS5 - Multiply @ 15%
Base copy slight HDR enhancement in CS5 - Soft Light @ 23% over snow only - sky brushed away.
Dawn Grunge - Soft Light @ 100%
Matmos Lake - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped vertically and horizontally, smoothed. Colour changed to a 'Lime green' with colour sliders.

See it bigger on Flickr

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Gift Coupons

Click Here

See all our packs and deals on one Page