Equilibrium

It was a grey damp day here yesterday so I decided to take some still-lifes indoors as the light was soft. I used my favourite 50mm lens at f1.8  which accounts for the fairly shallow depth of field. The backdrop is a piece of pale blue velvet that I rediscovered yesterday morning while rummaging in a cupboard!
The processing is fairly subtle as I didn't want the texture to overwhelm the subject.
The original RAW image was processed in Camera Raw using a pastel tones preset I've created.
Then I opened it in photoshop to do the texturing.
Burnished Clay @ Hardlight 47% With some of the texture removed from the lower portion and the stones using a layer mask.
Sail cloth @ Screen 11% removed from the stones as above.

See it on Flickr

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green pineapple

This week I started a new Photoshelter account and was searching for images to stock it with, when I came across this abandoned oldie from February. Coming from a batch of pears I'd shot, it had been rejected because it was a little over-textured. But by simply clicking off the final texture I could see it had possibilities, so I brightened up another earlier texture, and there it was, finally, a usable image!
Thank goodness I always save my images with their full layers in photoshop files!

Processing was straightforward but used many textures to build up great textural depth. This was made during my desaturated period, thus many textures were first desaturated.
I start as always from the first texture used to the last.
Being a pre-summer image it only uses the first two texture sets.

Antique Liaisons - Overlay @ 23% desaturated
Backdrop - Hard light @ 70%
Backdrop - Multiply @ 71%
Leadenhall - Hard light @ 45% desaturated and pulled down from the image
Colosseum Sienna - Soft Light @ 75% desaturated
Antique Liaisons - Overlay @ 100% desaturated
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated
Base image duplicated - Overlay @ 31% desaturated
Base image duplicated - Hard Light @ 53%
Base image - Normal @ 22%
Base image duplicated desaturated - Soft light 36%
Raw Linen - Overlay @ 71% desaturated
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated to purple

Regarding the aforementioned Photoshelter account, at the moment it is only set-up for selling RM licenses for now. If anyone would like to purchase a print, please use the contact link on that sites page, and I'll be happy to turn on the printing and prices for selected images!

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

Pommes

Today I went to our city's huge 24 hour second hand book sale held in the theatre it raises funds for. There are thousands of books on sale with more put out all the time so it's a great way to stock the shelves. Book dealers are there in force and you can spot them a mile off both from the huge stacks of books they carry and the avid look in their eyes as they search for a high priced rarity amongst the mundane. I came home with a copy of Micahel Ondaatje's The English Patient; I've seen and loved the film but haven't read the book, inside the front cover of the book I bought is a lovely inscription, it reads:

To Anna, Thanks for looking after me this week....I've been your English patient,. love Johnny xxx

I'd love to know the story behind it :-)

Now the photo, I decided to give this the a soft slightly desaturated treatment, this works better if your photo isn't too bright to begin with.
Fly edges #8 @ soft light 33 %
Sail Cloth @ hard light 22%
Apple Blush @ Overlay 55 %
I removed a little of the texture from the fruit in the edges and Apple blush layers.

Don't forget our earlier packs...click on the sidebar links, the combo offer for packs One and Two is still running too :-)

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Please note that this is big, almost 400 mb file so the download may take a while. Average reported download time for this pack varies from 15 to 20 mins.

Bounty

Almost every time I go to the beach I come home with a pocket full of small shells and stones and suchlike. Most of these ones came from a beach near the entrance to our harbour where there are lots of these tiny treasures underfoot.
I processed these with textures from our new Fly Edges pack. I only used two of the edges here, but could have used a different combo and got quite a different look. I am enjoying the effect the new textures give and their versatility, they make great textures as well as edges given the right photo.
The recipe is as follows, I used both edges with their edges showing.

Fly edge 2 @ Screen 52%
Fly edge 21 @ soft light 100% (I inverted this layer but it probably wasn't necessary)
Hue Saturation layer to make things soft and lighter
Copy of background @ Soft Light 64%
Fly edge 21@ Overlay 100% with a little texture removed from the centre
A curves layer to tweak the tone and contrast..

Plums

We have a self sown plum tree in our garden it produces fairly tangy, yellow fleshed plums with dark purple skins, in fact they look a bit like the Grand Duke plums that grew in the orchard on the farm where I grew up. Unfortunately our tree doesn't crop very well so I try not to let the plums go to waste, after I'd taken these photos I turned the fruit into plum sauce. The recipe I use is one my grandmother used to make; don't you love old family recipes like this?.With these plums it makes a wonderful dark red, tangy sauce.

Grandma's Plum Sauce
6 lb plums (I remove the stones to make the sieving easier at the end)
2 lb onions
3 lb sugar
3 pints vinegar (I use malt vinegar)
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cloves
pinch of cayenne

Boil all together till soft, then put through a sieve or mouli/food mill. Bottle in clean hot jars.
Use as a condiment and also in cooking, it's great in marinades, casseroles etc.

Now the texture recipe!

Peach blush @ screen 35%
Backdrop @ multiply 72% desaturated to taste
Hue saturation layer remove most of the colour.
Dark blue colour layer @ screen 26%

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brushes (with the law)

In my little old French house I have a kind of a studio,
where the walls are still rough as I've not yet decorated .
It used to belong to a Dutch professor of colour therapy.
He's still in France because I keep getting his speeding tickets!
Anyhow, he said this top north facing room was where he did all
his writing, and I can see why!:-)

After raving about all those cool dreamy, desaturated images in our flypaper group on Flickr, I thought I'd give it a go myself, and here's my first attempt. For those who have yet to discover 'desaturated flypaper textures' I hope this might help? Shot in Raw with natural light entering through open balcony windows, It gets the warm reflected sun from a yellow house opposite.

Dangerous Liaisons (desaturated) Overlay @ 23%
Backdrop - Hard Light @ 70%
Copy of base image - Soft Light @ 78%
Leaden Hall - (skirt cropped) Hard Light @ 45%
Colosseum Sienna (desaturated) Soft Light @ 45%

I shot this image in portrait format, the original is not a square, thus you might notice the top of the textures are missing from my image.

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