red car - green car

 Over on Flickr we have a surrealist image group called  Man Ray
In this group we run image contests, where a donated start-off image is used by everybody who enters, to be manipulated in a surreal way.
Its a great way to flex your photoshop skills and learn from some real post production masters. Jill's Rabbit caught in Car Headlights - featured in this blog went on to win last weeks contest!

This weeks start-off image is a red hot rod car. The base shows the car slightly desaturated, and above is my finished manipulation.
Firstly, I selected Flypaper Leadenhall as a background, to this I added some winter bushes and Lime Plaster to beef it up.
I then desaturated the red car, changing the colour with the sliders and carefully cut it out, placing it into the background, as above.

Next I followed the recipe below, I used my free green water texture to brighten and pull the colours together.
Other tweaks followed, like adding the missing shadow at the back of the car.

Stone carving layer - Luminosity @ 34% (desaturated) brushed from car
Leaden Hall - Linear Light @ 22%
Free Water Texture - Soft Light @ 62% (link below)
Volcanic Larva - Soft Light @ 33% brushed from car
Labyrinth - Hard Light @ 86% brushed from central area & car

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

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Two!

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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.
Free water texture is from my flickr free water textures, here:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/3694983482_926bd7f95d_o.jpg

Caught in the Lights

Something a bit different today! I produced this image  for a challenge over at our  Man Ray group on Flickr . The starting image was a photo of a French gatehouse or pigeonair provided by Paul. After a bit of thought I decided to do a night scene with a car on a road, the rabbit (or hare) was the  next logical step.
Rather than a texture recipe today,  I thought I'd tell you a bit about how I did this.
 I started by gathering together my source images, then it was a matter of cutting the components out, I usually use photoshop's quick selection tool and then a quick mask to clean up the edges. After placing them on the background I then "grounded" them and added shadows The entire image was darkened by using a levels adjustment, this turning daylight into twilight.
Adding the lights from the car was fairly complicated but in general I  used selections and fills to do this.

Once the image was how I'd envisioned, I added a couple of layers of our Chlorophyl flypaper to pull the elements together; one layer added the green tone to the sky, the other helped add depth to the rest of the image.
So many, many layers later, it was done! 

The photo looks much better on  Flickr 

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

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Two!

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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.

Good Friday shirt

I'd like to show how I did this surreal effect a little later,
as I have a few more ideas to realize and don't want to spoil
the magic just yet.

However, with the addition of just one Flypaper texture and a little
color desaturation, the image was pulled together, enhancing the otherworldly, surreal 'atmosphere'.
As its a portrait format image, I just pulled our square format texture down the image. I didn't brush off any texture from the shirt as I wanted the image softened slightly.
(for a bigger view look at my Redbubble site, link to the right)

Happy Easter! :-)

Flypaper Lime Plaster - Soft Light @ 100%

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

hare tricks

With Easter on its way, hopping through all this thawing snow,
I thought I'd try something a little experimental as well as seasonal
with our textures.
I was after an antique surreal scene, perhaps in the style of the old master Alfred Stieglitz 'Camera Work'.
I used an old wine crate from my cellar, (with thanks to that Professor who also left me around a hundred empty wine bottles!) and placed a few things inside, held it up to the wintry light and took a few snaps.
And Hey Presto, the base image was the result!
I then added these few textures to create more of an antique atmosphere, and finally, to help pull it all together, turned the whole thing sepia.

Antique Liaisons (desaturated) Hard Light 59%
Raw Linen (part desaturated) Soft Light 100%
Elysium - Soft Light 69%
Labyrinth Soft Light 51%
Holmes (desaturated) Overlay 100%

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

red box

Back in early July we made a special trip to the beach at sunset just to photograph the full moon rising over the Mediterranean.
The light was superbly opalescent, and I was lucky, as I captured several nice images as well as the later moonrise.

This is one, a huge red container, not sure why it was there or what it contained, but being this amazing rust,
the final rays of the sun turned it into a stunning bright red.

The base image has already been brightened, I only needed a texture to beef up the tones and give a slight vignette effect.
I chose just one, Caramel Cream - soft light Opacity - @ 45%
This was given the full 'Gaussian blur' treatment for a really smooth finish.
I gave the final image a clean up with a slight paint effect, and removed a group of people on the left with the clone tool.
If you look on my Redbubble thread, you'll see another more painterly version.

Life goes on

Another human for our professional readers!
Taken on a professional Portrait shoot with French Artist, Martine Roch a couple of years ago.
This one was never used but I now like the little surreal looking figure with a bucket in the corner!
It was shot in that cold, sharp April light, the shadows being so dark,
it needed a little help, thus we used a reflector for fill-in light.
We were standing on the Sea's breakwater for the maximum light reflected off the sea.
It was so bright, Martine couldn't open her eyes!
Shot in tiff.

Textures shown from first used to last.
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 34%
Raw Linen - Hard Light @ 48%
(this texture brushed off all the model)
Caramel Soft - Hue @ 43%
(texture brushed off the models head only)

This last texture setting is the important one for the
lovely grayness, Its percentage is vital as too little and the color is too bright, too much and it becomes sepia!
We're talking Goldilocks!:-)
Bigger version on my Flickr site.