Line of Sight

*tracey*

“A Day by the Water,” is a vintage- inspired photograph of the Tybee Island Lighthouse in Savannah, Georgia. I was immediately struck by the sharp contrast of the beautiful red of the roof against the bold greenish blue of the rest of the lighthouse and couldn’t wait to work with this photo. Aged with a vintage feel, I wanted this print to take on  dreamlike quality. Imagine a child, sitting in the back seat of his parents car, looking out at the lighthouse on a beautiful, sunny day, excitedly awaiting the visit to the beach. Printed on amazing metallic paper, this photo takes me back to my own childhood and I’m so very happy to share it with others.

This, and other prints are available at my website. Please feel free to stop by!

Ciao!

*tracey*

Jennifer is all about vectors as her blog will detail. It provides a host of excellent tutorials, and all are marked very clearly with their difficulty level. You’ll find everything from creating basic vector illustrations to preparing them for sale to iStock.

The tutorial I chose to do today was one of her beginner tutorials, “Drawing a Face Using Simple Shapes.” It took me a little while to get the hang of it and, admittedly, I had trouble with the hair, but, after several deletions and recreations, I got it to where I like it. I even pulled mine in to Photoshop to try adding a few brushes. Why not right?

If you’re just starting out using Illustrator, this is a fantastic tutorial to test your skills while learning some of the basics of Illustrator. Don’t be afraid to experiment! What do you have to lose? Jennifer’s excellent tutorial can be found here. Check it, and others, out on her wonderful blog and definitely check out her fun portfolio!

Enjoy!!
*tracey*

Today’s post is actually going to be a multi-step tutorial where, with the end product, you’ll have created an Earth, a moon (well a, “moon like thingy”),  a point of light and wrapped text all in Photoshop.

A note- this is a pretty basic tutorial but it does require a working knowledge of Photoshop. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible but it definitely helps to understand where everything is and have a basic understanding of layering and what functions each of the tools perform.

Let’s start with creating the Earth… (feeling pretty powerful… who knew I could do that?)

1. Start with a Background

I created a 3000 x 2400 document (which I ultimately reduced for the photo at the beginning) but you can really create one as large or small as you want. I just went with what I feel most comfortable with. Once you’ve created it, fill it with Black.

2. Create a perfect circle with the Elliptical Marquee Tool

Create a new layer and call it something like, “Earth”. Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, and holding down the shift key (to create a perfect circle), create a circle about two inches from the top, dead middle. (Remember, in the end, there will be other elements to this piece so you need to make sure you have room.) If you need to, hold the space bar down while dragging (along with the Shift key) and that will allow you to change the location of your ellipsis until it’s right where you want it. You should have something that looks like this:

3. Color in your world…

You want to set your foreground and background colors to two colors that best depict Earth, blue and green. I went with #067b1c for Green and #1e4fb4 for Blue. (You could really pick any two you’d like, I just found these to be the most subtle while still “showing up” well.) Set the foreground to green and the background to blue and, with the ellipsis still selected go to Filter>Render>Clouds.

You’ll end up with something like this:

4. Spherize the world…

Christopher Columbus proved the world is round, and, while there might still be some stragglers out there who still believe it’s flat, for the purposes of this tutorial, let’s just pretend we’re all on the same page. With the marching ants still going (your elliptical outline) go to Filter>Distort>Spherize, make sure your selections match the following and click OK.

Hit Ctrl-F a few times until it starts to look more like land surrounded by a lot of water, like so:

That’s just the first part of creating the Earth… now we’re going to add some light and some glow to make it look more three-dimensional.

5. It’s all about the atmosphere…

Let’s create some atmosphere around our Earth to give it a more realistic feel.  Create a new layer above the Earth layer and name it something like, “Earth’s Atmosphere” (we’ll be creating a second sphere later so you’ll want to note the difference).  With the selection still made (if you aren’t seeing the marching ants, Ctrl-Click on the Earth icon in the layers palate.) Make sure your new “atmosphere” layer is selected and go to Edit>Stroke. I chose the same green color as I used on the Earth with a Width of 20 px (don’t be scared by what this creates… we’ll tame it with some blurring in a minute)

Make sure your settings are as shown and click OK:

You’ll end up with something like this…

6. Blur the Blob…

Since the Earth doesn’t have a large layer of green slime around it, let’s tame that blob a bit with some Gaussian Blur.

Deselect your Earth by hitting Ctrl-D (or going to Select>Deselect), make sure your Atmosphere layer is selected and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Select the following settings and click OK:

You should see a very faint, green haze around the Earth. (Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t create good atmosphere) You should end up with a hazy green circle around your Earth.

7. Let there be light…

It’s been raining here for about four days… I don’t know about you, but I could use some sunlight. Adding some lighting effects will help us create a more three dimensional feel to our Earth. Here’s where you need to decide which direction you want your light coming from. This is ultimately going to dictate where you place the light burst coming up. If you look at my final piece, I’ve decided to have my light coming from the top left. To accomplish this, do the following:

Click on your Earth Layer and select Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. You’ll get a dialog box that looks like this:

If you want your lighting to come from the top left like mine, just set yours up the same way but feel free to play around… you are, after all creating the world. Ultimately, you’ll have the sunburst coming from one direction and the moon on the opposite side. To really play this one up, I wanted a stronger light on the one side than the other so I pulled my light source pretty close to the top left side.

Once you’re all set up, click okay and you should have something similar to this (Just a note, I ended up using Brightness/Contrast to tweak the lighting a little and moved my Earth down a bit, as there will be text added later):

8. There was the Earth, The Moon and, of course, the stars…

Now, our space beyond the Earth is looking a little, well, blah. Watch any space movie or documentary and you know there is all sorts of stuff floating around out there so let’s add some space debris and stars with a little noise.

Go to your Background Layer which should be filled with Black (if it’s not, make certain your foreground color is set to black and hit Alt-Backspace). Select Filter>Noise>Add Noise and choose a setting that provides a decent amount of noise without going overboard… somewhere around 25-30%. Make sure your distribution is Gaussian and the noise is Monochromatic (you don’t want colorful debris, you want it to be monochrome) and hit OK.

This is a little too much noise so let’s calm it down a little by using levels to bring down the midtones. I chose to bring the midtone down to about .30. Don’t let the preview deceive you… it might look like you’re left with nothing however click OK and you’ll see that’s not the case. You should end up with faint stars/space debris floating all around your background and in the atmospheric haze.

9. The Earth is Organic…

The Earth is organic and should take on a dreamier more ethereal effect with moving water and ridges for the land. To do this, let’s add a little plastic wrap shall we? Make sure your Earth layer is selected and go to Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap. You don’t want to overdo this effect, just provide a little bit of a ripple effect to your Earth to give it some more dimension. These are the settings I chose:

You should end up with something like this:

Viola, you have created the Earth. Now don’t you feel powerful??  Go ahead and create a moon using the same steps as above, only much smaller dimensions and, of course, different colors. I ended up choosing  #b06942 for my foreground color and #56370b for the background and liked the effect. I also chose not to Spherize the moon because adding the clouds gave it the exact effect I wanted, and, instead of using plastic wrap, I chose the Watercolor effect under Filter. You might choose otherwise. Play around with it and see what you come up with.

10. Turn on the light…

Well the Earth has light beaming down on it so we must have a light source somewhere. So, let’s add some sun. Assuming you chose to light yours from the same direction as mine, I’m going to add my light beam at the very top left corner of my piece. To do this, I chose an asterisk like light beam brush… you can find them online just by Googling them or create your own. (I found mine here, from LadyVictoire on DeviantArt. I used a size of 1800 pixels…you could go smaller, or larger, if you’d like)

Add a layer above all others and name it something like, “The Sun.” Make sure your foreground is white (or some other very light color) and place the sunbeam somewhere in the top corner. I elected to show only half the light beam, as if the rest of the sun is somewhere we can’t see it. It looks something like this:

The best thing about doing everything on separate layers is that you can move them around freely, you can resize them or you can completely scrap them without disrupting the rest of your work. I actually ended up reducing the size of the moon layers slightly and moving them a little closer to the bottom right to balance out the layout a little.

11. Give it a glow…

Let’s give the sun some glow so that it’s not just a plain white brush. Double click on the Sun layer so that you bring up the layer styles box. I added both an Inner Glow and an Outer glow to my sun, in a mix of pale yellow and orange to give it a more colorful, realistic feel:

Again, play around with settings to make it look exactly the way you want it to. I actually ended up moving my sun a little more and ended up with this:

OK, you could leave it here and just wrap it up but, I’m going to continue on and show you how I added wrapped text around my Earth.

There are probably many ways to do this, this is just how I learned it and it works for me.

12. A little written word…

We could just add text at the top and the bottom of the piece but why not wrap it around the Earth to give it a more unique effect? It’s not difficult, we’re just going to create a work path using our Elliptical Marquee tool again. To accomplish this, I first selected my Earth layer and, with the Elliptical marquee tool selected and the Shift key held down (again, so you know you’ll get a perfect circle) I created an ellipsis slightly larger than the Earth and atmosphere combined.

Go to your Paths tab (if you don’t have it set up in your workspace, go to Window at the top and make sure the paths tab is checked off. Using the drop down box at the top right of the Paths tab, select “Make Work Path,” choose a tolerance of 1.0 pixel and click OK. You’ll end up with something like this:

Note that the marching ants stop marching and turn in to a solid white line around your Earth and, at the top right corner, under the Paths tab, you’ll see a work path created.

13. Add your text

With the work path still selected, select the Horizontal Type Tool (hit the letter T) and, move your cursor over the work path, to the place where you want to start your text. When you hover your cursor over the work path, you’ll see a wavy line through the middle of it. Click on the place you want to start adding text and start typing.  I chose a font called, “Evolution” (found here), size 45 pt and selected a white font (as I’ll be adding some color to it later) Once you’ve typed your first line, hit Enter or click the check box at the top. From here, you can Free Transform it and move it around if it’s not in the exact spot you’d like. I and ended up with this:

Your work path should still be showing at this point but we’re going to want to flip the bottom line of text do that people don’t have to stand on their head to read it. We can use the original work path to create a selection which we’ll then expand to create a new work path. Sound complicated? It’s not…

14. Creating a new, larger, work path…

First, click on the original work path on the Paths tab and, going to the drop down at the top right, choose “Make Selection” It will ask you your tolerance and I chose 0 pixels. This will bring back your marching ants.

Next, with the marching ants in full march, go to Select>Modify>Expand and choose how many pixels you want to expand by. For my particular font, knowing that I will want to flip the letters so that they are upright but still in line with the rest of the text, I chose to expand by 70 pixels. (Yours may be a little different, depending on the font you chose.) Once you click okay, you’ll see your original work path as well as the marching ants which will be expanded out from the original path.

Now, go back to your Paths tab, go to the drop down menu and select, “Make Work Path” This will create a new work path for your second line of text. It should look like this:

Now follow the same steps you did for the first line of text. Once you have the text in place, make sure that text layer is still selected and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. You should end up with something that looks like this:

I do challenge you to play around with your settings, your font, your font size, the Free Transform tool, etc. You can move the paths for each of the lines of text until the text is just where you want it, as well as use the Free Transform tool to adjust size and location.

15. Needs a little Style…

OK, I don’t know what yours looks like but my text is totally boring. I’m going to spike it up a bit with some Layer Styles… I chose a little Outer Glow, some Color Overlay and some Bevel and Emboss action but you can use whatever suits you.

And, viola! We’re done!  Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and won’t be afraid to use what you’ve learned to try out different things… Enjoy!

*tracey*

Droste Clock

Well, I apologize, it’s been a few weeks since I posted. I appreciate everyone’s patience while I attended to some family matters (and of course surviving the biggest snowfall in Philadelphia’s history…brrr). All is well and I’m excited to get back to the blogging!

For those who have been following along, you know of my recent obsession with all things Photoshop. I have even gone so far as to go through a very extensive training program (three phases, about 20 hours each) to get certified and I can honestly say, it was well worth it! I learned so much that I can’t wait to share with all of you!

Today’s post is going to be spotlighting a wonderful tutorial on The Droste Effect, along with one of the filters which can be used in Pixel Bender plug-in within Photoshop (as well as other products in the CS suite).

There are a number of examples out on Flickr of the Droste effect, some a little creepy but cool all the same,  found here.  First though, a few definitions…

What is the Droste Effect?

The term refers to a specific type of recursive picture…well, wait, recursive? What’s that? There’s an a long and completely confusing definition, used in both computer science and mathematics, regarding functions and components. Long story short, it’s a broad term used to describe objects self-duplicating themselves repeatedly, seemingly infinitum.

Example please!!  Ever been to a Hall of Mirrors? I don’t know about you but, as a kid,  I had fun making the Millions of Tracey’s dance and jump and, well act silly all in unison. Because the mirrors were set at particular angles to one another, the image would repeat over and over, and the reflection got smaller and smaller for what seemed like forever.

The Droste Effect is the same concept, meaning a picture depicting a smaller version of its self and, within that a smaller version, and so on and so on. While, to the eye, this duplication appears to continue on forever, it will only truly continue until the resolution of the picture will no longer allow it.

What is Pixel Bender?

I won’t even begin to boggle everyone’s minds with the exact definition of what Pixel Bender does, especially as I’m only on my first cup of coffee. I have, however, attached a link to Adobe Labs definition of how it works. In laments terms though, it’s a pretty cool plug in for several Adobe products, including Photoshop, which very quickly processes a bunch of complex algorithms to apply filters or effects to your photo or illustration, in this case, the Droste Effect.

First things first, in order to use Pixel Bender, you have to download the actual Pixel Bender plug in- found here. (check the very bottom) Now, once that’s downloaded, if you have a mind to, you can code your own image processing algos (the filters and effects) or, you can take advantage of the wealth of shared knowledge on the dedicated Pixel Bender Exchange site within Adobe. (Yes, it’s just that amazing that it has its own site.)

Now, as I don’t claim to be a computer genius, to achieve the Droste Effect, I am using the best (at least in my opinion) filter out there, created by a developer by the name of Tom Beddard. Tom, also known as “subblue,” has created a number of amazing Pixel Bender downloads that he offers up for free (oh did I mention the actual Pixel Bender plug in is free as well?? Thank you Adobe!) His graphic design work, blog and downloads  can be found here on his site.

Tom also provides a wonderful tutorial on how to use his Droste Effect filter, along with the filter  download, here. I’ve attached a couple of my own initial attempts and plan on providing many more down the road. I won’t dare to repeat everything Tom provided in his tutorial but I’ll offer up one suggestion… don’t be afraid to play around with the tool on a copy of your photo. (I’ve said it before and will say it again, if you’re going to play, especially when messing with pixels, save an original copy somewhere else as you never know what can happen.) The more you tweak the settings, using Tom’s basic tutorial as a guide, the more interesting the results and guaranteed you’ll end up with something different each time.

If you decide to play around with the Droste Effect, I would love to see what you’ve done with it. Please feel free to comment and post!

Enjoy!

*tracey*

"Droste Lotus"

As I’m in a bit of a lazy mood today, and it’s too cold to break out the bike, I’ve decided to play around in Photoshop a little and share some of my creations, along with a little tutorial I happened upon. The other day I created planets, today we’re creating what I’m going to call starbursts.

Back in elementary school, in attempt to get in with the boys I had crushes on (you probably know who you are as I wasn’t subtle), I would spend more time than I’d like to admit drawing space wars with them… exploding planets, space ships and the like. Who knew that one day I’d be creating them out of nothing more than a single photo of some dried mud and some creativity?

Yes, that’s right, dried mud. It doesn’t end with dried mud though, you can  use anything from photos of tire tread to cracks in the sidewalk… anything that has fissures which can be put to good use. Using the same Polar Coordinate distortion tool I used with the Little Planets Project, as well as some wind, I flexed my creative muscle and came up with the attached images. (I had a little fun with that last one… try mixing up the backgrounds, colors, and playing with the layering and see what happens)

The tutorial called them exploding planets… I actually think they look more like starbursts, what do you think?

You can find the original tutorial here. Try it! Have fun with it and see what you can create.

Enjoy!

*tracey*

"Starburst Orange"

"Starburst Blue"

"Starburst Magenta"

"Starburst Fire"

"Starburst Sketch"

Original Photo

I am much better off jotting a random post, musing about whatever I might be working on, or, for that matter, thinking, at the time. That said, I thought I would take a quick break and swing by the old blog to write a quick post. Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend thus far and, for those that are lucky enough to have a three day weekend (like me, YAY!) I hope you’ll be doing something fun.

It’s been a busy few days here on the blog… glad people are really liking the Little Planet Project I posted! I plan on posting more and more like it! I will respond to everyone’s comments but please don’t be offended if it’s not immediate. (occasionally I stop to sleep )

In between responding to everyone’s fantastic comments, I spent yesterday and today working on getting my photos set up for my website which will, if all goes well, be up and running this week. I’m so excited! It will house an online gallery, info about portrait work, and even have a cart feature to order my fine art prints directly from me. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get it up and running…Yay!!!

So, today was portrait gallery day… going back through my portrait photos, playing around with some and reprocessing them and getting them all loaded in to the super sweet portfolio which was set up for me. I can’t wait for everyone to be able to check it out!

Thought I would share some of them… hopefully you like them! Be on the lookout for a post in a few days about the launch of the site… there might be some cool surprises in store…

Enjoy!

*tracey*

Taken in Venice, along the Grand Canal, the blue door was what caught my eye first. If I owned a really cool, old home, there are a list of must-haves, one of which is an amazing door in a vibrant color. Most of Venice’s homes along the canal not only have amazing colors but also this beautiful patina from being along the water. Color abounds in Venice, not only along the Grand Canal but along the back canals as well. Given my love of color, I can only imagine seeing such beauty on a daily basis.

Let’s try something new… how about a poll? 

“Patina” as well as the “Day in Venice” print set can be found here in my online gallery.

Enjoy!

*tracey*

"Patina"

Whoa! I finally updated my portraiture page, check it out…jeesh! Took me long enough right?

I love portrait work, especially when kids are my subjects. Now, mind you, not every child goes to a portrait session willingly; dare I say, most won’t. Even those that do may prove to be a challenge greater than Everest so it’s important to be armed with a few tools to save the day, not the least of which is a sense of humor. Here are a few of my tips for making the most of your time when photographing children:

1. Let’s face it, most kids have very small attention spans, anywhere from thirty seconds to a minute, especially when they’re doing something they consider “boring.” Before you even begin a session photographing kids, know the layout of the location of the shoot and try to visualize the types of photos you want to take before you get there.  If you need to, write it down, maybe even sketch out some shots and poses. That way, you’re spending the bulk of your time on the actual shot, rather than setting up the pose where you’re guaranteed to lose their focus.

2. I mentioned it before and I can’t say it enough, maintain your sense of humor. I don’t have children of my own but I’ve been around enough to know that, at times, they can be exasperating. This exasperation leads to frustration which is sure to kill the entire shoot. Try to maintain a sense of humor while at the same time maintaining control of the situation and directing the children. (If all else fails, in the absense of humor, visualize that wonderful glass of wine waiting for you when you’re done… that might make you smile) If kids sense you’re frustrated, you’ll lose them rather quickly.

3. For smaller children, do yourself a favor… bring props. Sometimes all it takes to get a fussy two-year old to smile is a toy. Now, I would suggest bringing props you don’t mind having in the picture. There’s nothing worse than giving Little Johnny a toy and then snatching it away right before you take the photo because you’re afraid it will kill the aesthetic. If you’re going for “Screaming, Red Faced Child” you’ll be right on the mark… if not, let him hold the toy during the shot.

4. Posing kids… Ok, they’re not Gumby. As pliable as kids might seem, you’d be surprised at how difficult it is to get a child to get in to the pose you want, let alone maintain it. Keep it simple. Give them poses that are easy for them to process and understand and even go so far as to demonstrate the pose. That way they can see, first hand, what you want them to do. The chances of getting a child, especially the younger ones, to maintain one of those complicated, editorial poses you see adult models doing are slim to none. I can’t say it enough, “keep it simple.”

4. If you have multiple children in a shot, let them “pose off one another.” Put them back to back and face the camera or have a smaller child sit on the lap of the older child. You’ll get closer to those “oh so cute” editorial shots you might be aiming for and, the bonus, the older child can help corral the younger one.

5. Don’t be afraid to make a complete fool of yourself to get a child to smile. (Remember what I said before? Maintain a sense of humor.) Make funny faces, noises, whatever it takes to get their attention and make them laugh, all the while preparing for the shot. (You’re going to have a very small window to get the shot you want, be ready!)

6. If you’re able to, take multiple shots of the same pose; that guarantees you’ll have plenty of photos to work with later. If you’re using a camera that has a Sports mode on it (which allows for a continuous burst of shots until you release the shutter) go for it. Kids move, they blink, they make faces, you name it. I’ve had photo shoots where I’ve taken upwards of 200 shots and only about 30 turned out to be “the perfect ones.” If you have the opportunity to take multiples, grab it.

7. Lighting- I prefer to do portrait work outdoors, in a natural setting as, how many times have you heard it, natural light is better. This is especially true of  the light during the “magic hour” just before sunset. When the sun is at it’s highest, during the middle of the day, you run the chance of washing your subject out (in other words the picture will be too bright) and I will tell you, it’s easier to add light to a photo in post processing than it is to remove it.

I hope these few tips will help make your photo sessions with kids a little easier. The bottom line? Have fun. If you have fun, the kids are more likely to and, in the end, the pay off will be a fantastic set of photographs you and your family can enjoy for years to come.

Want to know how I did the collage on the portrait page? Check back in and one of my upcoming posts will be all about creating collages in Photoshop!

Enjoy!

*tracey*

My latest obsession is creating little planets from panoramic shots that I’ve taken. Now, I’m just saying up front, those I’ve attached are the first I’ve created, I’m still learning, but, now that I’ve provided that little disclaimer,  I have to say, this has opened up a whole new world to me. (get it? See what I did there? World? No? OK…fine)   Little Venice World, Little Paris World, Little Rome World, Little New York World… oh the possibilities. Little caricaturized planets from some of my favorite places around the globe!

While I’m perfecting the art, I thought I would share the link with you so you can try making your own little planets at home (a note, the directions in the upcoming link are using Photoshop, and that’s what I used with mine, but for those that use PSP, the same directions apply, just look for Effects/Distortion/Polar Coordinates up in the toolbar instead of  Filters)

You can find great, step by step directions in a fantastic tutorial by photographer Dirk Paessler, here on Photojojo.

Try it! It’s fun! Please feel free to share your little planets here as I’d love to see them… Take me to your leader… Nanu Nanu…live long and prosper… peace out…

*tracey*

Venice World

Temple Bar World

Venice World 2