Working with Adobe

I love altering my photos with Adobe Photoshop.  Any ordinary old snap can be miraculously changed to provide inspiration for my art.  To demonstrate, here is a VERY ordinary snap of some eroded ground taken on my morning walk.



Step 1: Adjustments - Hue/Saturation - Hue +10, Saturation +59, Lightness –22



Step 2: Adjustments - Brightness/Contrast =   Brightness –9, Contrast +24


Step 3: Adjustments - Selective Colour = Blues... Cyan –100, Magenta +100, Black +62


Step 4: Adjustments -  Replace Colour, select mid range brown on image with cursor = Fuzziness 40, Hue +180, Saturation +100, Lightness +41 


 Step 5: Adjustments- Selective colour,Yellows = Cyan +100, Yellow –100, Black + 15 


Step 6: Adjustments -  Replace colour, choose brown/grey portion with cursor = Fuzziness 38, Hue+ 180, Saturation +100, Lightness +84

 Step 7:  Adjustments - Replace colour, choose pink edge of cloud = Fuzziness 40, Hue +90



Step 8:  (hard to see in photo) Select an oblong section with the rectangular marquee tool -  Filter/Rough Pastels = Stroke Length 8, Detail 5, Texture canvas, Scaling 100%, Relief 14, Light Direction bottom



 Step 9:  Same selection – Hue/Saturation = Hue +38, Saturation +55, Lightness – 23



Step 10:   Copy same selection using Ctrl C Ctrl V, "twice".  This will give you 3 layers on layers menu. By selecting Layer 1 or 2  you can use the move tool to move these pieces around until happy with the arrangement then in the layer drop down menu select flatten image



Step 11:  Using rectangular marquee as previous step, choose horizontal oblong, copy, move, flatten image



Step 12:  Filter/Dry Brush = Brush Size 5, Detail 5, Texture 2

From Step 12,  I arbitrarily chose a section to crop into a square format.  It could've been from anywhere in the image.

Thus the original became my own special inspiration.

Quite probably some Adobe 'whiz' could've arrived at the final destination a lot faster, but the journey from start to finish is an exploratory one.  Each individual makes his/her own decisions along the way.

This project has taken me away from the studio and camera, so my next blog will be my second 'A Letter A Week' which is sitting there waiting to be photographed.  Stay tuned.