Autumn in Taupe-Land

Clear-cut housing and one spot of colour: It is better philosophically and visually as an abstract.

Happy Halloween

Sheared Peony

Actually sheared, cropped, lassoed, unsharpened, and a few other things!

A Bright Idea

Who's That Lady? Three Images

Over a year ago, on Canada Day, I took a photo of a colourful mannequin on display at the park:

Lovely as she was, she has been altered in the service of learning. I'm not sure which alteration I like best:

This one:

or this one:

What does everyone else like?

Type Mask for a Gnome

My Photoshop projects are quite random - months of diligently working through the book from start to finish wasn't very productive; I was bored and kept seeing things ahead that looked like more fun than what was in the current chapter.

So, when a fellow blogger offhandedly said to make something for her, I had today's project. (Check out her blog.)

The original image:

The finished project (masking with type and applying layer styles)  - 

Blend Modes and Opacity

Yesterday, these functions in the Layers Palette were somewhat of a mystery, so I tried them out. (This after only just being able to put some layers together that stay together!)

The background "before shot" is a crop of a picture of flowers I took earlier in the summer:

The before of the next layer is of frost on the glass walls of the deck this morning (alas!):

The following results are 1) Color Burn 68% opacity; 2) Color Dodge 48% opacity; 3) Hue 52% opacity. I chose them simply because I liked them.

So, six new things learned yesterday and today - only 887,346, or so, to go!

The "Before" Shot for A Steep Learning Curve

I didn't make huge changes to the photo: I used the impressionist brush with a long curl/ light colour to lighten areas of the sky; the wire has a sort of corona from a brush from special effects - scattered crystals (I think); some of the foliage is greener than in the original - another pass with the impressionist brush.

This is the original - no alterations yet.

A Steep Learning Curve

I have been concentrating on working with Photoshop and have decided to do something new each day, when possible. For too long, I have been poking around here and there in the program, but at that rate it would take several lifetimes to learn much of anything. With each new command or pull-down menu, I am totally amazed by what is possible!

 The photo is an experiment with brushes, mostly (and some frustrating attempts at fixing a boo-boo!). The image was taken on the road from Kamloops to Sun Peaks BC.