<- Click hereNothing profound, deep, or even thoughtful powered this thing. Nope. Probably pretty shallow actually. My last post was an effort to pull mood from an idea through the use of textures. And the response has been amazing. Thanks to everyone who sent me email both ere and from the other forums where it's appeared. The reaction actually made me want to investigate texture technique farther. So.... I turned to my most accommodating model... Me! See, I wanted to see how textures could work in portraiture. But as you can see the results need not be flattering. And since almost everyone else who's trusted me to take their portrait was not interested in a purposely unattractive result... well that, you see, explains why I've again asked me to be the subject.
Moreover, I wanted to see how I could use both texture and AlienSkin's SnapArt together to create a dramatic result which would pop from the monitor. At a 4th of July picnic I loaned my camera and long zoom lens to a young friend who'd never used that kind of equipment before. Nice thing about a 70-300mm lens on camera w/ a crop frame sensor... the photographer can take candids virtually unknown to the subjects. Okay.... but then what?
Here's what happens when I recrop, diddle with the dynamic range, use Alien Skin's Bokeh to create a shallow depth of field... then carefully mask in a texture over key parts of the image.... and finally apply various parts of masked layers which were differently filtered through SnapArt's Oil option.
Of course I used PS4 to further enhance the dynamic range to deepen the drama of shadows while cranking up the highlights.
Lots of stuff. Now... seriously... Critiques anyone?
5 comments:
Whats not to like? Your work is always good and this is too.
This is pretty well executed. It's only unflattering if you think it is since you're the subject. But I like the pose and the post- processing technique. It's a nice oil paint look that's very interesting in a portrait.
You smoke? Really?
Ah, I fondly remember the time when I used to smoke for an evening and then not for a month. I even smoked cigars for some time and I greatly enjoyed them. This went on for almost ten years.
Then it became more regular, and sometime, without me recognizing it, addiction set in and the freedom of choice was gone. It took me another ten years to get off nicotine.
I'm off smoking for more than five years now, but I'm still careful. For almost three years I didn't smoke a single cigarette, and although I have had some since, I am pretty careful to keep it on a once- or twice-per-year basis :D
The image? Great as always. Not sure what the texture part is, but the result is great.
(John) I'm liking the fad of texturizing images. Which you can see from my recent spate of the things recently posted. However, texture and skin tones seems to still be a challenge. There's a danger of inflicting your subject with leprosy.... :-)
(Ken) Thanks for the support. As I mentioned to John above... it's the skin tone thing with portraits which is interesting to work on. I'm thinking the effect works better with men?
(Andreas) Well I don't actually smoke with any regularity. Never smoked a cigarette in my life. But once or twice a year I'll accept a gift of a world class cigar. A friend, Jeff Rank, who died soon after that 4th of July event shared these custom hand-rollled cigars with us. It was my last chance to enjoy one with him and a small group of guys that afternoon. Everything in moderation Andreas.... Moderation...
Which reminds me of the fact that I always liked cigars much better than cigarettes, only as soon as I got addicted to nicotine, I couldn't smoke cigars any more. It became impossible to smoke without inhaling. Well, inhale a cigar and you've really got a problem :D
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