Monday, September 7

Summer's Last

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Hmmm.... at first I just wanted to show my buddy Andreas Manessinger what he'd miss by postponing his US trip. We drove over to the Wellwood in Charlestown. That's in Maryland and the light you see reflected in the pitcher's flashing off of the Chesapeake Bay. Which is also wafting breezes across my half dozen bluepoint #1s. The pitcher was filled with Blue Moon, and would be soon again. It was about 5:30 on the deck and the sun was just starting to grow heavily golden over the water.

That's Bay Seasoning encrusted on the shells which is a salty/peppery mix. That explains the beer, huh?

But anyway... I got to wondering about this fantasy and thought to myself.... "Self. Why don't you see how cool this still life would feel all dressed up in oils?" So, well .... look at this wonderful mixed media.... Can't you smell the crabby steam that's shimmering upward? Which makes me wonder... which image works best? Thoughts?

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GEEK STUFF


About the thoughts? Here's some geek stuff for you. Pre Processing: captured by my Canon G10 in natural light at the Wellwood Restaurant in Charlestown, MD right beside the Chesapeake Bay. Post Processing:Well as you can see by this virgin image taken from my FlashCard... in the first image above, I did some cropping and enhanced the dynamic range with some intense tone mapping in CS4 with the juice-kicking power of TOPAZ (love those tools) which also allowed me to add lights and spot the blue points and beer with some drama. Oh yeah, there' s just a touch of AlienSkin's Bokeh filter around the edges to obscure some distractions. You thinkthis recipe works?

Then... then... in the second image I worked in AlienSkin's SnapArt2 with a medium brush in portrait.... later masking away the oil effect to spot the crabs. I can see either of these blown large on the wall of a restaurant.... lit with one lamp from above on an otherwise dark paneling. How elegant is that? Huh?

So? Wuddaya think?

5 comments:

Angel Corrochano said...

Me gusta analizar el proceso que sigues en tus creaciones, es una maravilla.
Y esos cangrejos tiene un aspecto inmejorable, ñan, ñan, ñan!!!!

Cordiales saludos

Ted said...

(Ángel) Mil gracias mi amigo.

Brian Bastinelli said...

Very cool image here Ted-

Makes me want to jump in and eat those crabs even more.

I am really diggin' your processing as of late. Definitely takin' it up a notch or two.

Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

Brian

Barry Armer said...

Both versions are really nice Ted. The top one is my favorite (because of less contrast between the background and foreground processing techniques if that makes any sense).

Well done!
Barry

Andreas said...

Oh dear! Vampire crabs, and you have to kill them !!!

Sorry for not reading this earlier. You know, I was kind of ... away :)

Oh yeah, looks fine to me. As to what version I prefer, well, as I wrote recently, I think this whole post-processing thing, at least for me, is pretty random. One day I do this, the next I do that. So is it with my taste as a viewer: I could give you information, but it would be valid only for a moment. Sorry, they both win ;)