I was admiring a post by creativo and thought - wouldn't it be great if we had a mini challenge with 3 or 4 images where we would combine them and make a montage. We would learn all kinds of techniques. What do you say????

Lisa

Oooo - I like the idea Lisa! :) I just did a montage for my husband's 40th birthday. Baby pics to now, including the few pics he keeps in "his" shoe box (meaning they're extra special to him. ;) ) He loved it! And I would love to do more!

Jeanie

Chuck you beat everyone to it.
Oh that girl its a great Idea.

I had an 80th birthday to go to and needed an Idea so we had a music rose challange and I used the rose from there I made a dream type background with clouds added the birthday girls picture and blended and faded it into the clouds. Added text and thats four items and that should coun t as a montage. So here is my submission.

Just to clarify things. How about we first choose 4 images. What I think would be more interesting is have all of us work with the 4 images and see what we come up with. Doug used to do photo tag which is what Chuck is suggesting? I was more or less thinking that we have 3-4 images and then from there - do our own collages.

So... backing up just a little. How about we upload some images first and then we can decide what 4 to use. Or - we use the first 4 that are uploaded and go from there.

Attached is my submission.

Lisa

Sounds good to me as well.

We could submit a photo each or you can pick four from the challanges. BUt once you decide no fair changing the rules.
Since you started it you say what you want to do. The problem you have more then four people on the forum. So pick four you know and have them submit pics.

But first I alread did this as a joke.

gosh ! I'm not a good one to restore order from chaos.... but this is lisa's thread... why mess with it ?

4 items it is...
offering the next 3 first submitted scares me a little... ( lisa's being no. 1 ) so whats say all interested .. offer their's..
after all... has to be something that will work...

settle on a way to decide..
do it right... :( hate to have to come back in here..

RonDon

I think Ron has a point. How about we start out with using the images from the mini challenges. When we get enough images donated we will use it for the next montage - deal?

So, I was browsing the images from the mini challenge and think I have 4 that might be interesting. How about we use

#46 English Ladies
#44 Butterfly
#15 Wally
#31 Yellow Rose

Let the games begin.....

Lisa

sounds ok.... but wouldn't it be fun if this turned into your challenge ? you know fresh photos and all... but then again it's late.... and i may have wandered off track here making an example for these slackers .... but is this what you were after ?
sorry only 3 pix involved.. but could add a nice moose I suppose..
RonDon

Wow - that is awesome!

You're right but I thought I would collect a bunch of images first and also get a consensus from others on how to choose. I'm just trying out the idea right now. The goal in the end is definetly to use our own images.

Lisa

good girl.. hope it works out in a challenge thing... guess you know of your popularity here.... not just your amazing submission of the former modeling proofs... but you know... we are all with you.

that said: I've always hoped for a bit more than the manipulation challenge along these lines... I know this is after all "retouch pro" but i do like to play with pix.... guess we all do...

RonDon

that sounds fun!! i like the idea of using previous mini challenge photos for it.

- David :)

Have the games brgun. Are those the elements we will use. Lots of suggestions after your reply.

Halloween's over, but sometimes in the early morning hours, on your long walk home from the pub, you may be fortunate enough to see something...


Inverted layer added some of the coloration, Transform to rotate and skew the ladies. Pixie dust for the horse to make him fly, and the flutterby just hung on tight all by himself.

Here is my submission base on "Oh That Girls " selections.

I put all my pictures on my screen and saw an Engish race track and all these elements would be there. The women appear to be gazing so I had them gaze at the Rose and Butterfly as Walley won the race in the distance. I saved everything in PSD so I could move the elements anround on its Layer. I then scaled each to give the effect of different distances.
Tools 1 - Extract 2- Eraser 3- Move tool 4 - Blur tool

RE di picture, left something in I did not like.

Man Phili1... that is brilliant!

Lisa

Hi Lisa and all,
Count me in. So we are going to use the 4 photos Lisa chose, right? And use only those in the montage?
Thanks
Debbie

You betcha.

Lisa

The yellow rose is the bachground, believe it or not.:tongue:
Frank

Frank -- Lovely, fun rendition! The rose is easily visible, I think. You even added Lisa's crystal ball for "extra credit"! ;)

What is that about Lisa's crystal ball?:)
Being a newbie here, I think I might have missed that!
Frank

Frank -- you're not a newbie anymore, you're a regular! :)

Here's a link to the butterfly mini-challenge page where the "secrets of Lisa's crystal ball" are revealed....along with some lovely submissions that have been done in the last few days -- done after your last submission.

Alan's Butterfly - recent submissions (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4176&perpage=5&pagenumber=18)

Here's my first attempt....

Re- the crystal ball, in the butterfly challenge I posted an image using a photo of my crystal ball.

Lisa

Wow...

Talk about "Great minds think alike..." (well, maybe it's soggy brains that think alike since Lisa and I live where it rains a lot).

If you haven't noticed yet I just created a "member initiated" mini-challenge forum to be used for just this sort of thing.

LISA:

This is a BRILLIANT idea and I greatly appreciate you taking the initiative to get it started.

I encourage you (or anyone) to continue these sorts of efforts in the new forum.

Well done.

~Danny~

Frank. I can see how you can put the image on the ball but if nobody else saw it you have the images convexing exactly how they would do in a crystal ball. Very nice, they not only look right scale wise it looks like they are inside. Great Job.


Lisa. Yours is awsome, you combined English with parchment and a little romantic.(or is it alott) great theme. So far all have themes.Wow!

Cj I forgot you. Wow were you there the last time I got drunk, I hope I behaved, because thats about what I saw and remembered.

[B]Frank. I can see how you can put the image on the ball but if nobody else saw it you have the images convexing exactly how they would do in a crystal ball. Very nice, they not only look right scale wise it looks like they are inside. Great Job.


Thanks Phil, I am sure you know already, but in case there is one person out there who doesn't know...
Simply put your montage together, bear in mind you do not want anything too near the edges as they will be deformed later when it is convexed! Make sure your picture is square (works much better) go to distort, spherize, 100%. You will see the circle formed, I then use the circular marque tool and plonk a circle exactly over the circle, select inverse and delete/cut the outside of your circle. It's then just a matter of cleaning up the image and apply some shading/shadow and plonk some "windows" on to give the sphere effect. Job done! I did one with some tall pine trees and they really take on a convex appearance. Probably takes longer to write this than do it.:tongue: :tongue:
Frank

Thanks for sharing Frank. I'll have to try it!

Lisa

Ooops - forgot the attachment!

Lisa. Yeh, have a go, having just gone back and seen your work, this will be dead easy for you. So you cheated and took a photo of your crystal ball! :tongue: Wish I had one, it would save me making one. As I said, if you choose tall things like trees, the effect is even more pronounced.
C.J. Yup! A regular of about 10 days now.:)
Just as I thought I was getting on top of it all, I have just seen another 3 fresh challenges!
No peace for the wicked.
Frank

Frank... I just went downstairs and took a fresh picture of my crystal ball. Here you go.

Lisa

Here's a picture of my niece trapped in my crystal ball.

Lisa

Here she is trapped! LOL

Lisa :)

Think you forgot to upload it.:(

Nice! Complete with lens flare. Sometimes when you use lens flare it sometimes ends up just a little away from exactly where you want it. Or it does for me! You probably know already but.....:tongue:
If you make a new layer above your picture, fill it with 50% grey, blending mode to overlay, then apply your lens flare, you can then move it to exactly where you want it. It enables you to move it around whereas you cannot using the conventional way.
HTH
Frank

Lisa. you broke the rules of submission but it great. I like the way it refelects light and the overal look of being in glass.

Well, I do know about doing it on a new layer... but you did teach me something - I would never have thought of filling it with 50% grey - great tip.

Many thanks.

Lisa

You're right Phil, I kind of got excited about Frank's and went off on a tagent. I'll try and control myself next time :)

Lisa

I am only kidding. Boy it's fun and you cant help getting caught up in it.

Ok I think I'm ready. Of course just after I finished this the first time the machine crashed!! And naturally I did not have the work saved. Serves me right. Was adding the background ok? I didn't realize until right now...I have to learn to retain better :)
Obviously I cut and resized, then lowered the opacity on the rose and erased a bit to let the moon through. Added a corona effect using Eye Candy as well as a short perspective shadow to the horse and bug-gy! Finally I added the Soft Painter action taken from the filters and actions thread.
It sort of reminds me of Dr. Doolittle.
I enjoyed this and look forward to doing more. Thanks Lisa, great idea.
Debbie

Debbie -- I LOVE the buggy especially!! What a creative idea!

Wouldn't this be an exciting ride to take -- takes me back to my childhood fantasies. :D


phili -- you were VERY good that night, don't worry. ;)

Thanks CJ
That's what put me in mind of Dr. Doolittle. I remember watching when I was small and Rex Harrison riding off on the monach butterfly just stuck in my mind. I haven't thought of that in years.
Debbie

I only used one lady, but I did use the other lady's hat. (Don't ask what happened to her...I'm not telling...muahahaaaaa!)

Phyllis

Wow Phyllis both you and Debbie are so creative with your ideas. Makes me want to take a second stab at this one.

Very creative indeed!!!!!


Lisa

Phyliss
Its an oqiginal, great idea, but you had me going, the way you wrote it I thought you might have hidden the missing link in the hat I could not find her so I called the local bobbies to hunt for her. Super job.

Phil

Beautiful job Phyllis, as usual.
Debbie

Not sure which category this should go in.:o:
Or even if it's allowed!
Frank

Thats awsome Frank, great job.

:lol:

Wonderful, Frank!! Great job of "cubing" the ladies, rose, horse, and butterfly...AND the park bench!, AND the Lotus! -- that would have been an excellent submission just by itself, but the addition of the tiger is inspired! (He'd been lonely since his companion had been "sent to the fish pond" in the tiger mini-challenge.)

I just love to visit here to see what you folks "come up with next"! :) Okay, Frank -- what's on the other sides of the cube?

Hmmm.... pretty darn creative Frank. Incorporating some other challenges on the cubes as well. Neat!

Lisa

Wow, Frank, I really admire your creativity. I look forward to seeing lots more of your very clever work! You obviously put a lot of thought and work into these, and the results are worth it!

Phyllis

Loved the idea. So, I tried it here (http://www.pbase.com/image/7361533/original)

HI Newbi. Nice job. By gooly youve got the idea. You will find the talent on this forum challenging. Welcome to Photo Art.

Welcome aboard jl-reis, I love your manipulation - also love your macro work.

Lisa

Montage on a montage!
Frank

Very nicely put together Frank.
A lot of colour and detail and somehow it dosent look
cluttered ...very good

I'd love to know what software you used for the cubes
in the previous image?

-Gary

I Aree Frank great composition. It has a great flow to it. What size files did you use. Just the one montage had to be big.

Not really sure what you mean! :) The finished file size is 98kb. I reduce them all as I go along, so it's not very big at all.

Gary, I only ever use Photoshop 6, I can't afford all these new fancy filters, actions and the like! :( Besides there is not much that PS6 can't do in my humble opinion. I'm still very much a learner at this, have been using PS 6 for about 9 months now and have hardly scratched the surface. But I'm enjoying learning! You can "draw" out a cube using guides and grid but it's quite time consuming. I use PS6 now and of course , once you have one cube, you can keep on using it. If you use PS6/7, I'll tell you how I do it, if you are interested, let me know. You can also get good effects with circles and cylinders.
Regards
Frank

Yes Frank I'd like some more details on the cubes, and cylinders if and when you have time.

I've been using PS7 for a few months and painter most of the time but don't have many other filters yet.

-Gary

Good thing these challenges never expire - I've some catching up to do!
:wavey:

Blacknight, very creative and well-organized with great color...good job!

Phyllis

Very creative Blacknight! I love the horse background. I also like how the two ladies are enclosed in the flower - awesome.

Lisa

Originally posted by MoonFizz
Yes Frank I'd like some more details on the cubes, and cylinders if and when you have time.

I've been using PS7 for a few months and painter most of the time but don't have many other filters yet.

-Gary

Hi Gary, the basics of making cubes and cylinders are just that really, basic! :)
I'm assuming it's the same in PS7 as 6. Open a new file, white background. Go to filter, render, 3d transform. Click on either cube ,sphere or cylinder. Keep in within the confines of the box. Right hand side, second row from the bottom is the trackball tool. Select that and depressing left mouse button, basically play with it until you see what you like. It will rotate in all directions. If it wanders outside the box, you can move it using the "pan camera" tool, next on the left.
If you use a photo as a background, deselecting "display background" under "options" will leave the photo wrapped around the shape.
It takes longer to write this than do it. Have a play, any problems, just ask!
HTH
Frank