FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE -or- NEW TO PHOTO-ART?
See below for "Information and Guidelines."

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge# 49 – Park Bench

Here’s another “mini-challenge” to play with in the Photo-based Art category until the next official challenge is posted here (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/index.html).

The image can be downloaded by clicking the link near the bottom of this lengthy introduction!

This elegant photo was taken recently by RetouchPRO member Barbsc. It just struck me as being so appropriate for this time of year.

Great picture! Thanks so much for letting me use it for this mini-challenge, Barb. Much appreciated.

~DannyR~

LEGAL VERBIAGE
Barb retains the U.S. and international copyright © not only for the original image, but also for any photo-art versions of it. Unauthorized distribution or use of this image without permission is prohibited.

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INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES

Unlike “official challenges” for this forum, which can be found here (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/index.html), this one will be self-contained within this thread. It is intended as an opportunity to engage in this art form until the next official challenge is posted.

The rules are more-or-less the same:
* It’s a challenge, not a contest -- intended to provide opportunities to experiment, share methods and/or techniques and, most importantly, have FUN.
* Everyone who participates is a winner.
* There’s no expiration date.

GUIDELINES:
1. Use any method, application(s), style(s) you like:
. * Convert to sketch, grayscale, abstract, watercolor, oil painting, pen-and-ink, Conte crayon, impasto, van Gogh or any style of your choosing
. * Add elements from other images (collage) or replace the background
. * Hand painting? Tracing? Freehand? You bet. Always appreciate entries of this nature.
. * Apply filters from your favorite application(s) or tweak it with 3rd party plug-ins
. * Feeling animated? Animated entries are definitely welcome. There have been some really funny ones submitted in the past. Fish jumping, leaves falling, wheels turning. You get the idea.
. * Any or all of the above

Bottom line:
How you create this masterpiece makes no difference. Whatever floats your boat as long as you follow guideline #4 in the process.

2. When done, reply to this thread and attach your work (don’t forget the 100kb size limit).

Note: Multiple entries OK if you’re so inspired.

3. By all means include some verbiage on how you achieved your masterpiece so others will benefit from your skills and experience. Make it as descriptive as you like. Grammar and spelling will not be graded. Priority given to content, not how it is written.

4. Have fun.


A special message to those who are new to Photo-art
… Who may be feeling a little uncomfortable about posting an entry.

If you’ve read this far, it means you’re at least curious. That’s a good sign. :)

But what if you’re feeling a little squeamish about posting your first image?

From time to time I hear from those who want to participate, but have considerable anxieties about posting their creations in these mini-challenge. “I’m just a beginner. My pictures don’t belong,” “I see the works of others and I know I’ll never get that good,” “How am I supposed to compete with those wonderful creations?” are typical expressions of concern.

To which I say: Put your fears to rest. This isn’t a competition. You will not be judged in the traditional “art critique” sense. Your honor isn’t on the line. This isn’t about who’s best.

Don’t hold back from participating and posting your creation because your initial attempts don’t measure up (in your own mind) to images generated by folks with more experience than you.

This is a no-fault, all-fun way to jump in the pool. Everyone started the same place: The beginning. Everyone who is more skilled and experienced than you got to that point by practicing, experimenting, asking questions, learning from others, and participating.

Can one learn without interacting with others? Sure. Can one learn as fast? Absolutely not.

When you participate, others get to know you. That makes it easier to ask them questions. Asking questions leads to learning from those with more experience than you. It just keeps getting better and better!

By all means give it a go. You’ll be glad you did.

The pep talk cheerfully brought to you by:

Danny Raphael
Photo-based Art Forum Moderator

here's my entry for this one. I was just playing around with color balance, curves and layers (adding a white layer and erasing at low opacity to get a misty effect)

- David :)

hmm it looks a lot different from my screen to the attachment, i think it lost a lot from jpeg compression, so I tried to fix it a bit and lowered the level of compression

- David :)

Hi David
I really like your entry (both of them..This looks like is should have come from the movie "The Shining"..I'm waiting for Jack Nickelson to walk by with an axe in hand..

:bigthmb:
Jerry

David, nice job, erie and I think I did see Jack pass by. It brings your attention to the bench.



First step is to turn it into a sketch action which works great on buildings and landscapes.

I have tried all sorts of water color actions but was not happy. So I am learing how use the brushes more and more so I tried a hand painted water color. I made it a fall scene and subdude in fall colors the surronding areas to the bench and hand painted specific trunks and branches hoping your eyes would go to the trees and then to the bench. I didn't crop it because it looks great just the way Alan saw it.
OH I also added Alans butterfly on a branch.

David -- I like it! It's almost an infra-red effect -- pretty in a spooky way.

phili -- lovely effect, and very impressive hand work with your brushes -- do more! Love the butterfly. :)

Phili, nice hand painted look..I like the pastel colors that you used.

Here is my try at this one..I thought the bench looked lonely and brought a friend from another challenge..This was done with a combination of sketch techniques and the trace contour filter..

Jerry :D

Very nice Jerry. Great effect. I thought of a friend but didn't have the right type. Yours fits perfect.

Jerry, Phili and CJ,

thanks! I was going for a bit of a spooky effect, and got the reaction i was going for. i was looking through the channels and the blue channel reminded me of a creepy horror movie-ish night scene, so I worked from there.

- David :)

This is what I ended up after a few hours of just playing with too many filters to remember. It's simple, but I liked it enough to post.

Ken

David:

Great way to start the thread! Very serene. I see what you mean. I liked #2 a little more than #1. When you get Photoshop, you'll be unstopable!

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Phil:

Nice touch adding the sunshine through the trees. Inspired idea.

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Jerry:

Bambi drifts in from another mini-challenge! Perfect idea. I like the "sketchy blended black / white edge treatment," too.

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Ken:

Sometimes the "keeping track" of all the gory details gets in the way of unbridled creativity. Great to just let go once in a while. Your experimenting definitely paid off and I can see why you were pleased.

This borders on too much fun. :)

We`ve all been involved in one of these conversations at some point, eh ?

I *borrowed * a couple of guys from another image, transformed them onto the bench, color corrected them, cloned some grass on them, then copied the original, ran the Angled strokes filter, set the new layer to soft light.

David, love the deep deep color...really effective.

Phili, that's great...love the gray/white simplicity with the bench in color.

Jerry, perfect place for Bambi! Like the way it fades away into a sketch.

Ken, again, like the fading. And the coloration.

I know what you mean, David, about the compression. I did two versions and liked them both, but NEITHER of them could be compressed enough and/or made small enough so that they'd fit the upload requirements and still look like the pictures they were meant to be. This picture, with all the leavese and trees, just has to be simplified. You guys all did a great job of doing just that. Maybe I'll try again...

Phyllis

yup, it really depends on the image, some look just fine at 60% compression, but on this one even at 90% i couldn't get the sharpness the same as it looked on my screen.

- David :)

Docilebob...petrified is creepy! Very imaginative!

I also decided to put someone on the bench. I wanted a ghost to go with my night scene, but all I could find was a guy playing a guitar, so I decided to make him a "cowboy ghost." Hey, it's 3:30 a.m...whattaya expect? :)

Phyllis

Outstanding photography. A beautiful picture to play with.

Kinda like the Invisible Man takes a break. Good job Phyllis.
David, Philli, Docilbob, Ken, Jerry all great interpretations. David your's is really eerie and docilbob, that looks like the bench on my corner.
:cool:
Debbie

My aim here was to contrast the bare trees and bench with the rich coloration of autumn.

Mostly BuzzPro - simplifier - watercolor stack (inverted), watercolor stack (multiply), then overpainted parts with some of the first, simplified layer. Brought back the bench and trees with a layer mask.

Jim

Excellent, Jim. Separating the trees from the background must have taken some time. But worth it...looks great!

Phyllis

Phyliss you should have named it Elvis returns. Wow what an effect, its awsome

Jim I love your colors and tech. GReat approch soft in the back and drastich for the trees and bench.Makes them stand out.

I coudn't resit another, nobody thought of winter.

Phyllis great cowboy ghost affect..The filter master strikes again..

Jim very pretty painting..Well Buzzed..

Phili..cool snowman..it has a nice feel to it..

Jerry

Everybody's approach is very different. I like them all.
Here's an oil painting, although you can't tell very well because I obscured the rest and highlighted the bench.

Five layers:
1st -multiply blending.
2nd - Pallette knife, overlay blending
3rd - dry brush, soft light blending
4th - smart blur, edge only. Invert , Soft light blending
5th - gradient radial pattern, multiply blending

Here is my attempt:

I saturated the colors, duplicated a layer, gaussian blur at 37, then set layer to multiply, flattened, adjusted with curves to get a decent exposure, then applied the action from the dpreview collection called Jaseck paint on canvas.

Enjoy.

Alan

Alan and Angue, both are great oil painting looks. The busy leaf background blurs away to set off the trees even more...nice effect.

Phili, good snow effect. Must be a late fall snow since the leaves are still on the trees. It happens though. Especially here near Chicago, where any kind of bizarre weather is not only possible, but probable, in any given year. We have a saying here, "If you don't like the weather, wait a few hours!"

Phyllis :)

phili,

I really like the snow effect you got! multiply that effect by mabe 5 and that's what it's like out here in edmonton right now :cold: it always takes me a while to adjust to the winter weather here.

- David :)

Played around with the colors, added some directional lighting and an iol paint effect.

Art it looks like the calm before the storm. The color are great.

Art -- those colors are gorgeous! I'd love to visit.

Alan -- very nice effect, and the golden rust leaves really show off!

Angue -- emphasizes the bench and the tree bark -- really nice!

Phili -- nice snow effect - did you have fun making that snowman?

Jim -- wonderful contrast -- you did just what you wanted!

lqqker -- Really different perspective, the blurred color is neat!

Phyllis - your 'cowboy ghost' is a great rendition -- I can hear the music wafting thru the scene.

Docilebob -- :lol: I'm not going near that bench till those guys leave! Excellent composite!

Tried for more of a watercolor effect.
Dry Brush
Separate Layer Remove color then Smart Blur Edge Only Invert
Blend Mode Multiply
Incrase saturation.

Art,
Nice clean colors. Love the texture. Very appropriate for watercolor.

Tony

Art, that is magnificent! Really looks like a watercolor. Please tell me exactly what you did with the dry brush. When and how was it applied?

Anxiously awaiting answer from the master. :)

Phyllis

We just keep getting better & better.....

lQQKER..... very different, great appeal.

Oh, Goldcoin, that's gorgeous! It sparkles with gold! Was that just a coincidence? :) I also like how it's misty and soft, yet has sharp detail at the same time. Great.

Phyllis

Phyllis,
I'm no master - it's beginners luck :)
Here's the technique
Made a copy of the image
Used Dry Brush Brush Size 1
Brush Detail 8 Texture 1
Used Smart Blur
Radius 10 Threshold 50 Quality High
On the copy then
Remove Color
Smart Blur Edge Only Radius 25 Threshold 50
Invert
Past the color image into the BW Image
Blend Mode Multiply
Flatten Image
Adjust levels to taste
Boost Saturation to about 40
Texturizer with Texture set to Sandstone.

Originally posted by arthill
Made a copy of the image
Used Dry Brush Brush Size 1
Brush Detail 8 Texture 1


Thanks for the steps...can't believe you are so organized that you keep track so well. Now I'm even more impressed!

Still have that same question though. What exactly did you DO with that brush? Did you paint with it? If so, what color/s and what blend setting? Was it a brush or the art history brush? Or some other tool with the dry brush setting? How exactly did you "use" it is what I don't understand. Could you elaborate? Thanks.

Phyllis

Sorry Phyllis. I didn't understand what you were asking. I've never tried using brushes. In Photoshop Elements 2 there is a menu choice called filters, then Artistic, then Dry Brush. It pops up a box for the settings which I mentioned above. You click okay and it applies it to the whole image.

Originally posted by arthill
Sorry Phyllis. I didn't understand what you were asking. I've never tried using brushes. In Photoshop Elements 2 there is a menu choice called filters, then Artistic, then Dry Brush. It pops up a box for the settings which I mentioned above. You click okay and it applies it to the whole image.

Oooooohhh...that explains it! Here I thought you were using Photoshop, where dry brush is a brush type, not a filter. Gosh darnit...I want that filter! It's cool! I wonder if it would work on Photoshop. Could you send the filter file from your program perhaps?

Phyllis

Phyllis, You're in luck. The Dry Brush filter is in Photoshop! Look under Filters->Artistic->Dry Brush. (At least it's in PS7.)
Jeanie

Originally posted by jeaniesa
Phyllis, You're in luck. The Dry Brush filter is in Photoshop! Look under Filters->Artistic->Dry Brush. (At least it's in PS7.)
Jeanie

Duh. Of course it is. Thanks! It's been so long since I've used those "artistic" filters (since I've been playing with my new KPT toys) that I forgot they exist! Silly old lady with failing memory...that's me! :)

Phyllis

Phylis, I can empathize with you, well at least with the failing memory bit. :tongue:
How do you find the KPT filters? I'm not a huge fan of filters, normally get by with what's in Photoshop. I have some others but very rarely use any of them. Are they worth the money? A lot of the free ones you see on the internet are of very little use, effects I would never use. Normally, if they are any good, they cost money.
:bawling:
Frank

Frank, yes, you have to buy KPT filters.

I have five packages--KPT2.1 (no longer available I think) has a few things I use all the time, though you can do them in two or three steps without the KPT filters once you learn how.

The kaleidoscopes are in KPT3, so I am glad I have that one!

KPT5, though it is good stuff if you have a use for it, doesn't have much in it that I need very often.

KPT6 has a lot of great features I use a lot, including the awesome "equalizer" sharpener/soft blur filters, and the wonderful "materializer" which gives pics a 3D glassy or metallic look.

KPT Effects has some really great filters as well, including the very useful pyramid paint.

Keep an eye on the web for discount packages so you don't pay full price. I got the last four KPT's in a package and saved about 75%, but that offer from the andromeda.com site has expired. There will be others in the future, I'm sure.

Phyllis

ran color art action autocol 1 and 2 it put it on two different layers
turned opacity down on each layer and on middle layer put pencil2 filter.

Looks just great, PJ...like a really old sketch from a hundred year old book.

Phyllis

That's beautiful PJB!! I really love that effect you got.

- David :)

My first post, first challenge. Don't know how I arrived at this!

marina
Very nice. It looks like a spring day to me.

Oh, wow, Marina! Wow, wow, wow! Great idea to crop it and concentrate on the bench. Love what you did with it! Please stick around and keep posting!

Phyllis

Thought I'd try another version of the park bench.

Looker

Very nice adaptation of the park bench..This has a very art like quality to it..I can see that hanging on a wall...Great job..

Jerry :D

Go Steelers (Get well Tommy)

ooh, I really like it, Looker. very effective. looks like a night time shot with a spotlight on the bench area.

- David :)

Looker, wowee wow wow wowwwwwwww! You guys are wowin' me to death lately. How did you get that awesome effect, Looker? Diffusion in there somewhere? Render lighting effects? What/how? Please tell!

Phyllis

I enjoyed viewing all the pictures that were submitted. Having such a beautiful picture to start with obviously sparked a lot of creation in the minds of those people who played with this. :)

The filters and technique used to get this effect was somewhat extensive, but here is what I can recall. I used Photoshop 7, and a Wacom pad.

I started by adjusting the picture with levels.

Cropped to suit a preconceived idea.

Duplicated the image and applied a Nik Monday morning filter.

Applied the Nik skylight filter several times (forgot the settings), to bring back some of the color.

Used the oval selection tool on the center area of the bench and trees, set the feather to about 60.
Inverted the selection.

Applied the Nik Midnight filter (which darkened and blurred the edges, making a gradient to the center).

With the selection still applied, I inverted it again and enhanced the contrast of the center portion of the image.

Lightened the center (Nik filter), while selection was still applied.

Adjusted the opacitys on the layers involved.

Flattened the image.

Duplicated and again run the skylight filter (this enhanced the colors).

Created a mask and erased some of the effect on the bench and lower trees.

At this point the lighting effect was a natural result, but a little uneven. I used the burn tool on the edges at 30% opacity to finish the spotlight effect.

Thanks for the info. I looked up Nik filters on their site and they aren't cheap (as if anything good is!). Which set/sets do you have? And what other filters are included in the box that you find useful? Their site doesn't list all the effects in each box, and I'd rather not buy pigs in pokes.

Is there a forum here that has reviewed the Nik filters? Anyone know?

Phyllis

Hi Phyllis,

The filter set that I have is the "nik Color Efex Pro! The Classic / Design Bundle". These work as regular filters or you can use them with PenPalette. If you go to the link I provided and then to "view each filter in this set", it will give you an idea what they are used for. Many of these filters perform functions similiar to those you'd use on a 35mm camera.

http://www.nikmultimedia.com/usa/products/colorefexpro/designbundle/designbundle.shtml

Filters that I use on a regular basis are the Sunshine filter, Skylight filter, and they also include a polarization filter which is great for bringing out sky detail. The Midnight and Monday morning filters are nice as well. All of these filters you can use with other filters in the set, which can give some unusual effects. That said, I should mention that the filters are not "drastic", that is, they are somewhat subtle.

I'll agree that many of the graduated filters can be reproduced on a manual basis, but having certain filters pre-configured with slide controls can be a time saver when looking for the right mood.

Below are the filters included in the Classic/Design bundle

> Brilliance/ Warmth

> Bicolor Filter: Green/Brown

> Bicolor Filter: Violet/Pink

> B/W Conversion

> Classical Blur

> Contrast Filter: Blue

> Contrast Filter: Cyan

> Contrast Filter: Green

> Contrast Filter: Magenta

> Contrast Filter: Red

> Contrast Filter: Yellow

> Contrast Only

> Darken Center

> Duplex

> Graduated 0h (Gray)

> Graduated 201h (Sky Blue)

> Graduated 213h (Dark Blue)

> Graduated 220h (Blue)

> Graduated 32h (Orange)

> Graduated 33h (Coffee)

> Graduated 354h (Blood)

> Graduated 38h (Warm Yellow)

> Graduated 94h (Moss)

> Graduated User Defined

> Lighten Center

> Midnight (blue)

> Midnight

> Monday Morning (blue)

> Monday Morning

> Old Photo

> Polarization

> Skylight Filter

> Sunshine

> Pastel

As mentioned earlier, the contrast filters are very similiar to screw on filters to enhance certain color ranges. For example the blue contrast filter would lighten blue colors, while enhancing yellow, orange or red colors and you control the blue color spectrum by specifying a color point to contol the contrast and light in the image. Of course this is done with sliders so you merely play until you see what you want. And to further elaborate, you can use this filter with the skylight, polarization, Brilliance/warmth, and sunshine filter if you so desire.
This bundle can be purchased from the Wacom site under "intuos privileges", if you recently purchased a Intuos2 tablet.

http://www.wacom.com/intuosprivileges/index.cfm

All of the filters are very simple to use and most can be used in conjunction with other filters. I think maybe I was too verbose :)

Hope you find this message helpful.

Lqqker..
I love verbose...... lowers the learning curve for me. Gad, where do you store all of those filers?

I thought I'd try a romantic evening scene.
It needed some lighting of course so I took a street lamp
from a nearby road :)

Soft lighting in "painter", softened lens flare in Photoshop and a little
"light" cloning.

Must put the street lamp back now or they might miss it!

- Gary

Gary:

Very creative idea. Hope you're paying the light bill!

~Danny~

MoonFizz.......

What a clever idea, it looks real. You did a great job on the lamp post detail, set off the beautiful whole scene.

Well I stayed up all night just to get this shot!
Finally it's home to a nice warm bed
-Gary :)

Gary, love the lamp post ...and the glow from the light. Very nice! Hmmm...don't squirrels usually sleep at night? I think he's up to something...

Phyllis :)

Aha! good point Phyllis, but this is a rare species of
Squirrilus digitalus and can appear both night and
day and in fact anywhere :)

- Gary

I was playing around with Phyllis' trademark abstract filter, trying to see what I could get.

After a lot of margaritas, I came up with this. :eek:

I don't know how I did this, but I sort of like how textural it feels. To me, this almost feels like it was embossed on a paper grocery bag, then painted with watercolors. But that could just be the worm talkin'.:tongue:

Very nice watercolor-on-paper-bag! It almost looks like you watercolored on some thick handmade fiber paper. Whichever brand of "worm" got you there...let me know....I'll take some of that :)

I don't know how I missed this great image! Thanks, themanda, for bringing this one outta mothballs ;)


Pam

Amanda, the texture you achieved is wonderful!

Pam, love those spots of color...how did you do that?

Phyllis

Amanda,
Very very nice !
so pastel and delicately textured ....love it :)

Gary

http://moonfizz.com

Jean, you did a great job! LB looks like he's been there all fall...

Made layer of orig picture. Filled in bare trees with PS7 leaf tool used the colors from trees in the background. Took my boxer LB who was laying on the couch cut him out and put him on the park bench ( he is never good at sit stay!). Work color and brightness on LB to match background. Cropped so you could see LB better (he is sooo handsome!).

Jean

Thank you! I am a little (well a lot) post stupid and had to call my sister so I could upload the picture larger. I deleted and reposted. You are correct LB is so lazy he would sleep right though till spring!
TheManda...Margaritas, like what it does. Here I have been drinking just beer.....guess I will have to break out the blender for the next challange!

Good job, Jean...looks like he was always in the picture.

Phyllis

toooooo cute! Yes that is Mr. LB ! --- lol
I think he likes the couch better than the park bench --- well done sissy.

Thought I'd ressurect a previous one I did and
add some water ........"flood filter"

- Gary
http://www.moonfizz.com
:wavey:

Moonfizz....Beautiful. The light on the river and around the bench are perfect! If I did not know better I would think the picture was real.

Jean

Separated the bench from the bg with a layer's mask. Desaturated. Levels. Bit of ... just forgot. Well, version one.

Version two, with a lotta green.

The photo has a certain calming effect to it and evoked a feeling of peace. The image was created using my secret sauce, lighting effects and a home made ray of light.

Hope you enjoy the effect.

David

David, your image reminds me of the old series "The Saint". All you need to do is add a stick figure. :)

I looked at this image quite a while, and all the lovely versions I found here.

Gary, I love your river version! Made me go and download the trial for the flood filter. ;)

I decided to try something totally different. I wanted to see what the bench would look like without the trees growing out of the top. One of the things I wanted to stand out was the contrast between the white bench and the color of the foliage.

There are more compression artifacts than I would have liked, but I did my best to keep the file size down to the forum limits.

Tyeise

The advantage of posing late is that you get to see all of the wonderful, creative ideas.....the disadvantage of posting late is that you get to see all of the wonderful, creative ideas and it is tough to come up to the standards all of you set!
Slight 'buzz' added to this one....darkened....spotlight (render), and texture.
Regards,
Bill C

I've enjoyed looking through this thread. There's a large variety of excellent submissions.

I'm still playing with my dark paint effect. I've started using layer sets when playing with this. They're easy and make it a little easier to undo mistakes--nice since the problems I have with this method seem to happen in the very first step and I can't tell it didn't work until the end.

Layer set 1

1. Flaming pear's Mr. Contrast
2. copy of the original
3. copy of the Mr. C layer
play with blending modes until happy

Layer set 2

1. Flaming pear's Melancholytron
2. copy of original
3. copy of melancholytron layer
play with blending modes until happy

Then, take put layer set 2 on top of layer set 1 and play with the blending modes for the set. Add a copy of the original on top and play with that. Merge results to a new layer and duplicate. Run flaming pear's lacquer on the top copy and play with blending modes. Add texture.

That's really beautiful Cheryl! I like how deep and rich the colors are.

Jeanie

Thanks Jeanie. I'm still working on this look--my success rate is only about 50% of photos I think are suitable. I was pretty happy with this one though. :)

Here is something a little on the lighter side. A watercolor ala Trimoon. :)

Catia

For those that prefer a little darker result, this was obtained by running the Trimoon "Good Watercolor" action on the previous result. Backing out the texture via history, applying Sandstone at 6, and fading to 50%.

Catia

Wanted to see what Redfield's bas-relief would do with this one.
Started with Lucis, then 2 layers of Redfield's gizmo. Tweaked colours with selective colour, to darken the blacks, and boost the whites, also tweaked reds and yellows.
Added a texture though hard to see it here.

Peter

A variety of things including hues, levels and a dash of gaus.

Impressionist