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Click here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4977) for "Information and Guidelines."

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #98 – Lighthouse

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

The base image can be downloaded by clicking the link below the photo description.

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Thanks to Phil Sampson (alias Blacknight) for this great photo of a well-kept little lighthouse in Mukelteo Washington, at the end of the ferry run that goes from Whidbey Island to the mainland.

Phyllis

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LEGAL VERBIAGE
Phil Sampson 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 are prohibited.

I kept it simple since the little lighthouse is so simple and neat and tidy. First ran high pass to darken sky and put bright glow in center of sky behind house, then colored sky and grass to late day colors. To simplify it I used smart blur with rather high settings. On this layer I overlaid an outline layer set to low opacity to define some edges a bit better. A few little tweaks here and there, but that's the basic process.

Phyllis

simple did 3 layers glowing edge, noise lighting effect.
simple!
Jean

Phyllis - love the effect - the sky is wonderful---great! Very attractive to look at.

Jean - ooooo that is wierd and cool! I like the way this turned out.

Jean, wow, what an effect! Looks like the house is frozen and a flying saucer is the cause! Freaks me out! :)

I drew this one with my crayons. :)

Phyllis

The lighthouse is so shiny and new looking, it got me to thinking how it might look a few decades from now when the wood is rotting and the paint is peeling and no one uses it any more. Pretty sad, eh? :(

Phyllis

Lighthouses.... they just aren't lighthouses unless it's night.

Removed that silly mast blocking the view.. and cropped in a bit to remove some of the other clutter

Added a blue layer on "Multiply".. (I think).. I really should take notes....

Added a yellow gradient for the light.. and voila!

Not what I had originally envisioned.... :rolleyes:

Charity

O.k.. maybe lighthouses are lighthouses.. when it isn't night..

Here I removed the mast and cropped to remove some clutter. I removed the background and moved the windows onto a seperate layer. I added in my own background and changed the opacity on the windows to let the background color through. I flattened and added a "light" fresco.. not that a fresco can be light..

Phyllis -
Excellent renditions all three, but the first one is stupendous! Gorgeous color and the simplification suits the image perfectly.

Blacknight -
This is a great photo, but it's fantastic in b+w. I took a look at the green channel...wow, it really pops out of the monitor! Thanks for posting this...

Jean -
Very creative, it looks to me like a neon sign with a spotlight washing the wall behind it with light.

Charity -
Good work on both! The gorgeous blue twilight color on the first one is my favorite though :)


Here's the first of two, just a simple sketch in keeping with the simple lines. I thought it would look good in b+w...


Pam

While working on the previous version, I stumbled on to this...

I started with a sketch, then ran ink outlines on the top layer, faded in exclusion mode by about half, inverted the layer and set blend mode to multiply. Then added a textured pattern, duped, and kinda lost track after that :) I do remember more difference/exclusion layers and inverted masking, if that helps any...


Pam

Phyllis -

You do some really incredible work. I had to look a couple of times! :) Nice touch on the sunset to add the reflection on the window!

It's funny how you notice things in the altered image that you don't see in the original the first time. In your crayon version, the flowers out front stand out so much more, and I noticed the triangle hanging in the very front. I wonder if that was used to call people to dinner ;)

Charity, your night version is very striking!

Pam, I wouldn't have thought of trying b+w. That looks very nice.

Tyeise

Phyllis The crayon is magnificent allows you to see the detail.

Charityk I agree with you a lighthouse is at it’s best at night and you captured that feeling.

Pam The sketch is brilliant !

Jean

Had a "Dark" night at work....

All are beautiful! Thought I'd go with a just-before-night version called "Time for work".

Wow... Another image from "home": Mulkilteo Lighthouse. Been there many times.

This version is based on a creative tutorial at www.myJanee.com --
http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/paint4/city2.htm

To restore some of the line detail I went back to the original layer and placed a Threshold adjustment layer over it. I then created several individual layers, based on various threshold settings, which generated black-on-white silhouettes highlighting various "lined" portions of the image, e.g., handrails around the light, siding detail, widow sill detail, etc.

Portions of each of these black-on-white layers was merged into the main image by changing the blend mode from Normal to Multiply, then creating a layer mask, inverting it (CTRL+I), and finally using the tried-and-true airbrush technique (white on black layer mask) to gradually restore the line detail.

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PHIL: Another wonderful pic to work with. Keep 'em coming.

PHYLLIS: Your "crayon" method is very cool. Have you described that technique before? (If so, I don't recall.)

CHARITY: Very nice touch on the 'fresco.' Really like this one.

Wow all neat stuff everyone, here is an attempt at a more "modern" art than I normally do, kind of moody.

Alan

Here is another more abstract colors, kind of a solaraization, not sure how I got here but was tweaking some sliders.

Alan

Hey, Sno...

Nice to see you poke your head in... These are pretty cool. Especially like the second one.

~DannyR~

Pam, your sketch is absolutely superb! :thumbsup:

Bill, excellent dawn or dusk look, complete with fog! Good job on the light as well.

Danny, clean and crisp...really brings out those flowers! No, I haven’t described the crayon sketch look, though I’ve done it on about three minis I think. Next time I will keep track of the steps and let you know how to do it, since I can’t recall exactly.

Lacto, a real trip! You really must get more sleep. :D

Alan, both nice experiments in light and color! I think your night version should show the light turned on, though, don’t you? Wouldn’t want an accident!

Charity, great night view, and I really like the fresco one too. First time in a while that I’ve seen someone used fresco so successfully. I will have to remember to try it more often.

Phyllis

Two words - WOW, WOW! I can't keep up with you guys. Obviously a lot of wonderful, creative renditions....here's mine ... using a technique I used on flowers to pull out edges..
Bill

Bill,

That is cool like it is being sucked into a black hole or something.

Alan

Danny, that looks great! First I've ever seen of that look. Wow!

BillC, also a first look at 3D. Verry cool! I have to touch my screen to see if it's real.

Phyllis,

You are absolutely correct about the light, here is a version with the light turned on! Dopey me, that is what I get for hurrying through lunch.

Alan

Everyone's work looks so wonderful. One of the neatest things about coming in here is to see all the variations and each person's unique take on it.

I didn't have time to play this morning, but took a little time just now. I duplicated layers and did different things on different ones.

I know I used curves and histogram adjustment. I also selected the sky and used that to make a darken layer. I added the sunburst directly behind the light. On one of the upper layers I used multiply. On the top layer, I selected the light itself and lit it up.

Guess I figured with a real lighthouse, the light would provide some illumination for the area around it. Don't think I've totally captured that, or the roof would be lighter, and the tops of things in the yard. Maybe I'll have time to play a bit more later on.

Here's another try. I think it works a bit better. :)

Tyeise

Stunning. I like everything you did with the your submission!

Jean

Great versions everyone. I wanted to keep a realistic look to mine and I went for a night scene.

Ken

Ken,

I like the stars you added, and I especially like the railing lit up from the inside. :)

Tyeise

Thought I would give this another try.
switch to B/W worked lighting.
Filters charcoal, sharpen.
Color range to bring a hint of red, added yellow to lower window.

Jeajn

Ken B .... Beautiful. The background water is wonderful and stands out. The touch of fog is great!

Jean

This sure is the place to come to really learn what creativity is!
Jean - I really like the storm effect and your use of texture
Ken - very creative with the night effect and fog...
Tyeise - Like your 2nd version - something surreal about it
Alan - nice paint job!
Regards to all
Bill

Great work all, so many different approaches and takes, it just amazes me at the quality of work you produce.
Two really struck me: Tyeise, stunning, simply stunning. Both are great but the second is really realistic. Ken B, I was thinking of trying a night shot, but so far can't seem to get it as flawless as yours, guess I have to keep plugging away at it. Great interpratation, just beautiful.
Blind Willie

Twins nice texture and effect.
Phyliss love your sky in number two and no 1 texture.
Charity no 1 has a very nice mistic effect.
Pam nice pencil
Lacto, very interesting cloud burst
Bill awsome how you do the lighting.
Danny, it looks like you hand painted it.
Alan, I really like no 2
Bill C super effect.
Tyeise both you and Bill have grewat ligting effects.
Ken how did you do the lighting in the toweer. I love the look.

Well I got some new toys, so I used a combo of about three filter.

Its called Burning sun

In soace they talk about a vortex, a black hole, on earthits the Bermuda triangle.

I used a couple of embossing features

Pam, I’m trying this sketch technique as soon as possible.

Charity, Great Fresco, Love the colors and just the right amount of detail.

Jean, Nice glowing edges. But wares the neon red dog, beer sign?


Changed brightness & contrast, used polygonal lasso tool to mask window.

Painted with low opacity yellow, and white in the upper right hand corner.

Then painted in the silhouette figure with the paint brush and various opacities.

Painted window glow with extra large brush, and low brush opacity.

Wow all of the submissions are WONDERFUL :bigthmb:

--- all the effects and variations of day, night, fog, storms --- not to mention women in the window!

I wanted to brighten up the image and add some color. Used clouds to create the sky. Created several layers, one to bring out the flowers in the front. Then added 4 or 5 filters till I got a look I liked.

Ok now three people have used a "Starburst" in working the light house I really like the effect. The question is where do you find it?

Phil the black hole is great and as stated above you can tell I like the starburst effect.

Bob.... Could not find the Red Dog neon :bawling:
I guess at the light house they never heard of shades
:o:
Cleaver and just a little risqué. Daring!

Jill very good I like the background and how the flowers stand out. Your getting good at this stuff! :tongue:

Fantastic, I'm glad this isn't a juried competition. Simple rendition, adjusted levels to darken, added a raygun effect, darkened edges and dodged the rooftop, added serious fog and rain. I always seem to see things on the darker side.
Blind Willie

Jill thats a work of art, something you hang on a wall, very nice.

Very nice Blind Wille. Ok I have got to ask your renditions are real good but you need eyes to do it, where did the blind come in.


There is a storm brewing, the eye of the hurrican.

Hi all,

Here is another rendition, some blurring, some gradients, a little color shift and a lens flare. Kind of an early dawn or dusk effect and a slight amount of fog. And here you go....

Snoleoprd very real. I like the added touch of the interior light. I think it comes off as more of a dawn look.

Jean

Bill, I really like the “painted on glass” look of your lighthouse with the radial blur. I would just suggest that you center the lightburst at the light tower rather than in the middle of the frame.

Tyeise, nice job of “turning on the light!”

Ken, nice effect...low fog with stars still visible...guess that happens near the coast! I like the way you did the light beam.

Jean, artsy version of a storm...good job with colors and rough textures to create that mood.

Phili, that embossed one with the concentric rings in the sky is really a new look...I like it!

Bob, LOL! That will stop the ships all right! LOL!

Jill, nice brightening job! Love your treatment of the sky.

Willie, great job making the light, and I like the rain too.

Alan, great twilight look!

Well ... it's been a while, but here goes.
I started off with pencile 2 and addded a few filters and te flag.

Don

Well ... It's been a while

Don

REALLY nice effect! Brings out lots of interesting detail. One thing I would have done differently would have been to run the flag the other way (nice touch, the flag...)so that it wouldn't cover the lighthouse and more evenly balance with the other red in the lower corner.
:wavey:

Don:

Welcome back. These are GR-EAT! You've not lost your touch.

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Here's another cut where I used an action written by Dave Jaseck for the lighthouse and another by Doug Barber for the frame effect. These actions will be available fairly soon for public download.

~DannyR~

Jean,

Sunburst can be found in Paint Shop Pro, under Effects/Illumination Effects/Sunburst.

Tyeise

all super renditions and so many varients! they all are very impresively done. the light shining, light beams, beautifull skys, fog, a person in the window and the flag, that was a nice touch. here's mine finally.

Well, it's starting to look more like spring, 58 degrees today in Ct., must be the warmer weather but I brightened up somewhat. This is what the lighthouse looked like after the storm passed. Added the clearing sky but it's still raining lightly.
Blind Willie

I'd say that was a nice image to start with but you realy got [almost?] everything out of it. So many nice and original variations. Wow again.

I tried to make the impression of bad weather coming up by adding dark clouds in the background and darkening the overall image.

Sorry, forgot to attach the file

Hey, Herman:

Welcome to the Photo-art forum. Glad you found us and jumped right in.

This is a great interpretation with the beacon and inside lights, plus the added sky. What did you do to get the "beam" effect? Did you use Photoshop? Very effective results regardless of method.

If you see any of the other mini-challenges that tickle your fancy, regardless of how long ago there were originally posted, don't hesitate to give 'em a go. They never expire. If you're so inclined by all means start your own mini-challenge in the "self-service" forum.

Again, welcome aboard. Hope to see more of your creations in the future.

~DannyR~

herman....very cool the effect on the beacon is great! Look forward to seeing more of your work! Welcome

Jean

Herman welcome aboardf and I love your beam effect. You learned something we have not.

Thank you for your kind words!

Yes, I use Photoshop 5. I got that beam using three layers of gradient with different opacity and playing with the lighting effects on them. I can't remember exactly how I got it, a bit embarrissing actually. You know how you play around sometimes with settings and suddenly you get what you want, but can't figure out how you got there?

I'm glad I found this place, I've seen some great work and I hope to learn a lot!

I duplicated the image, cloned out the mast, added clouds. Then I applied an etch tone filter. Cloned the edges of the lighthouse. Then using the Art History brush, I brushed the ground and landscape. I added a slight emboss to the top layer and lower the opacity.

I just had to post this one after I applied a Dreamsuite photographic edge to it, then blurred and screened the bottom background layer. :)

Hello to all.
I am new to your forum via a gracious invitation from Danny Raphael and would like to submit my version of the lighthouse.
I seperated the lighthouse from the image, embossed it and gave it a couple of layers of multiply ( I think ) and one layer of linear burn. The clouds are from my cloud collection and put through curves to give them the ominous look. A little lens flair and home made beacon topped with a bit of rain and there you are. I hope you like it.
Thank you.

And thank you Danny. This forum is very interesting and informative.

David

Welcome aboard;

Good JOB !! Looks like Danny is the new talent agent.... :) :) :)

Sweet Pea, great result! What program were you using that had an etch filter?

David V, excellent job creating a storm! And really nice overall on the building etc.

Phyllis

Lacto and Pstewart,
Thank you for the kind words. I love taking an image and seeing how much change can be made and still keep the same theme.

David

I used Andromeda EtchTone. Kewl effects :)

Everybody has either changed the weather or changed the time of day.
Now I take you back to the fifties. Here's how it might look if if were printed in a fifties comic book.

Changed the sky's color with gradients.
Poster edges. Duplicate.
Dodge tool to brighten the flowers. Duplicate.
Desaturate. Half tone patern.
I forgot the blend modes. I think darken on top layer and screen on middle layer. Or was it the other way around.

Tony

Tony - that is just AWESOME! I'm going to go back and look at it again now...
:wavey:

Originally posted by Snoleoprd
Here is another more abstract colors, kind of a solaraization, not sure how I got here but was tweaking some sliders.

Alan
This is exceptional - Jean

Originally posted by Blind Willie
Well, it's starting to look more like spring, 58 degrees today in Ct., must be the warmer weather but I brightened up somewhat. This is what the lighthouse looked like after the storm passed. Added the clearing sky but it's still raining lightly.
Blind Willie
This is great - love the work you did on the sky Jean P.

This has been a fun thread to go through. There are many excellent submissions here.

I used the impressionist filter for this one. Each number represents a layer, starting at the bottom and working my way up. I generally set the background to image rather than the defaults.

1. Watercolor--damp translucent.
2. Charcoal--strokes sized by brightness--change to a fat brush (lighten)
3. Charcoal--default (screen 55%)
4. watercolor--soft daubs on fine paper (lighten)
5. paint--old brush stamp (darken 55%)
6. paint--eggshell crackle (darken 65%)
the remaining layers are created with native photoshop filters.
7. blur--smart blur--edge only high quality-invert--gaussian blur around 2 (linear burn 33%)
8. stylize--find edges (darken 33%)
9. soft sketch (desat, dup, invert, color dodge, gauss blur merge down, dup, multiply gauss blur merge down (soft light 53%)
10. Added a texture and adjusted level slightly.

Thanks Don. I like thetexture in your first one, but I'm a little too conservative to appreciate the color scheme. The second one is really good--nice, spooky mood to it.

in a far away land lived a lonely little lighthouse...

I love it Jaykita. Perfect picture for that kind of simplification and you did it very well.

I'm following you today Jaykita :wavey: ..... terrific result, I agree with Janet!

I selected the sky and filled with blue.
Filter/Mura Meister/Cloud effect.
Inverted selection
Filter/IP Process/Adapt Equalize/Default
Filter/Paint Alchemy/Sketch Col

Cheers

With all the interesting ideas in this thread, it looked like a good subject for experimentation. Here then are my 1st Painter8 experiments. I've had Painter for a year, but between annoyance at having to reinstall to upgrade to 8.1, :mad: being too busy learning Elements2, :tired: and admittedly having some fear / intimidation, :blush: I hadn't touched it. My 1st impression: Painter is VERY cool / powerful for photo-art. I think it crosses over some to the "you have to have some art skill" to do well with it, even just cloning a photo, however. So, having little to no drawing or painting skill myself, I think it will be quite a while before I generate anything great. That said, I'm pretty happy with my 1st outcome here and hopefully will improve with practice.

1st image (this is the one I worked hard on):
Color correction in Elements 2.
Painter 8: Cloned by hand using the Bristle Oils cloner brush (using Tracing Paper mode a lot of the time).
Back to Elements 2 to add some background color based on gradient layer (where I also worked hard to try and get it blended in stylistically with the lighthouse itself). Added texture, and abd blended in some of the original photo for a bit of detail & to reduce some of the white gaps between my Painter brushstrokes.

2nd image (A quick & easy project showing off more of what Painter can do):
Same color correction.
Painter8: Auto-cloned using the Impressionist cloner. Stopped when it looked good.
Back to Elements 2. Ran Diffuse Anisotropic. Copyied to a new layer and added canvas texture with some masking. Added masked curves layer to darken the sky.

-Mark

verrrrrrrrrry interesting ideas here :nod:


though i think i crossed the line somewhere ;) ... i remember i used twice Ormente fluorizer, twice did some hue-shift, then i removed white, put it on solid black, copied the layer, used fresco, and set blend to hard-light... that's about it :surprise: :devious:

Well after seeing so many different styles and method, i decided to try some traditional retouching.

I found the mast and hose to be distractions, so guess what ? I removed them
Removed the clouds from the sky
Adjusted level and curves on three different areas
Added lighting behind the lighthouse
Colour adjustment

Viola !

This image has taken approx 4 hours to complete. It was really funas i never envisioned the finished product until i was about a quarter of the way through, it kind just went on and one.

I was experimenting with curves and masks and got nice light casting effect, so i just ran with it and thigns started to come together.

I used my previous posted i mage as the basis of this one, however i added a lot of Dodge and Burn, cloning, healing, and some added shadow detail.

I dont feel the image is quite complete as i have spotted a couple of lighting errors, so perhaps i will redo some steps, but for the most part its acceptable.

I wanted to create a nice atmospheric result to try and catch the ambiance of the lighthouse just as the sun has nearly set.

I will post a link to the image in order for you to view in all its glory as compression has undisired results. :(

Lighthouse At sunset (http://www.pbase.com/axleuk/image/38462159)

KenB, very realistic, I like the stars you added too.

Pam, love your second one

BillC, yours is different, very nice

Hello to all.
I am new to your forum via a gracious invitation from Danny Raphael and would like to submit my version of the lighthouse.
I seperated the lighthouse from the image, embossed it and gave it a couple of layers of multiply ( I think ) and one layer of linear burn. The clouds are from my cloud collection and put through curves to give them the ominous look. A little lens flair and home made beacon topped with a bit of rain and there you are. I hope you like it.
Thank you.

And thank you Danny. This forum is very interesting and informative.

David


Nice work, glad you submitted it

WOW LactoBeeZor i adore that sky its awesome!

Wow again to Bill that sky is gorgeous and that beam is just perfect!

TwinANJ - makes me wants to wrap up warmly and head for home - Great atmosphere that is! (1st one)

WOW phili1 i love that vibrant pink!!!


BlindWillie that is super cool it really does remind me to take my umberella out with me today...Awesome!

Woah look at the storm that phili1 got a going again that is lovely!!!

Nice work David Vance that is impressive!!!

Axleuk that is bright! nice work!!!

I too found the pink box and bird in the sky distracting- so I removed them.
I created depth of field by using a mask and adding a gradient.
Added a warming filter and paint daubbs filter.
Then played with the exposure to add drama in the sky.

visually dyslexic (is that how you spell it?)

-rearranged elements
-tile filter
-add noise
-lens flare

interesting effect, pixulz.

Craig

thanks craig...i had fun putting it together...or rather mixing it up

First smart blur then overlaid an outline sketch thing, played with selective colours, and added a slight texture.


Peter

Larger version

[img=http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/5986/lhousehup6.th.jpg] (http://img464.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lhousehup6.jpg)

Phyllis; I love that crayon effect. Nice illustrative style.

I went filter-heavy on this; and with a bit of a departure...

Excellent, Peter!
I did mine using my tutorial number 6.
Sylvia

Hi Folks; I removed the sky and water and put in a tall ship and sky. I resized for a standard 4x6 post card ignoring the lighthouse distortion. I use Zoner Draw5 and Neuraltek Blackmagic for hand coloring.