to all

[farron]

Hello,

I haven't been over here lately as my family suffered a major personal loss a few weeks ago...and then, just when we were beginning to get on with life, the whole world went upside down.

Many thanks to Lorraine for letting me know what was happening over here at retouchpro.

I had done a small web-size graphic to attach to my site in an attempt to express my feelings about the assualt on all of us that occurred last week.

It's not "up to snuff" graphically with the things I am seeing posted here, but I did want to add my voice and prayers.

You can view it by going to:

http://cat-ti-tude.com

and viewing the pop-up window.

I have found in the last few weeks that there is healing to be found in graphics expressions of our feelings. Soooo, I may be back with something more suitable quality-wise to this thread. :-)

Best wishes and prayers to all,

Farron

[DJ Dubovsky]

Farron,
Beautiful tribute. I liked the quote from Dante. What better to quote from in that disaster than from the Inferno. A true picture of the hell leashed on us. Excellent job.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Farron,

Sorry to hear about your loss. It's good to have you back.

The image won't load for me. It's 10:30 P.M., so maybe I'll be able to see it tomorrow.

Ed

[jeaniesa]

Farron, So sorry to hear about your loss. It's great to have you back with us.

Sometimes simple images are the most powerful and I think you've created a beautiful tribute with yours. I've seen that AP photo in lots of places, but whatever you did (in addition to adding the flag) really brought it to life!

Jeanie

[farron]

Hi Jeanie,

Thanks for the kind words from all...and sorry you couldn't get on Ed.

Since I didn't really do that as a retouchpro thing, I didn't keep track of what I was doing, just fiddled.

I do remember 90% of the effect is done with layer blend modes.

There is the original photo (which was very bluish in cast in the one I came across). That layer was cleaned up a bit with PSP's auto photo corrections tools and clarified, then there was a flag layer and two layers of the original photo that were in grey scale. I know I reversed one of the photo layers to a negative image. Then I just played with layer opacities and blend modes until I got something sort of like a drawing.

I wish I had had something besides a 400x300 web resolution jpg to swipe from the news site...

Farron

[Ed_L]

Farron,

I finally got the image to come up. You really made that stand out! Nice job on a tragic scene.

Ed

[Lorraine]

I just knew you would have created something beautiful, Farron. And I was right. Thanks for stopping by here and sharing that with us.

Again, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I'll "talk" to more tonight.

Take care,

Lorraine

[Chris W.]

Nice job in creating a heart touching picture to go with a great saying...very appropriate!