PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #40 – English Gentleman

[ecurbh]

Maybe he looks so grim because he's been captured...

Yeah, I know this flag did not exist in the revolutionary period. Whatever.

Bruce

[Marlene DeGrood]

I'm not a portrait type, don't like to shoot them so it's not something I'm used to working on. I am so impressed with everyone's work on this "gent". I could name you all, but that would be everyone who submitted to this challenge. I decided to give this a try to see.....well.....it is a challenge and I couldn't resist. I was trying to give an old, but not damaged look to this.

Marlene
www.thedigitalspectrum.com

[DannyRaphael]

Grim look might be from what he had for lunch that day... No Tums back then.

RE: Flag BG, timing and all that
No problem. You're merely operating in the spirit of guideline #4 (Have Fun).

Very cool edges.

[VisualEyes]

Another fun lunch hour playing with accented edges and blending layers.

[pstewart]

Truman, very crisp looking, and almost seems to have a 3D quality. Wonder if that comes from the contrast with the blurred background or something you did with a filter...hmmm...

By the way, it's great to see you back here making pictures again...I missed you.

Phyllis

[Trine Sirnes]

Going a bit the other way, an answer to the challenge and a restoration challenge as well

I used a photo I have from a boat trip on an old restored sailboat here where I live. I thought it suited the gentleman. I turned it to greyscale, then tritone, used a warm greyl. Then back to RGB and gave it the sepia color. Added some brush effects(clouds, paper damage, finterprints, decay) and that's about it, I think.

[Marlene DeGrood]

Trine....Outstanding! Great idea, very well executed!

Marlene
www.thedigitalspectrum.com

[angue]

Here's a companion to the ladies .
Same steps taken plus Glowing edges. Then history brush tool with brush dynamics on to bring back the color. Embosed effect by way of REnder>Lighting Effects.

Tony

[pstewart]

Abstract version, using same outline-equalize-aniso-cutout method as in minis 62, 63, and several others.

Phyllis

[themanda]

I wanted to see if I could duplicate my earlier oil look.

Sadly, I don't think it turned out as well on this one. Perhaps it's just the nature of the photo that I started out with.

[pstewart]

Amanda, it's certainly true that the same treatment will yield different results on different pictures. But I like the effect you did achieve here...so moody and dark and intense...especially love how the yellows/golds stand out.

Phyllis

[retpmikl]

Amanda,
I like it too. Very nice image.

[ahutton]

I aged the gent a couple decades by applying PSP8's Topography filter set at 100% detail. This also gave the photo some depth.

Then I added an all over texture and decided this was time for his end-of-career formal portrait and used Flaming Pear's melancholytron. Softened the whole thing.

AmyHutton

[jaykita]

One sketch layer with aniso, multiply blend, a filter-render-clouds layer, overlay blend, one "color from original" layer - which means i used an eyedropper to airbrush colors from original image onto a blank layer, overlay blend. This renders a more painted effect. Finally, merged all with the original bckgr layer and framed.

[SWEngineer]

Some great work in this thread. While I especially liked Trine's composite, themanda's oil interpretation inspired me to give my own oil mimic a try.

Using Elements2 with HPTs:
Created a new background for the subject. Then mostly followed the steps in my oil tutorial. Some key embellishments to try and get a darker, antique like result: A Hue/Sat adj. layer to darken & up saturation in reds and yellows. (Masked the subjects face.) Curve adj layer to darken. A layer filled with "dark yellow orange" from the default color swatches with Hard light, low opacity. A gradient fill layer in Multiply mode. Merge visible all this and ran SmartBlur. Masked to only affect the face and white part of the shirt. Finally a rough selection around the eyes, copy & paste from the BG layer. Hand painted a specular highlight in the eyes & lowered opacity to get a good blend.

I'm not completely satisfied with this, but it's probably my best oil-like portrait so far.

-Mark