[DannyRaphael]

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

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge# 50 – Pink Lotus

Here’s another “mini-challenge” to play with in the Photo-based Art category until the next official challenge is posted here.

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

When I first saw this image, all I could say was, “Wow.” I knew right away it belonged in the hands of the folks who participate in these mini-challenges.

It was taken by Allan Smallbone, whose butterfly and Japanese pond pictures were used in the very popular mini-challenges 44 and 45.

Thanks again, Alan, for gracing us with another stunning picture to work with.

~DannyR~

LEGAL VERBIAGE
Alan 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, 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

[phili1]

I tried to achive an etching effect and I tried emboss but it did not look right. I then tried lighting effects and found that if you changr to Rgb Red or green it looks etched.
So I made it into a pencil drawing adjusted levels turned it into an RGb did lighing efects omni adjusted so it iluminated the center the most and changed the texture channel to red, flatten layers added gold color fill.

Danny tell Alan I love his flower shot. Flowers are one of my favorite subjects.

[CJ Swartz]

phili -- that is GORGEOUS!! Your love of flowers shows in your delicate rendition -- truly beautiful!

[pstewart]

Phili, that's great! The problem I found with this picture is that there is no problem with it! It is already too beautiful, so to do much to it would be "gilding the lily (or lotus, in this case)." Your choice of removing all color and the delicate nature of the flower was a perfect way to go...you can't improve upon it, so you changed it in a dramatic way. Excellent.

I tried to make a drastic change too by emphasizing edges and darkening/brightening it. I seldom use color dodge mode but it seemed to work well here.

Phyllis

[angue]

phili1,
I like the texture. I can almost feel it literally .

Phyllis, I love the inner glow on the lotus. I'm almost expecting Buddha to emerge from within.

Tony

[DannyRaphael]

Phyllis:

I'm with Tony. A very mystical effect.

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Phil:

Very nice. Looks like hammered bronze or gold -- something you'd pay a LOT of money for.

Alan's got a nice way with photos, doesn't he? WAIT until next week. I've got an image it the queue that I think will be especially interesting.

[phili1]

Wow Phyliss I thought the same way you do, a beautifull flower
is hard to beat, but I think you did it. I agree its mystical. It glows.

[Trimoon]

Its 3AM and I don’t know where my brains at so all I’m going to do is post this.

[pstewart]

DocileBob, your image doesn't load...all I can see is the top third. You might want to go to "edit" and upload it again. Thanks.

Trimoon... wow!

That is... uh...

What I meant to say is...

wow!

Brilliant idea and beautiful result.

Phyllis

[phili1]

DocileBob

It looks fantastic just like it belongs in that coloration.

Timoon
It seems that the word wow fits alot of submissions latley and your is a definite wow

[arthill]

I darkened it a bit with levels, boosted the saturation and applied a colored charcoal filter.

[docilebob]

Nice work all.
For this one , I copied the original, duplicated the green RGB channel, Applied it ( Image>>Apply Image) to the duplicate, at 100% in color burn mode. Then I ran lighting effects, with crossing lights, ( one light pink, one light blue/grey ), went to Fade Lighting effects, reduced the opacity to about 60%, set to screen, set the layer to hard light at 75%. Then, duplicated the duplicate, set the blending mode to darken, at 75%, then adjusted the levels of the red and blue channels.
Then, CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+N ( new layer ) CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E ( to stamp visible into the new layer, and reduced the saturation a bit.



<edit> Thanks for the heads up pstewart. Couldn`t get it to relaod, either , so I started over </edit>

[JBCaffrey]

Teriffic photograph!

First I lightened just the background, then simplified the petals very slightly withBuzzPro. I defined this result as a pattern. Continuing on, I applied Trimoon's sketch technique alternating the brush between normal and disolve to get a grainy look to the sketch, then applied the color with the pattern stamp tool using the previously defined pattern.

Jim

[arthill]

Tried for a painting effect this time. Used dry brush then smart blur. Made another copy and changed it to BW line drawing with Smart Blur Edge Only. Pasted the color version on top of that and set blending mode to multiply. Jacked up saturation on the final.

[arthill]

Jim, I love the way you did this last one.