PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #58 – Tropical Fish

[DannyRaphael]

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

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #58 – Tropical Fish

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

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

NOTE: There are multiple images for this mini-challenge!


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A few weeks ago Alan Smallbone (Snoleoprd) send me the image attached to this post in e-mail. Since I know Alan is an avid outdoor photographer, I naturally assumed he'd taken these pictures underwater somewhere off the coast of California, where he lives.

Imagine my surprise when came back with a LOL and reported this school of fish images were taken at the local tropical fish store. What do I know.

Anyway there are half dozen from which to choose. Mix, match, duplicate, collage with other images, collage with your own background... Just keep that important Guideline #4 in mind. HAVE FUN! If you're curious the name of each fish is embedded in the filename.

Thanks, Alan, for the pics and the laugh.

~DannyR~

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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 major 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

[DannyRaphael]

Fish 2 of 6...

[DannyRaphael]

Fish 3 of 6...

[DannyRaphael]

Fish 4 of 6...

[DannyRaphael]

Fish 5 of 6...

[DannyRaphael]

Fish 6 of 6.

Want more fish? By all means add some from your own collection!

[Snoleoprd]

Chuck,

That is very cool looking, sort of pop art. I like it.

Alan

[omeyas]

Just had a quick look at the fish, definitely seems a shame to mess around with these. But if we have to......
Frank

[omeyas]

A shoal.

[pstewart]

Chuck, make his skin tones bluish...he's underwater after all. But not too blue...don't want him running out of oxygen.

Frank, that is excellent. Great composition...looks real!

Phyllis <--too lazy to cut out fish

[Blacknight]

Some diffuse and ocean ripple and sharpen and levels and overlay blend mode.

[Blacknight]

I don't remember what all I did, but I kinda like how it turned out...

[pstewart]

Originally posted by Blacknight
Some diffuse and ocean ripple and sharpen and levels and overlay blend mode.

I love this effect...just perfect for this subject! And your second pic reminds me of those special lights they use to make things in fish tanks glow.

Wanna write down the steps and settings for that first effect? If you can reproduce it and can take the time?

Phyllis (hope hope hope...)

[Blacknight]

Originally posted by pstewart
Wanna write down the steps and settings for that first effect? If you can reproduce it and can take the time?

Phyllis (hope hope hope...)

Umm..yes, I wanna. Can I? Yes, I can. Will it be correct? Probably not. HOWEVER, I know BASICALLY what I did, and I will try to duplicate it again, taking care to document each step - just for you, Phyllis! (well, because I'd like to know too, and maybe somebody else would as well, but it sounded better the other way, huh!)

[Blacknight]

Ok - near as I am able to duplicate:

Pick a blue and fill a new layer with it. Noise about 7, gaussian, monochromatic. Ocean Ripple, about15 and 9. Diffuse, ansotropic. Sharpen edges 3 or 4 times. Ripple, 100, large. KPT bounded sharpen, bith sliders all the way over. Adjust hue/sat or levels or both to suit. Blend mode to overlay (with original fishy underneath, auto levels).

[pstewart]

Thanks, Phil. I tried your steps and it worked fine...thanks a bunch.

I tried flaming pear's lacquer filter on fish #1 and raised detail, bulge, gradient, and sparkle above 80% and got a molded foil effect...then softened it partially with aniso-diffuse.

Phyllis

[pstewart]

I like my previous foil fish effect better, but this one seems more appropriate for a fish. I call it sparkle fish. Done with KPT5 intensity filter.

Phyllis

[omeyas]

Jigsaw effect.

[omeyas]

See if you can spot the "deliberate" mistake in the previous photo!
Frank

[Snoleoprd]

Frank,

Real nice, I like it. The mistake is you mirrored the eye of the angel fish.

Alan

[omeyas]

Nope! At least, I don't think so.
No, I never touched that. More glaring than that. Or it was to me as soon as I checked it after posting.
Frank

[Snoleoprd]

Frank,

I must be really dense and it must be real obvious.... cause I don't see it.

Alan

[omeyas]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Snoleoprd
[B]Frank,

I must be really dense and it must be real obvious.... cause I don't see it.

Perhaps it's just obvious to me because I know it should be there! Where I have cut out the pieces I have applied a drop shadow and emboss to them. Howver, I didn't apply either to the white gaps left behind. They should have been done also! Perhaps I should have said nothing.
Frank

[pstewart]

I'm with you, Alan. Guess we'll both be bumped from Retouchpro.

Phyllis

[Snoleoprd]

Hi,

Phyllis maybe they will just send me back to Retouchamateur instead of letting me stay at RetouchPro.

Frank well that was waaaaaaaay toooooo subtle for me, Inever would have gotten that one.

Alan

[T Paul]

Chuck,

I really like your colored foil filter look. It's very bright and festive!

~T

[T Paul]

Great entries everyone!!!

Frank,
Great manipulation work combining all those little fishies! It really looks like an original photo. Great job!

Blacknight,
I really like the texture on your first entry. The second entry is very vibrant. Almost looks like an 3D art piece for some Japanese Restaurant. I really love the intense colors. Great job!

Phyllis,
Lacquer fish turned out great. Looks like you were able to duplicate Blacknight's texture. Very neat affect. I also like sparkle fish...especially the intense blues and greens!

Chuck,
Great job on your entry. Looks like a poster for an aquarium. I like the extruded boxes with the individual fish. Nicely done.

Frank,
Great looking jigsaw puzzle! As for the missing drop shadow and emboss...I didn't notice till you pointed it out.

~T

[pstewart]

This is a new discovery that I really like. I also tried it on minis #62 and #63 (flowers and produce) if you want to see how it works on another picture...quite different, actually. In this one it looks more outlined.

The steps are given in the other two challenges...no point in repeating.

Phyllis

[pstewart]

Here's another. A really plain boring background on this pic gains some interest with this same technique, overlaid onto a second plain blocky cutout version of the original at low opacity, to bring in some background shadow areas.

Phyllis

[Pam]

Every challenge here at Retouch seems to be loaded with great entries. There are some extremely talented folks here...

Frank, very impressive manipulation. Excellent work.

Phyllis, I love your sparkle fish! It's bright and shimmering, just like a coral reef under a bright sun.

BK, very nice effect on "Fishy".

Chuck, I like the colors and gradations on your colored foil fish. It almost looks like the 3-d ceramic tiles with the metallic finishes that are becoming popular lately.

Here's my tropical fish attempt. Funny how most of us chose this "fishy".

Pam