PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #61 – Samantha

[DannyRaphael]

NiteOwl:

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Having new folks join us with fresh ideas is always a delight. Your #2 rendition is especially striking. I like this one "a lot."

We are especially fortunate to have a forum dedicated to this art-form, thanks to the vision of our webmaster Doug Nelson and the numerous folks who generously post their wonderful creations and willingly share techniques and help other folks.

The forum software offers flexibility that others do not, namely the ability to upload files, e.g., actions, textures, .jpgs, etc. w/o resorting to external sites such as Pbase.com. This upload model works very well to reduce the number of "broken links" inherent in the embedded URL method. Uploads ensure the value of threads specifically (and the site in general) will not diminish over time.

Anyway, WELCOME again... hope to see more and more of your creations as time goes along. Tell your friends!

~Danny~

[bubba]

The work everyone has done is so good! Anyone would like to have Samantha's picture on there desk. Speaking of which, here is my humble submission.

dupped layer (of course)
extracted Samantha (actually I just deleted anything that did not look like a little girl - didn't like the extract results)
a little gauzian blur - maybe more than I should have
added grey layer behind her
render - lighting effects - soft omni

If I need a picture of a little girl for my desk she will be the one!

[NiteOwl]

Impressive, to say the least, I think this is for me anyways, the best of them all! Wow!

[DannyRaphael]

Bubba:

Very nice results. The lighting and "softness" are a very effective combination.

~Danny~

[bubba]

NiteOwl and Danny - thanks for the kind words. I enjoyed doing that one.

[T Paul]

Such a pretty photo and such a lovely young lady!

Thought I would play around with Painter and try to create an oil...only my second attempt at learning Painter. I used numerous size brushes with the camel brush oil cloner. Then I saved the image and opened it in PhotoShop where I added a level adjustment and a frame using Splat.

~T

[T Paul]

Took my oil version and applied John Buchmann's sketch technique then applied angled brush strokes.

~T

[DannyRaphael]

Both are very nice, T.

Only your 2nd try w/Painter? Wow. That's impressive. Lots of folks getting into that program these days. Best wishes as your skills develop in that dimension, too.

~DannyR~

[pstewart]

For some reason I've not looked at this thread in a long time. Wow, there's such a collection of varied styles and creative approaches on this one. These are great! We have such talented folks here!

Phyllis

[bubba]

NiteOwl - just looked at you post again. Very nice. Wonder how it would look colorized? This is such a pretty little firl it would be hard not to do a good job!

bubba

[NiteOwl]

Bubba, thanks once again for commenting on that picture,...I just wish I could have done more! I agree color would have just been the cat's meow!

However, at this point in time, I have figured out only how to open a picture in PhotoShop,...I am not advanced enough yet to dooooo anything!!! This is driving me nuts. But I will eventually, and then, you betcha,...I will try this one again! With some color of course!

Just learning, been using PhotoDraw for years, and just recently on photos,..so, I have lots of homework ahead. Hey, if you can make it happen, by all means, go for it!

Take care, and gosh golly jeepers,..thanks for piping in and adding your comment!

NiteOwl

[bubba]

NiteOwl - since I mentioned colorization I just did one
colorized (not very good job) and textured

bubba

[T Paul]

Here is one more oil. I took the oil I did in Painter and opened in in PhotoShop where I applied some layers with emboss and texturizer to bring out the paint strokes.

~T

[bubba]

T Paul - very nice look. Wish I could do that!
bubba

[themanda]

This is a fantastic pic! I can't possibly comment on all the great entries...there's too much diversity and great work to single any out, and I wouldn't want to forget any from this challenge.

For this, I wanted to try to duplicate a Degas feel, so I turned Sam into a ballerina. What little girl doesn't want to be a ballerina? (Well...I wanted to be a carpenter, so I guess I don't count. )

I used Paint Engine several times as well as PS sprayed strokes. I don't think I quite got it right for Degas...not enough texture to the strokes and not enough yellow. I do like how it turned out, though.

[T Paul]

What a lovely Degas ballerina! Did you create the body from scratch? Very well done!

~T

[themanda]

Yes and no...

I found a ballerina online that had her arms in the right position, then superimposed Sam's head on her. I isolated the frill around the top of Sam's dress and used that as the tutu after a lot of transforming and skewing.

I'm glad you liked it!

[ahutton]

Samantha with xero lineart and a couple other things thrown in for good measure.

AmyHutton

[shariwb]

I have not been here in a while, but when I saw this darling picture, I could not pass it up.

I used PS usm, aniso, lighting effects, buzz pro, VP Oil Paint, and a number of textures.

Shari

[DannyRaphael]

Shari:

This is a positively lovely interpreation.

You've been away for FAR too long. Welcome back. Your creativity is always welcome.

~Danny~

[dandelion]

Am new here, but had to reduce size of picture to get the quality I wanted. If someone has a better suggestion would appreciate hearing. Put picture in LAB mode and screened it, added cloud texture to it.

[DannyRaphael]

dandelion - this is a very unique interpretation and none like I have seen before on this popular challenge. I admire your creativity.

I welcome you to try other challenges. There is no expiration on any of them.

~Danny~

[Joy_CA]

Very pretty young lady....
Joy

[jaykita]

Congratulations! Everyone's done marvellous work!
Here's mine. Mostly fill layers and layer masks, one g'blur layer for softness, filter render clouds a few times with diff colors, fill color layer blue and mask, overlay blend low opacity with original to bring back a hint of the backgr. Brush used was watercolor low opacity for the effect.

[Trimoon]

Click Here For Larger Image

History log

And This One

[GOLDCOIN]

Wow... She is beautiful, almost a living "Doll.".....

Thank you for the log, it is for both versions or just the second. That sure was a whole lot of "doings." HOw does one go about making a "log" like that?

One of most difficult steps, if not impossible for me would be the "Color Correction" and especially the "Selective Color." Are there charts that might help with just the basic colors. Like how to remove yellow or greens or reds, or add them. Sure hope so...

Getting closer to the 15th,... can't hardly wait for the release of your latest CD!!!

[jaykita]

My fav combo-- virtual painter+impressionist plug-in.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by jaykita

My fav combo-- virtual painter+impressionist plug-in.

Nice combo...very painterly. Do tell (the particular settings), please.

[jaykita]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Nice combo...very painterly. Do tell (the particular settings), please.

Hi Danny. I'm sending an scr capture of the layer palette if it can help.
Most important of all, i created a brush file with the original image for my impr plug-in....Here's how i do it -- Desaturate image, invert and apply g'blur of about 9. Save as a tiff file in the impressionist brush folder. When needed, use this file as a brush with these other settings:
General-bckgr-image; brush size 25%, coverage 100, pressure 55.
Brush - Tiff file, smudge 10, pressure 55.
Placement randomly coverage 100.
No. of sizes 7, from 2 to 12, about even.
Orientation optimally 16, 45, 360.
Color - stroke color image, H 0, S 10, B 10. Background - image. Brightness 50, contrast 70.
I call this my "soft watercolor" style. Sometimes i need to change the settings a wee bit, mostly brush size depending on the effect.
As for the other layers that u'll see in the layers palette image below, its pretty obvious. If not, feel free to ask anytime.
BTW by "merge" i mean "select all, copy merged and paste".
Also, maybe you'll be kind enough to create an impr settings file with my name.

[Janet Petty]

Jaykita, you do such nice work. I'm always impressed.

Janet