PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #125 – Robins

[pstewart]

Nicole, I like the dot screen on your pic... really goes with it! Has a country feel.

EB, that turned out great! I like the way the smudging softens the (often) harsh lines of the abstract...gets rid of those angular patches, yet keeps the outline. Very clever, and very nice results.

Lisa, I couldn’t stop looking at yours. Those edges smearing into the rough brown natural border, and the dark tones and streaks. All together it works perfectly! I can’t say why I like it, just that I’m sure I do.

Chuck, great job cropping, and the background tree is just right! The robins look great too... nice work!

Phyllis

[e.b.west]

Thanks Jean,

I have the same non-writing problem so I know what you mean. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

E.B.

[Opal]

Thanks for a terrific image to work with Jeanie...just got to love momma and her chicks.

Wow..what startling results from the members so far....so many ideas and techniques to learn from.


I did mine in PSP 8


Duplicated layer...added gaussian blur..then Artistic chrome effect...changed layer blend toScreen..lowered opacity to 48...merged layers visible.

Duplicated this layer and addded charcoal filter. Changed layer blend to Hue...opacity to 42...merged layers. Used sharpen tool to give the 3d effect and then finished off with 'clarify' and then Xero--lithograph

cheers
Opal

[vijayan]

This is a wall tile version of Robin.
I did levels in defferent waysmay be one after another in a same level box and got that colour scheme atlast and applied Filter> Stylize>Extrude..

thankyou

______
vijayan

[photofixer]

.....a lot of overlaid texture....



Sharon

[jaykita]

After all these great entries, i'm almost afraid (but not too much!) to send in mine.
Stumbled upon a way to create a watercolor effect to prepare the groundwork -- 2 layer copies of image-
1st layer --- ps7 filter watercolor, then image adjust-levels 20,1,169., normal.
2nd layer--- median 15, screen blend 81%.
Merge the 2. Blank layer above - filter-renderclouds blue and yellow, overlay blend 47%.
This became the base image for all the adjustments that produced the effect shown below.
Select - color range for adding color to sky, selective color -neutral-yellows -(minus)40, hue-sat change slightly, and finally usm approx 10,250,0. (Had to replace mama robin's eye, via the layer mask technique)

[lkroll]

Impressionist again; again using Danny's droil24 preset. Also, prior to this step, trying to add reticulation which, imo, adds to the natural stroke fill when Impressionist filter is applied. A final Bump map filter (via GIMP) and voila. Hope you all like this one.

[Janet Petty]

Oh, I do, I do like it. It is bright and free. Good job on a difficult picture.

Janet

[lkroll]

I forgot to add that I used PS Chrome filter on a duplicate layer and merged a duplicate of that layer with one that Angled Strokes was executed on (adjusted opacity of course). I flattened these two layers and set the resulting layer to Overlay (adjusting opacity to taste) and flatten. Gives a more oily feel to the rendering. And, of course, I did have to do some hand touch cleaning/smudging/erasing to make it look better. Still no magic elixer to use just filters and layer properties, but I'm working on it.

[OnAir]

My interpretation with replace color and displacement map filter.

[Steve Conway]

Must be Robins in Australia to be nesting this time of year. 8-)

Steve

[Swampy]

Great picture! And many great versions!

I painted texture on to the background. A very simple technique, but some Photoshop Newbies may know know how to do it. - Done in Adobe CS2-PhotoShop, but the same technique is available in many other programs and versions of PS.

1. Created a New Layer and filled with a grayish blue (any color would do, but this blended nicely). Applied a canvas texture to this layer. and placed this layer below the Robins.
2. Added a mask to the original photo and selected a dry brush at about 50% opacity and painted black around the robins so that the texture layer would show through.
3. Duplicated the Masked layer and set to Multiply blend mode with opacity at 100%
4. Curves adjustment layer above that to make the birds "pop".
5. Signature layer
6 Added Frame

Took about 10 minutes.

[Janet Petty]

Swampy, that is WONDERFUL. I love it.

Janet

[Swampy]

Thank you, Janet. :-)

I've used this technique a couple of times to rescue photos that have a lot of artifacting/noise in the luminance areas. It's also a pretty good way to wash out areas in a photo that you want to lay text over (like in an ad) without masking in a transparency area or use a gradient. When I use it for that purpose, I do use a very subtile texture (linen or sandstone are good). It's just so quick and easy, even if you are a doofus with the brush tools like me. LOL

[Alcar]

Two impressionist's styles and a softer background (inspired by Swampy's fine interpretation).
Alan