Creative Interpretations: Cameron Island (Duv)

[Duv]

Hi Guys!

It's late at night and I've been sittin here with scotch in hand thinking about the nice images that Jeff has submitted on Taiwan. I thought I'd submit something locally, Nanaimo, actually. Vancouver Island. Small city of about 75,000. The picture is of Cameron Island, an upscale condominium development that overlooks the Georgia Strait and the Cascade Mtns to the east, unfortunately you can't see them.

Anyhow, I was sitting here listening to the Pet Shop Boys and really feeling quite mellow, playing around with a few filter effects and started playing with Flaming Pear Glitterato. Ended up with this image that, quite frankly, I find disturbing, but maybe you can come up with something a little more uplifting.

Cheers
Duv

[roger_ele]

I don't know if this is uplifting, depends if you like sureal
lots of painting and smudging between layers ...

Thanks for the fun
Roger

[DannyRaphael]

I REALLY LIKE this picture. (I must like it; it's almost 4:30 a.m. local time. Yikes ... I gotta get some sleep!)

Pretty basic... Rotated a bit so tower was not leaning; cropped so tower wasn't in middle. Applied Photoshop's Dry Brush filter 2x for the foreground. Duplicated image and applied a few Impressionist effects (see below**) to give the sky some texture/personality. Blended this in with a layer mask. Applied levels and hue/saturation adjustments + added frame (via PS action).

~Danny~

**

By request through PM, here's a general procedure for generating the arty background using the Impressionist plugin. The following aren't the "exact" Impressionist steps used to render the attached image (I don't remember the specific combination I used; I was experimenting), but are a reasonable facsimile and will serve the purpose of illustration:

I duplicated the original background and dragged it to the top of the layer stack.
* Press "D" to set the foreground/background colors to their default value (b/w)
* Impressionist-Natural: Cloth Scraps (Background menu: Choose Background color). You can repeat this step if you like. This generates a lot of "soft blocks" of color.
* Impressionist-Crayon: Short Choppy Strokes (Background menu: Choose Background color). This generates kind of a scratchy effect with lots of little lines of white in between.
* Impressionist-Charcoal: Default. Gives a nice, dry-brush kind of look.
* Apply a little Unsharp Mask to this layer to give it a little more texture.

Blending by layer mask...
* Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All (black thumbnail; looks like the layer is off)
* Press X (to eXchange foreground/background colors). You want white to be the foreground color.
* Press B to invoke Brush tool
. * Choose a 200-300 px soft-edged brush
. * Opacity: About 40%; Flow: about 40%
. * Airbrush setting = On
* Note: Box to the right of the "eyeball" in Layers palette. It is populated by an icon that looks like a square with a circle inside = "The layer mask is active."

Here's an experiment:
* Click on the "circle in a box" icon. It should go off.
* Paint on the layer. Big white streak, right?
* Ctrl+Z to undo.
* Click in the box where the "circle in a box" was. It should come on.
When the "circle in a box" icon is visible it means when you start painting in the next step, you will be affecting the layer mask, not the layer itself.

Paint the layer mask:
* Start airbrushing with white over the sky area. This will start to reveal the "textured sky" you just created. When the airbrush setting is on the longer you hold down the mouse, the more textured sky will show.
. * Press X (switch to black) and paint if you reveal "too much"; press X again (to get white) if you want to reveal more sky
. * Adjust brush size, opacity, flow as needed

[Duv]

Roger: It's great! I love the way you think outside of the box.

Danny: Another classic. Suitable for hanging on the wall!

Here's one that kind of suggests morning light on the buildings. Virtual Painting Pastels then Amphisoft Simplifier and Curves adjustment.

Cheers
Duv

[DannyRaphael]

Duv:

Glad we've gotten you beyond melancholy!

- - - - - - - - -

On this one I started by duplicating the Background and applying Impressionist's Chalk: SKetch Rough setting.

For the detail layer (on top of the Chalk: SKetch Rough) I started by copying the original Background to the top of the layer stack and applied Smart Blur (Normal, to simplify the layer) followed by Smart Blur (Edge Only).

The white lines on black were inverted (CTRL + I) and filter Stylize > Diffuse > Anisotropic was applied to soften the lines a bit. Then Image > Adjustments > Levels and Image > Adjustments > Threshold were applied for maximum contrast.

Next, the keyboard shortcut Alt + Ctrl + ~ (Tilde, next to "1" key) was entered. This selects the layer's "luminosity." Then shortcut CTRL + I was entered to invert the selection. (I wanted the areas selected to be represented by the areas of black.) The layer of black lines on white background is no longer needed. It can be turned off or deleted at this point.

I highlighted the Sketch Rough layer, making it active, and entered shortcut CTRL+ J to create a "layer of colored lines" above it based on the selection. The blend mode for this layer was changed to Multiply. This layer was duplicated and the blend mode changed for this top layer changed to Screen.

For the clouds:
* Duplicate original layer
* Copy to top of layer stack
* Impressionist: Crayon: Short Choppy Strokes
* Impressionist: Chalk: SKetch Rough
* Unsharp Mask to give it some texture
* Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All
* Set foreground color to white, select brush tool, airbrush=on, opacity ~ 40%, flow ~ 40%.
* Airbrush layer mask to reveal textured clouds.

Finish up...
* New layer
* Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E (merge w/o collapsing the layers)
* Clone out a few ugly blobs
* Levels (for contrast)
* Hue/Saturation to boost color a bit

I love this pic!

~Danny~

[palms1]

Duv interesting photo

threw just about everything at this except the whiskey bottle

Palms

[Swampy]

Okay, Duv... pass the scotch! I'm celebrating my 65th today (I made it to Medicare day!);-)

Great photo. I added a morning glow using my blown out sky method to punch up the sky then did a Match Color with a photo that had the pink and purple colors in it. Played with the sliders there to get what I liked. Then added a Render Lighting to set a stronger light source to the right side of the photo.

I then ran Smart Sharpen with some strong settings about 3 or 4 times to get a sketchy look.

Oh, Canada... but as we southern crackers call it Can-duh duh. LOL

Great photo to play with.

[alexmeta]

Nice colors, Palms. I like it.
It is yours, just Smudge filter few times.
Is it better?

[alexmeta]

And my version of watercolors.

[alexmeta]

Wonderful work Swampy. Very impressive.

[Kraellin]

alex, good watercolor!

[Swampy]

Thank you, AlexMeta! :-)

[Steve Conway]

Originally Posted by Swampy

Okay, Duv... pass the scotch! I'm celebrating my 65th today (I made it to Medicare day!);-)

Great photo to play with.

Is that your 65th scotch or birthday??

Anyway...have a happy!!

Steve C.

[Steve Conway]

City in the pm.

Steve C.

[Swampy]

Nice Steve!

65th scotch? I'm a cheap date... one glass of wine does it for me! LOL Thanks for the good wishes!