Okay Doug,
I played with "green" today. Was thinking about the symbolism of green this morning. Didn't have the foggiest idea what I was going to do as an image.
Let's see, green is fertility, spring, plants, nature, prosperity, money, it is jealously or inexperience...and so on and so on. No image really came to mind. A garden? A dollar bill? A jealous woman?
THEN, I received an email from my mother talking about how cold it was today on Prince Edward Island (a Canadian maritime province). She is not normally there in the winter. They pack up, fill the pipes with anti-freeze and leave. But not this year.
My only visits to the island have been in the summer. The place is extremely green and lush for a short time. It is also, in many sections, like stepping back 100 years or more in time. Rolling farmland, brightly painted gingerbread farmhouses and churches, with a view of the sea only a breath away. It is the home of "Anne of Green Gables."
My green idea was born. Memories of PEI...I headed over to open PSP7.
First, I riffled through some of my photos and found and scanned one of a cove with small houses on the far shore. Removed some dark shadows (of a person?) that marred the foreground with the clone tool. I adjusted the colors and brightness up above what would be normal using the photo correction tools color balance, contrast enhancement and saturation enhancement. I adjusted the gamma to be a bit brighter as well. Then I ran the clarify filter.
In order to make the picture take on the look of a painting (here she goes AGAIN...LOL), I used the jpeg artifact removal tool at high setting. (Note: I have not found this tool to be terribly useful for its named purpose, but it makes a nice "paint" filter.
) I then applied an overall small scratch removal which, when not used in a tight selection, tends to act like short brush strokes.
Layer was duplicated twice. The first was given a blend mode of multiply. The second had a small amount of noise added and then a very light blur. It was set in a blend mode of saturation. Opacity levels of both were set around 35%.
I then grabbed the face of an old fashioned girl from the archives. (page 2, title is around_1915, I believe) I loosely selected a portion of her face and added it as a new layer. Positioned it to the left and sized and cropped to fit. Softened the edges of my selection with the eraser at low opacity and the soften brush. Duplicated layer three times. First set at luminance 55% (this was moved UNDER the second landscape layer), next overlay 61% and last multiply 34%. Her eyes were selected, promoted to their own layer and tinted green with the variations filter. Varying low opacity levels were used. Was planning on tinting her lips as well, but the flowers did that for me. :-)
I then found a photo with a small yellow farmhouse on the island. Scanned it. Selected out part of the house, desaturated it, removed some power wires with the clone tool and added as a new layer. Positioned in upper right. Removed a bit more of the lower portion to get it to blend in, & softened edges with the soften brush at low opacity and hardiness. Added noise and softened slightly. Moved layer under the landscape and set in luminosity blend mode 45% opacity. Duplicated twice. Moved layers above landscape and set one at multiply 34% and one at overlay 61%.
Merged all layers. Duplicated. Added noise then a very light blur. Lowered opacity. Merged layers again. Clarified, adjusted histogram and gamma. Applied unsharp mask. Added a small green border with slight texture.
Saved as jpg at 40% compression.
That's how I ended up with the painting/collage of a girl remembering green summers on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
_^..^_
Farron
I played with "green" today. Was thinking about the symbolism of green this morning. Didn't have the foggiest idea what I was going to do as an image.
Let's see, green is fertility, spring, plants, nature, prosperity, money, it is jealously or inexperience...and so on and so on. No image really came to mind. A garden? A dollar bill? A jealous woman?
THEN, I received an email from my mother talking about how cold it was today on Prince Edward Island (a Canadian maritime province). She is not normally there in the winter. They pack up, fill the pipes with anti-freeze and leave. But not this year.
My only visits to the island have been in the summer. The place is extremely green and lush for a short time. It is also, in many sections, like stepping back 100 years or more in time. Rolling farmland, brightly painted gingerbread farmhouses and churches, with a view of the sea only a breath away. It is the home of "Anne of Green Gables."
My green idea was born. Memories of PEI...I headed over to open PSP7.
First, I riffled through some of my photos and found and scanned one of a cove with small houses on the far shore. Removed some dark shadows (of a person?) that marred the foreground with the clone tool. I adjusted the colors and brightness up above what would be normal using the photo correction tools color balance, contrast enhancement and saturation enhancement. I adjusted the gamma to be a bit brighter as well. Then I ran the clarify filter.
In order to make the picture take on the look of a painting (here she goes AGAIN...LOL), I used the jpeg artifact removal tool at high setting. (Note: I have not found this tool to be terribly useful for its named purpose, but it makes a nice "paint" filter.

Layer was duplicated twice. The first was given a blend mode of multiply. The second had a small amount of noise added and then a very light blur. It was set in a blend mode of saturation. Opacity levels of both were set around 35%.
I then grabbed the face of an old fashioned girl from the archives. (page 2, title is around_1915, I believe) I loosely selected a portion of her face and added it as a new layer. Positioned it to the left and sized and cropped to fit. Softened the edges of my selection with the eraser at low opacity and the soften brush. Duplicated layer three times. First set at luminance 55% (this was moved UNDER the second landscape layer), next overlay 61% and last multiply 34%. Her eyes were selected, promoted to their own layer and tinted green with the variations filter. Varying low opacity levels were used. Was planning on tinting her lips as well, but the flowers did that for me. :-)
I then found a photo with a small yellow farmhouse on the island. Scanned it. Selected out part of the house, desaturated it, removed some power wires with the clone tool and added as a new layer. Positioned in upper right. Removed a bit more of the lower portion to get it to blend in, & softened edges with the soften brush at low opacity and hardiness. Added noise and softened slightly. Moved layer under the landscape and set in luminosity blend mode 45% opacity. Duplicated twice. Moved layers above landscape and set one at multiply 34% and one at overlay 61%.
Merged all layers. Duplicated. Added noise then a very light blur. Lowered opacity. Merged layers again. Clarified, adjusted histogram and gamma. Applied unsharp mask. Added a small green border with slight texture.
Saved as jpg at 40% compression.
That's how I ended up with the painting/collage of a girl remembering green summers on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
_^..^_
Farron
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