Creative interpretations: Airplane - Bush Pilot

[DannyRaphael]

Taken in the State of Alaska, USA. Gets real cold here, but a beautiful part of the world. Many areas can only be reached by planes like this one.

Photo by Rob.

Enjoy the fresh air!
~Danny~

[jch71566]

Tundra Air

I went for the travel poster look!

* PhotoEffex Background blur
* Increase Saturation of Red/Rust on Plane
* Add Text
* Adobe Poster Edges

-Jeff

[DannyRaphael]

Hope you're serving cocktails on this flight, Jeff (for the passengers, that is)!

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I started out thinking this might make kind of a neat pencil/charcoal-like sketch. It only took about 10 minutes down that path to realize it was a dead end. I abruptly changed course and headed for a painted look. Not sure what you'd call the final result style-wise, but I can tell you it was done with native Photoshop filters and effects. No 3rd party plugins or filters.

See attachment for a Layers Palette screenshot. Here's some additional detail.

Layer:
A: Simplify image with Smart Blur (Normal). Too much detail can make photo-art look too much like "photo" and not enough like "art." (Personal opinion.)

B: Bump up contast with Levels.

C: Combine A, B.

D: Apply Dry Brush filter. I liked the arty look, but the rough edges bugged me.

E: Stylize > Diffuse > Anisotropic softens edges a bit. If you're PS6, try a bit of Gaussian Blur + Unsharp Mask. You get nearly the same effect.

F: Did a little cloning to clean up some ugly blobs

G: Combined F,G; then applied Spatter for more of a painted look. I thought this looked okay on the scenery, but the effect on the plane didn't do it for me. Added the layer mask and then airbrushed black over most of the plane to reclaim the smooth edges from the layer below, while keeping the spattered edges on the rest of the image. I L*O*V*E Layer Masks!

H: Cranked up saturation.

I: Combined G, H.

J: More blobs to clone out

This was OK except for that huge block of all blue, nearly same color sky. Didn’t have a clue what to do with it.

Tried adding layers to the top of the layer stack and painting with blue shades using different brush types, but this looked awful. It again reminded me why I rely on actions and filters to create art-like strokes. I just haven’t figured it out yet from a manual stroke perspective.

Had a wild idea: What would a Posterization adjustment layer do to the sky colors? Let's try it.

K: Added Posterize adjustment layer and fiddled with the number of levels. Six broke up the sky a bit, but totally hosed the rest of the image.

Added a “hide all” layer mask (black thumbnail) and with a chalk brush at about 50% opacity and flow, airbrushed with white in the sky area to make the posterization effect visible. Experimented with the blend modes and settled on Color Dodge.

Liked the general direction, but it wasn't quite enough. What to do? Maybe a Hue/Sat adjustment layer.

L: Added the Hue/Sat adjustment layer and fiddled with settings and blend modes. Ah, this is OK. Sky looks more "painted" now.

M: Added a stroke frame.

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I had no idea where I was going when I started with that Smart Blur (normal) filter. I just keep trying this and trying that, layer after layer, building on effects I liked. I guess that's one thing I like about this hobby. You can start out with no firm destination in mind and stop when you get somewhere you like. This approach drives some people nuts. For (sometimes) aimless people like me, I love the freedom.

Another happy accident!

~Danny~