Creative interpretations: Seattle Space Needle

[DannyRaphael]

The Seattle Space Needle, built for the 1962 World's Fair.

Two images to play with... pic the one you like or mix-n-match.

~Danny~

p.s. I'm on 'jury duty' this week; sorry a little slow getting these posted.

[kiska]

Find edges, many selections, fills, h/s; you name it.

[Patricia]

I've been using a lot of tips I picked up here. I didn't keep really good notes, but this is the general idea:

I ended up with three layers - background, base & sketch

background is the original image

base layer - select the area inside the border of the original image and copy to a new layer. ran paint engine - bad chalk on this layer

sketch layer - make two duplicates of the base layer. set blend mode on top one to color dodge. invert, run guassian blur. add a threshold layer to make sure the sketch is b/w. merge with sketch layer. run VP oil, fade, run impressionist chalk - faithful.

stamp visible and add texture.

Thanks for providing all these great images to work on, Danny!

Patricia

[DannyRaphael]

Patricia:

I especially like your interpretation. Your combination of effects resulted in something very special.

- - - - - - - -

On mine:
* Duplicated Background
* Applied an action I wrote (WC24)
* Duplicated Background again, dragged the new layer to the top of the stack, applied Mike Finn's free Watercolor action, added a layer mask, set the blend mode to Pin Light and airbrushed black in a few areas (get Mike's action here: http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~mikefinn/action.html).
* Merged these two layers into one and duplicated the merged layer.
* To this layer I applied Impressionist > Conte - Unsmudged Monochrome and changed the Stroke Color setting in Color dialog to Image.
* While experimenting (I don't know why, but) I inverted this layer (CTRL + I), then started expermenting with Blend modes. I settled on Soft Light.
* Finally to give the strokes on this layer a little more I applied Unsharp Mask.

I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack and fiddled with the settings a bit.

This is definitely an example of "accidental art".

~Danny~

[kiska]

I'm STILL waiting for an accident like that to happen. Looks great.

kiska

[Con Looymans]

Hi Danny,

Here's my slightly overdue attempt.

I cut out the tower and placed it on a new Layer. In the background Layer I used the radial Gradient and on another seperate Layer I placed the "Sun".

Hope you like it.

Regards

Con

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Danny,

Here's my slightly overdue attempt.

I cut out the tower and placed it on a new Layer. In the background Layer I used the radial Gradient and on another seperate Layer I placed the "Sun".

Hope you like it.

Regards

Con

A very "out there" and "other worldly" interpretation, Con. This is a brave approach to stretch reality like you have done here.

What method did you use to cutout the tower? That was very neatly done.

[Con Looymans]

Hi Danny,

Where possible, I tend to use the shape of the object itself to create the Selections.

I usually check the channels and look for the one where the subject stands out the most, duplicate that and try to increase the contrast till it becomes just black and white. I do this using Levels etc. Whatever will do the job. If there are areas that I dont want to be Selected after that something in the background for example, but are still visible I will paint over them.

I am aiming to get a pure black and white image with no shades of gray. The white will be the Selection and the black will be the non Selected portion of the image. This is the basic procedure.

If you're trying to bet a partial Selection you can paint this in where you want by using a shade of Gray in the area you want it.

The Channel can be applied through the Select>Load Selection menu, or by holding down the Control key while clicking on the tile.

Once the Selection is loaded you can go into Quickmask and apply a little Gaussian Blur to feather it, and if you apply Levels you can even expand and contract the Selection to fine tune it a bit further if need be.

I've attached the Duplicate Channel I used and hope this will make my meaning a bit clearer for you.

I find this a good way to work because if you have to go back to your image tomorrow or next month your Selection is still there waiting to be re-used.

Regards

Con