Breakfast in Hong Kong

Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays are the days to go to the Main Escalator in Midlevels in Hong Kong and find yourself a good restaurant to have brunch.  Lots of the restaurants open around 10am and serve a good breakfast menu.

Went there over a public holiday and came across a chap sitting in the restaurant's pavement area with his three dogs. They were real chick magnets and I couldn't resist taking a picture of the two main bulldogs who were lying beside each other.  I made some changes in PSE and then took them into Studio Artist for some further manipulation:

Variations on the Same Flower

When I do a manipulation of a photograph I do lots of versions.  As I have said before, sometimes I think the first one I do is really good and then I go on and do more and more things to it and I save lots of versions and by the end I usually find that I no longer like my first one because the others are better. Don't stop when you think you have a good manipulation - save it and keep going.

Here are a couple of versions of a flower I was messing about with today. Which one do you like? Send me a comment - I'd love to know!

VERSION 1

VERSION 2

VERSION 3

VERSION 4

When in Doubt Add an Arty Texture

The problem with photo manipulation is that there is no set recipe.

I have been trying out some techniques from a Photoshop magazine and although they work well with the magazine's picture of a flower, they just don't suit the flower photograph I'm trying to use.

So here is my original flower photograph:

Here is the flower picture after following steps in the magazine:

It doesn't feel like anything special to me.  Now what?

Often, when I get to this point in a manipulation, I start looking at my texture backgrounds.  These art textures might be created in Photoshop Elements or in this case, it was a gelli print I did which I enhanced in Photoshop:

So I added this layer on top of my flowers and changed the blend mode to difference.  I reduced the opacity to about 50% so that the flowers weren't overwhelmed.  It was a little dark so finally I added a levels adjustment layer to lightened it and also changed the hue and saturation with a further adjustment layer. This was my final result - somehow a little more arty and not quite so ordinary.

It's All About the Detail

Ever tried to get a good picture of a creature and all you get is a little face peering from behind some leaves in the distance?  Well, all might not be lost....

My hubby took this photograph at a wonderful golf course in Hilton Head.  The little critter was darting this way and that and to be quite frank we were not close enough.  However, I thought it was such a classic picture of the little fellow I just had to try and do something with it:

The picture was pretty sharp and high resolution but I wanted to try and bring out some of the detail.  The first step was to crop it in close to get rid of all the dead space around it.  Then I used one of my favourite techniques to bring out the detail (see my YouTube video to see now it's done).  I made a copy of the original photograph and applied the pen and ink method:

I then blended this with the original photograph using luminosity.  Next I copied these layers to a new layer, turned off the pen and ink layer and decreased the opacity to 60% to bring back more detail from the original picture.  Finally, I added a frame texture (from Shadowhouse Creations), upped the saturation and changed the levels using adjustment layers.  This is the final result:

Meditative Art

There's lots going on in my life at the moment and I felt a strong need to connect back to my art.  There is something very meditative for me about taking a picture and transforming it in the solitude of my den.

I wasn't looking at doing anything spectacular but I wanted to produce something from the spur of the moment pictures that I photographed in Hilton Head last year.  So for starters I chose a crow on the beach, some butterflies in a garden and a little sparrow hovering under our restaurant table.

Here is what I came up with:

All very different.  The only thread was the use of mosaic tiles and stain glass filters.  I often wonder if I will start developing a specific style but every picture I choose seems to speak to me in a different way.

Sausage Dog

It's been a while since I posted any of my photo manipulation.  Here is a pic of a friend's dog that I did for her recently:

Am I painting this??

I spent yesterday experimenting with PSE.  I wanted to create one of those weird pictures where reality and picture are mixed up together.  I wanted to give the illusion that I was actually painting the picture so I took a picture of my hand and added it to the picture and converted some of the picture to black and white.  I didn't actually want the hand to look too real - I wanted it to look part of the picture - so I added a black outline and used the cut out filter to make it a bit blocky.

PSE Selection Videos

I have added all my Photoshop Elements selection videos to YouTube.  If you want to know when to use each type of selection method, watch the six videos and you will have a clear idea by the end which selection to use when you are editing your own photos.

Here are some of the photos that I used in the videos.  The mask I use in video 3 is by Shadowhouse Creations:

PSE 8-10 Beginner Videos

I have just uploaded all my Photoshop Elements 8-10 beginner videos onto YouTube for anybody who wants a quick crash course on how to use it.

If you want to be able to do the changes that I did to my prints in the previous post then watch videos five and eight.

Also, these 3 pdf files are a good beginners aid.  I use the shortcut keys a lot in the videos:

• Shortcut Keys
• Toolbar for PSE 9
• Toolbar for PSE 10

Happy viewing!

Experimentation is Everything

When I take a photo that I want to manipulate, I have a vague idea of what I want to do and sometimes when I try blending it with a different background it works perfectly the first time but other times it doesn't. After having done many, many manipulations I now have a better feeling for what might work and what might not work.

However, I still don't always get it right. If something isn't working put it away for another day and try something else. My best results come from pictures that I am inspired by. It always astonishes me what I produce if I am in the mood and excited about what I am doing.

Also, even if you think you have the perfect picture don't stop if you are enjoying yourself. Sometimes I create a picture that I think is great then I try something more and something more and in the end I think my original picture was quite bland compared with what I produced in the end. Often I will 'make a mistake' and switch off a layer to discover that the top layer blends even better with the layer below. If you are thinking of selling your art think of trying different colours to suit different tastes - you will also find some surprising and lovely results quite by accident.

Experiment and experiment more. We have just renovated by husband's study and the main colours are a dark magenta red with some turquoise. He loves dogs so I wanted to create a picture that would fit in well with an office but still be colourful. Here are 8 pictures I produced from one main picture with a variety of secondary backgrounds and these are only half of them:

Roses

Online Photoshop Elements Workshops!

I'm going to be launching a new website for Photoshop Elements in May and guess what, my first one month workshop, called Selections, Selections is going to be FREE.  Do you really know what selection tool to use when and the power of each?  Participate in the Challenges and see what others have done!

For example, the Magic Wand video will take you through how I created this:

from this:

Details coming soon!

Run up to the Olympic Games

Flag for April:

Newspaper Collage

I love books - its one of my weaknesses - and while looking for another book I came across Nita Leland's book  New Creative Collage Techniques and couldn't resist buying it.  If you have her previous book its almost the same so not worth getting but I didn't so I just loved it.

The first project shows 2 newspaper collage, one by the author and the other by Gretchen Bierbaum.  I want to try my hand at a proper paper collage but as usual couldn't resist trying to create one in Photoshop Elements.

Orchids from Holiday

Time to get into some serious manipulation with my holiday pics:

Sunbirds in Thailand

Just love birds..... Here are some taken by my husband and I in Thailand.

Singapore - The Old and the New

I love nature but actually I love cities too especially if my aim is to take lots of interesting pictures.  In my art, I use nature as the focus and buildings are just wonderful for backgrounds, patterns and textures.

My favourite parts of the city were the old parts - the old colonial buildings and Chinatown.  However, the new skyscrapers were impressive and in the next two collages this is my interpretation of the old and the new of Singapore.

Singapore - Creatures of the Wetlands

Anybody going to Singapore might not think that much nature thrives on the island.  It's usually considered a shopping mecca.  You would probably be surprised to hear that there are quite a few nature reserves and a wonderful mangrove and wetlands area called the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve which if you are into animals and birds is well worth the visit.  There is a huge array of water birds as you would expect and mangrove swamps are known for their kingfishers.  However, there is a fair amount of trees and vegetation so there are a lot of other birds too, some interesting ones being sunbirds and hornbills.

Crocs are around at certain times of the year and of course the large monitor lizards.  Spiders are a biggie here too - some beauts! Sorry, had to include one in my pic.  There is also a family of otters although unfortunately we never saw them.

We took a taxi from the centre of Singapore to the Wetlands.  It took about 40 minutes and the taxi cost £12 which in London terms is a steal.  On the way back we caught the shuttle bus which goes regularly from the Wetlands to the metro.

Mornings like this are real highlights in my holidays.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

One of the highlights of our trip to Singapore was a visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  In the centre of the gardens there is an orchid garden which I just loved.  An orchid is the national flower of Singapore.

The theme for Photo Art Friday was paths so I thought I would use the overhanging pathways in the gardens plus the orchids to create a collage:

However, this next collage which I put together using one of the statues in the garden is my favourite:

Soap Carving in Thailand

The beauty about going on holiday to a location which is entirely different to one's own is that you learn and see things which you wouldn't normally.

An art form which I had never seen before and which is practiced in Thailand is soap carving.  I bought this exquisite flower carved from soap which was presented in a beautifully painted lacquer container from a Thai lady who showed me how she carved the soap.

As soon as I got home I couldn't resist extracting the flower and seeing what I could do with it.  From one art form to another:

Big in Thailand is also fruit and vegtable carving:
Check this out: http://www.jmcreativedesigns.com/Vegetable%20Fruit%20Carvings.htm

I also discovered after some digging around that the Thais are not the only people to carve soap:
http://www.dimidumo.be/Lester%20Gaba%20text%203.htm