Photoshop – Photography in Pearls

Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Surreal

Our host this week is Tracy and she has asked us to create some marvelous surrealism mayhem with our photos. This sounded like so much fun so I decided to play along this week. It also meant brushing up on some Photoshop techniques and getting creative. In any event, don’t believe what you think you see.

First up is a photo I did of my grandson several years ago. I think he was around 3 years old. I was learning how to move and transport images in and out of photos and thought it was really cool to place him with this red dragonfly.

*Next up is a beautiful purple Salvia. I extruded the pixels somewhat to give it a slightly blurred touch.*

The image above is one taken on a typically crowded day at the beach. To be honest, the original picture is nothing to write home about but I like the painterly touches added and especially love the woman in the blue hat.

The photo above was taken several years ago and is one of several of a series of a great white egret coming in for a landing on a very gray day. Here, I’ve duplicated the bird, reflected it and smoothed out the reflection in the water to make it appear as if they are dancing or at least going in for a hug.

This photo started out as some overhead beams and using a Photoshop effect I’ve not used before, I think I’ve given this an underwater effect.

And lastly, I had so much fun with the technique above, I decided to try it again. This photo started off as a psychedelic gradient I did years ago and I think because of the colors, it’s my favorite from the series – but then again, it could be the egrets.

Thank you Tracy for the prompt. You’ve inspired me to play some more with Photoshop.

You can see responses from other bloggers here: https://reflectionsofanuntidymind.blog/2022/07/24/lens-artists-challenge-209-surreal/

You can see more of my photography here: http://photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

July 26, 2022 by Gina Categories: Photo ChallengeTags: Lens-Artists, Photography, Photoshop, Surreal, Surrealism 18 Comments

For Extra Credit #4 – Oil Painting

So my Photoshop class is going great and this week we learned to fix images. We took an old photograph that was cracked and torn and made it whole again. It’s really cool stuff!

I’ve been taking old photos and playing with them using some of the new tricks learned in class. My favorite thing I’ve learned so far is painting on photographs. Here’s a photo I took of some birds in the surf several months ago along with the painted image. The difference is pretty subtle but the painted image has more of a calming effect than the original picture.

Original photo

DSC_7083-Edit

Painted image

You can see more of my photography here: photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

June 23, 2018 by Gina Categories: PhotographyTags: Beach, Birds, Class, Painting, Photography, Photoshop, Surf Leave a comment

For Extra Credit #2

I’m babysitting this week and taking pictures of my grandson off and on all day. While he’s napping, I’m going through those pictures and also playing with old photos to practice what I’ve learned in photoshop class.

First up is the original shot….

I then tried “painting” it but wanted to use more colors….

I didn’t like my “painting” (I don’t think you can really call it painting though and I didn’t like staying inside the lines) so I erased it all and tried something different.

DSC_9644-Edit

So now it bears no resemblance to the original but I like it.

You can see more of my photography here: photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

June 17, 2018June 16, 2018 by Gina Categories: PhotographyTags: Flowers, Painting, Photography, Photoshop 1 Comment

For Extra Credit

I am having SO much fun with my Photoshop class! I am absolutely amazed at everything it can do so each night, I’ve taken a couple of my old photos and played with them to see what new magic would happen.

This is tonight’s “Before”…

First edit…I blended and blurred…

Pink and Red Blurred

….I added some more filters and “twisted” and here is the “After”.

Hurricane Twist

My jaw dropped when I saw this transformation and I know I’ll never be able to recreate it again. I love the way the colors blended but I have one small issue with the final result. I’m an insurance agent on the coast and it looks a little too much like the symbol used for hurricanes. Hopefully it’s not an indication of what to expect this summer.

You can see more of my photography here: photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

June 14, 2018June 14, 2018 by Gina Categories: PhotographyTags: Abstract, Flowers, Hurricanes, Photography, Photoshop 9 Comments

It’s Never Too Late to Learn

I use Lightroom for editing but wanted to learn how to use Photoshop for other projects so I’m taking a photoshop class on line and I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned so far. (I took a 6-week Photoshop class a couple of years ago but you know how it is when you don’t use it…you lose it.)