What I Did Last Summer

[Dennis Bishop]

Early some September long ago, I probably had to write an essay for school with that title. My time away from my computer -- and, therefore, digital imaging -- is normally measured in weeks. This summer, however, it was months. I had my photo gear, and that was good, but I soon developed symptoms of creative withdrawal. Fortunately, there's an art center in the community with a tradition of teaching ugly jug classes. Unfortunately, the instructor who normally taught these classes three or four times during the summer hasn't done so for the last two years. I decided to step in and partially fill the gap. It was great fun. And three-dimensional. My jug, pictured here, isn't a traditional ugly jug, but it's not a thing of beauty, either.

two photos -- Nikon D3s, ISO 200, f/11, 2 seconds inside with natural light, zoom lens at 85mm, reflector and diffuser

processing

• Topaz ReMask to remove the makeshift cardboard boxes background
• Flypaper Textures texture for the new background, modified with a masked gradient to give the appearance of a horizontal and vertical surface
• 2 b&w Fractalius layers based on the sketch preset, Multiply blend mode to eliminate the white
• Alien Skin Bokeh to soften the background
• Red Giant Knoll Light Factory to backlight the jugs
• gradient vignette on all edges

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Dennis, it looks like you were having a blast this summer! I love the jars - they are very creative and I like your treatment. I might soften the light that separates the top and bottom - there is something a little distracting about it but I'm not sure what. I'll come back and look at it tomorrow with fresh eyes and may think it is fine
Very glad to see you posting again in OOTB!!!

[Arthur Morris]

Interesting and strange for sure. The one on our left looks like Alfred E. Newman....

[Hilary Hann]

What a fun thing to do, and a good result. I think that the jugs need some sort of shadow because they look like they're floating. If you intended for them to look like they're floating, I would eliminate the line which marks the table going into the background.

[denise ippolito]

Dennis, Nice to you posting again, I have missed your artistic eye. I love this! The colors and the characters work great together. I really like the textured background and the touch of whimsy! A perfect touch of Fractalius.

[Judy Howle]

I love it! The background is wonderful and goes perfectly with the jugs. I like the whimsical jugs!

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I think that the jugs need some sort of shadow because they look like they're floating. . . .

Thank you, Hilary. Very much. I have to admit I knew that was true, and your comment motivated me to figure out how to do the shadows. It turned out to be fairly simple and quick:

• copy the layer with the jugs, flip it vertically, translate it downward, move the new layer below the original one, and turn off the visibility (All I needed from this was the inverted mask to use later.)
• insert a new layer below that layer, fill it with black, and add the mask from the above layer, and reduce the layer opacity
• Flipping and translating that first layer had added a large white rectangle to the mask, so I blackened that area and feathered the mask so the shadow boundaries were soft.

[Indranil Sircar]

This is excellent, Dennis. I like your approach to the subject and how you processed it. Beautiful bg texture and certainly the repost with the shadow makes it work even better!

[Maureen Allen]

Very cool jugs and a great image, Dennis. I like the repost.