The Dancer
Had an urge to do an edit, and found an old file. Two textures, poster edges added in pin light mode which just gave an outline mainly to the edges, and D/L center were the main filters. The original BG was a texture from Texbox which I printed up and used as the original BG.
Great composition, and the background fits the subject beautifully. I'm not sure I understand how you did the background. You printed a texture and photographed the flower in front of it, then applied two more textures in processing??? Whatever you did, it sure works.
Gorgeous! Love it! The black lines add a nice touch of ink drawing to the flower. The textures are perfect. Love the colors. I'd crop some from the top.
How did you get poster edges not to have lots of black dots on the flower itself?
I look forward to your response to Dennis' question also.
Lovely work.
Yes Dennis, that is exactly what I did. I used Uranuim Paper from Texbox and printed it up on a 13 x 19 piece of paper to use for the BG, and then applied the two other textures later. Anita, thanks for your comments. I don't know why I never tried using the blending modes before, I used to have a list of what they did, I think I will Google it again. Anyways it really saves on the erasing.Originally Posted by Dennis Bishop
Gorgeous! And a great idea for the BG. It does look like a pen and ink drawing combined with watercolor.
I think Anita has a good point about taking a little off the top.
Jackie - I'll have to try that blending mode on Poster edges - I love the effect. I think Mike Moats uses backgrounds that he has taken (sometimes blurred) and printed - then he'll take them into the field and position behind flowers, etc. Good idea - I've never tried it but I like what it did for this image.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly" - The Little Prince
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Cheryl, I am not sure if pin light would work on all images. I think it depends on the lightness or darkness of the image. I would just scroll through the blending modes and hopefully you will get an effect where it doesn't put dots all over the BG. It is really a drag to do all that erasing. And yes, I think MM does do that.
In a situation like this one, in which no shadow was cast, and if the flower is easy to mask (a plain piece of foam core behind it, perhaps), would the result be any different if all the textures -- three in this case -- were applied in processing instead of using one as a physical part of the shot? It'd save a lot of printing and ensure that the background was right for the subject. (That question has been in the back of my mind since I first read what you did. I was going to mask away the background in your image and try it, but I couldn't identify all of the textures you used and didn't know about opacities or blend modes.)
I've found that adding textures to a flower image with a white background is different than adding textures to a background that has some color or texture. When I add a texture to a white background, I usually use Multiply Blend mode for the first texture I apply. After that, I can add textures using other blend modes.
I can see a real advantage to having a textured background to start with.
I believe Mike Moats sometimes uses a printed green background--a print of a photo of grass that is blurred.
I look forward to other opinions.
I have never done this before so I am not sure. I usually either use the BG photographed image w/o textures, or start from a white BG and add textures, so I am deferring to Anita and her opinion. (thanks Anita) Dennis, after some digging I found the original photographed BG was called Grosgrain, I exposed to the right and the colour temperature was cool 5000K. The added textures were Beowulf (hard light @ 50%), and Absinthe Vert (hard light @50 %). I have included the base image if you want to try for yourself. I would be interested to see what you come up with.
Another option is to use scrapbooking paper as a bg.
I just use matte board, sometimes just the back of a coloured board, do you just use the paper from a book Anita?
I'm not sure what you mean by paper from a book. I have purchased some sheets of paper that are used by scrapbookers, in colors I might want to use. I have also used Japanese hand-made paper as a background. Other photographers use cloth. Most anything can work.
Thanks very much, Jackie, for looking up the information on the textures. I have all of them, so -- when I get a bit of time (tomorrow, I hope ???) -- I'll see what happens and add it to this thread.
My goal was to come up with the same image as yours, Jackie, by masking out the background and making a new one using the textures you did. For some reason, I got closer to your background than I did to your foreground. (Mine's the one on the left.) The most difficult part was getting the Grosgrain texture in Photoshop to match the one in your out-of-the-camera image. Even though the background isn't a match, the exercise confirms my inclination that it makes more sense -- for me, at least -- to use a white or other single-colored piece of card, cloth, or whatever behind a flower instead of printing out a texture and using it.
Pretty close Dennis. Interesting exercise, and thanks for checking that out. I guess I will save my ink from now on.
Excellent work, Dennis, in matching the backgrounds.
If I may add my thoughts. I'm not good at masking the primary subject, and hate having to mask completely. That is why sometimes I prefer to have a textured element in the background, so as to avoid having to do heavy masking. I have not, however, ever used a printed texture.
Jackie,
Greetings. Love the OP, particularly the poster edges ... well, the color, composition, & texture, too. But, I try for the edge effect just so that you have just the way I would like them to look... I'll have to keep pin light in mind.
Anita, Dennis, Great discussion. Thanks for your comments.
Cheers,
-Michael-
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