Ephemera #1

[Diane Miller]

Anita's dogwood reminded me of this one that I apparently never posted here. It was done 12 years ago. The dried blossom had fallen off and I scanned it. The texture is a handmade paper that I scanned. The border is from one of the now-defunct edge effect programs, I think it was FX Photographic Edges or OnOne PhotoFrame. I have all the edges but can't find a program that will read them now. Fortunately I had the foresight to save a few favorites as TIFF files which I can use as layers.

It was the first of a series that grew to about 16 images. I try to keep the posts here in folders so I don't go back and duplicate, but if I don't find them in that folder, I'll post some of the others in the series.

I used to work in series quite a bit and have gotten away from it -- time to go back to some conscious art.

Here's the blurb for the series:
The Ephemera images have grown into a series: an exploration of transience expressed through the interplay of layers of image elements. The digital darkroom confers incredible powers of layering elements, in which each element may interact with the others in an endless variety of ways. Often the image itself will determine the interplay, independent of any control by the artist. I feel I do not so much create these images as they create themselves for me. They often take on a life of their own and I am merely acting at their behest.

[Dennis Bishop]

The colors are wonderful, and I want to feel that texture. Everything is very nicely arranged/composed, too. I think the white border is important in two ways. It provides contrast with the texture and adds some brightness.

I used to use PhotoFrame reasonably often and was disgruntled when OnOne let it become obsolete. However, I found a way to convert their image files into tiffs and am still using them occasionally. It seems to me that it wasn't a simple change of the filename extension. It involved something I found online and could've been a batch rename, I suppose.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, Dennis -- I'll see if I can find the conversion option. Just changing the extension doesn't work -- probably need to have something changed in the file header.

[Diane Miller]

AH-HAAA!! For old OnOne PhotoFrame .frm files, changing the extension to .jpg works! Then I can open it in PS and save it as a .psd or .tif and drop it in as a layer!

For the old PhotoGraphic Edges .afx files, neither .jpg, .psd nor.tif works.

[gary ellwein]

I like the composition and color palette. The texture and border really enhance the image.

[Adhika Lie]

Simply superb, Diane. I've made some effort to work on a series but it's hard to stay the course. So, I am really looking forward to seeing more of this series.

If you don't mind turning this to an ETL moment, I have a few questions. When you said you scan the dried flower, it's only that bottom bloom right? The rest are photographs, am I correct? How did you layer it with the rest of the flower (which I assume to be a photograph)? That texture is really beautiful and I very much think it enhances the picture. If you print this on, what paper did you use? I would think that with this textured BG, you would print on a smooth paper but have you considered printing this on a textured paper and let the BG here be a plain one? Is there a reason why you choose one over the other?

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, Adhika! Everything is an ETL moment in this hobby (and many others). Yes, only the bottom flower is the dried one. I just laid it on the scanner bed and covered loosely with white paper, as it was still very 3D. (Think I still have it somewhere in one of those handy little cubic boxes that developed 120 film rolls came back in -- along with a companion dried bougainvillea flower.) The other flowers are from two different plants, shot separately (regular photography) against a black BG and stacked as layers. Maybe not even masked -- I may have used one of the lightening blending modes (but not Lighten, as it is very crude). Where there was overlap I would have resorted to making in that area at least. Then I put on the scanned paper layer and played with blending modes and masking.

The tea colored stains are on the paper, except that some are also on the dry flower, exactly matching. I live that kind of serendipity! You can find some lovely papers at art stores.

This was printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, a longstanding favorite of many fine art printers. It has very accurate profiles for many printers for great colors, a relatively smooth matte surface that doesn't contribute reflections, a solid feel and is very archival. It's been around for years, and there are now other surface variations but it remains a favorite for many printers. There are so many great papers, it's a shame mounting them under glass because handling the paper itself is part of the experience of a lovely image.

I've never been as enthusiastic about the more heavily textured papers, but also rarely like the very smooth ones, such as the gloss papers. Just a visual tactility thing, I think. But paper choice varies with the subject.

http://www.hahnemuehle.com/en/digita...t-fineart.html

[Adhika Lie]

I have printed a few photos on the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag myself and it is an excellent paper by all accounts. It's actually one of my favorite fine art paper out there, too bad that it is expensive to print all photos on them. I would like to try making something like this. It is just beautiful. Thanks for sharing the process of making the picture, Diane!

[Diane Miller]

Hope to see what you create!!

Another paper I like, especially for B/W, is Epson's Exhibition Fiber. Rich, deep, well-detailed blacks and an interesting textured semi-gloss finish. Looks like it just came off the dryer in a real darkroom.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Diane, this is spectacular. I hope you'll post the rest of the series. I just bought a scanner and if I ever find the time I'd love to try this out. I also enjoyed the paper discussion.

[Nancy Bell]

The paper texture, colors, flowers, the whole enchilada is stunning! The paper discussion is interesting as my husband has a printer, but we have never experimented. I never really know where to file such great information tidbits like this so I can find them when I want!

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, everyone! I'll post another then will be gone for a week, admiring and photographing our gorgeous new granddaughter who is a month old today.

Nancy, I copy tidbits and paste into a Word doc and try to organize it by general topics. As it grows I might split it into one on printing, one on creative techniques, etc. With some heavy editing it proves a useful reference.

[Wendy Kates]

I love this too, and appreciate your description of the process. Enjoy photographing your new granddaughter...looking forward to your images!

[Anita Bower]

The combination of elements--images, textures, border, etc.--works very well here. The colors seems to go together very nicely. I like how the orangy color in the wilted flower in picked up in other areas of the image. Excellent composition. I like the frame.

I, too, save bits and pieces of info in Word files and organize them by categories. The trick is to remember to look for them later on.

I don't do my own printing. It is done by a photo friend who does outstanding work. I first have images printed on 8 x 10 Epson Matte paper. I stick these on the walls of my studio/study. When I want a larger version that I plan to frame, I ask that they be printed on Hahnemuhle paper. I'm very happy with the results.