This is the view from my friend's townhome. I really have no idea what to call this technique or its result. I start with a good quality image and do my usual levels, curves and then sharpen it. I flatten the image and duplicate the background layer, use Find Edges on it and then set the blend mode to Multiply. I sometimes alternate successive dupllicate layers as Overlay and Multiply. If I like, I'll apply heavy saturation and a host of other tweaks until I get the image to look almost like a cartoon with pastel overtones. I doubt this is all that unique, but I do like the results I've gotten on images such as this.
Last edited by Paul Wolf; 09-27-2008 at 06:25 PM.
Reason: Correct misspelling
Nice technique! It reminds me of an illustrated action only with more saturation. It takes a strong image with bold lines to carry off this much contrast but I think you nailed this one. It seems a tiny bit "dark" overall but I think that's just a matter of personal preference.
Julie, Al: Thank you so much for the comments and the suggestion to lighten it. Here's the result of doing just that. The beautiful thing about this technique is you have practically unlimited lattitude in how you render it. Here, I didn't just adjust brightness, I did a lot of selective burning and dodging, adjusted saturation, used layer masks, adjusted selective colors, adjusted curves. Why, it's hard to stop!!
Man oh man! I can see how you could get totally lost in that kind of technique. I'd be sitting at the computer for hours!!! Both versions are very nice. I do like the lightness of the details in the building in the second version but think I prefer the sky and grass being darker in the first version. Either way...it's so well done and you can tell you put a lot of thought and work into it.
Might I suggest giving a framed copy of the final version to your friend? I'm sure they'd cherish it!
Julie:
I do, indeed, go on for hours and hours. It's fun, too, to try different kinds of images and varying different degrees of applying the technique. I've used this on a sunflower, a couple of birds, a bench in the forest, a city square in Tampico. Some images are more suited than others, but I never know what will happen until I dive in.
This shot, by the way, was before Hurricane Ike. I haven't been back since then, but I'm hoping damage was minimal in that area. Regardless, I agree with giving a framed copy to my friend. I have a bit more work to do. But then that will start a whole new round of hours and hours of experimenting.
I agree with Jules that the sky and grass are nicer in the original. Looking over to the right of the sky in the 2nd version, at the cute little cloud hanging out there, the digital artifacts are quite obvious. The original sky is quite pixellated as well... This might be an effect that you were looking for, though - or a product of converting to the JPG for posting...???
Great effects, I will have to add this to my list of things to try!
Danita's View
