Create a Rainbow in Photoshop

A fun effect here, creating a larger-than-life rainbow on your photos or images.



The tutorial is here and is written for Photoshop CS but I used it with CS3 and there were only minor differences.

I found using the tab stops in the gradient editor a bit tricky, I didn't really know what I was doing, but other than that it's a nice tutorial to work from. Creating a good rainbow shape with the radial gradient tool can take a few goes, but ctrl-z is a lifesaver in this instance!

It's a nice effect and, though slightly tricky, worth a go.

Different Lomo Effect Tutorial

Following the success of yesterday's lomo effect tutorial, I decided to explore other digital lomography tutorials.



I chose this one from digital photography school and, again, produced great results.

In this one, the cross-processing effect of film lomography is more evident, and the fabulous vignetting and colour effects are present.

The tutorial was fairly easy to follow, so have a go!

The Lomo Effect

Lomography, an increasibly popular type of photography, is very much a back-to-basics approach. Cheap film cameras, often toy cameras, are used and there is a lomo aesthetic which is very appealing.

Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, "happy accidents," and alternative film processing are often considered part of the "Lomographic Technique." (from wikipedia)

I play with a Holga and other toy cameras, all plastic, to varied effects. One of the joys of lomography is indeed its very complete unpredictability.

The Holga's cheap construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions. Ironically, the camera's quality problems became a virtue among some photographers, with Holga photos winning awards and competitions in art and news photography. (from wikipedia again!)

The most faithful of lomographers despise digital attempts to reproduce the lomo aesthetic, so I avoided it for a long time. However, the unique beauty of this effect has led me astray and I have, for the first time, followed a 'lomo effect' tutorial for Photoshop. And I don't regret it. The results, above, are just fantastic.

The tutorial I used is here. There are probably hundreds of them but I like this one. Simple and effective.

Lomo links:
lomography.com
Lomography UK
A Guide to Lomography

Classical Art Colour Match

This colour-match tutorial states,

Adjusting your photographs to get the color 'just right' can be a chore. Think about this: The Old Masters of painting spent years of their lives learning about color. Why let all their effort go to waste on the walls of some museum when it could be used to give you a hand with color correction?

I used 'Garrotte' by Santiago Bose to really alter, and improve, the colouring of this photograph of the church in Edale, Derbyshire.



With the tutorial and the Bose image, I created this:



I then used the same technique on this portrait:


and, using the colours from this floral painting, created this quite different mood.

Further Photo to Drawing: Sunflowers.

With further exploration of the Photo to Drawing technique, I edited this image:



and from it created this one:



With help also from here when trying to understand the gradient tool.

Photo To Drawing - Photoshop

Roughly based on this tutorial from Planet Photoshop, I turned this photo:


into this, where the image is the photograph on the left, graduating to a line drawing on the right.



The photograph is of a 'Nicaragua Must Survive' poster. The manipulation could certainly be improved, but am sharing my first attempt at a new technique.

English Tea Can / China Painting Effect in Photoshop

Following this tutorial, with a few minor adaptations to make it work with Photoshop CS3, I created these images.



The originals are this one and this one, taken on holiday in Edale last summer.

Wind Turbines

Rob Walker from NowPublic.com requested use of these two images for an article about wind turbines.

They were taken at the aforementioned Heeley City Farm and were taken at different shutter speeds, the first one to freeze the motion, the second to capture it.

I approved the use of the photos, as even though it is a negative report about harnessing wind power for energy, it is reporting what the Ministry of Defence have said, rather than necessarily agreeing with those criticisms. Indeed, the two comments so far on the article seem to agree that the Ministry of Defence's supposed concerns are nonsensical.

Obsessed with the City Farm? Never!

More from Heeley City Farm

Heeley City Farm

Heeley City Farm 144, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

I went to Heeley City Farm yesterday and took lots of animal pics.

Elvis the goat was particularly photogenic, and totally played up to the camera.

Burma Follow-Up

The image I created in solidarity with the Burmese people has been used in a video on youtube, gentle touch. It's worth a look - lots of great images, to peaceful music.

You can find out more about the Free Burma Campaign.

Jane Bown (Audio)

Interview with Jane Bown

Jane Bown has been a photographer for over 50 years, spanning from the end of the Second World War onwards.

She is known for photographing many famous faces, and has a refreshingly simple approach to her art. She works in black and white, without special lighting and prefers to not know anything about her subjects. She became known for take portraits within ten minutes and sounds understated and appears the same, approaching most shoots with no other equipment than the camera. She has captured some really iconic images of really iconic people.

She was interviewed on Woman's Hour a few weeks ago, and I have uploaded the interview here as an .mp3 for you to listen to or download.

She's really interesting to listen to, and you can see more about her, and her work:

• Jane Bown Gallery (Observer)



• Jane Bown (Wikipedia)



• Jane Bown (National Portrait Gallery)

World-Wide Moment

This looks an interesting project, though the time zones thing could be confusing.

Anyhow, could be fun.

I thought that this might be of interest for some of you. More details and photos from past World Wide Moments can be found at www.worldwidemoment.com. I hope some of you will participate! Here's the gist of it:

++++++
In 18 days I would like to host a new World Wide Moment.

The code will be:

00:00_01.01.08-YTZ

That's midnight_January 1st, 2008-Your Time Zone.

Simply put: World Wide Moment is a large-scale photo experiment where everyone takes a photograph at the same moment.

So if you believe in this project and have suggestions for how to spread this idea to people in other countries, or to new people in the U.S. who have not participated in WWM-IV, please let us know!

Thanks!
-Brett Brownell aka Benji
Host/Creator WorldWideMoment
worldwidemoment@gmail.com
+++++

Local Newspaper Publication

The TJ Hughes 'Hug' photo I posted about here has been published in the Sheffield Star.

I missed it myself, but have been told by others who saw it. I'm rather pleased!

Supertram in Motion

DSC_4924, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

Taken in the early evening on Wednesday in Sheffield city centre, in the rain.

Ninety Smokers by Dan Donovan

Dan Donovan undertook an interesting project. To create a photographic documentary of smoking in the run-up to the smoking ban. He photographed smokers, smoking in places where it would soon become illegal.

I undertook this project with the aim of taking a series of portraits of smokers in locations that will be affected by the smoking ban; to archive the final moments of their freedom to smoke publicly.
This collection of work isn’t about either promoting or vilifying the act of smoking; it’s intended to capture an honest representation of smoking culture in Britain pre-July 2007.
The act of smoking has been increasingly demonised over the last number of years and these portraits take in individuals from all over England, from every walk of life, who were prepared to make a visual statement of their objection to being represented in this negative way.
The people here are law-abiding citizens who would be committing a criminal offence if they posed for a photograph in the same location today.

Interesting extra:

On my travels I met up with two people who work in the field of mental health, Kate Parry in Oxfordshire and Steve Thompson in Derbyshire. Steve says Nicotine has been shown to reduce the side-effects of psychoactive medication – more than 90 per cent of people with schizophrenia smoke, and nicotine is being used by self-medicating sufferers. Steve has been challenging attempts to try and outlaw smoking for patients.

You can see his collection of ninety smokers, and read the story behind it on his website.

TJ Hughes sends you a hug

TJ Hughes sends you a hug, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

with their faulty lighting, in Sheffield city centre tonight.

My Favourite Favourite

grace, originally uploaded by _rebekka.

Looking through my contacts' photos on flickr this evening, by far my favourite is this by Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir.

Amazing perspective, colours, composition and atmosphere.

NPR - Think Pink

America's National Public Radio blog has used one of my photos :-)



They used it in an interesting entry about the commercialisation of breast cancer research 'products' which is a concern I have shared. I'm wary of the 'spend, spend, spend' and branding issues when we often don't know how much money from any given 'pink' product goes to cancer research, and there are usually better ways to help. Not to mention many of the 'pink' beauty etc. products which contain untold numbers of chemicals, some of which have possible links to causing cancer!

So, very glad they chose my photo in the first place, extra glad that it's accompanying an interesting article!

What is NPR?
NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. A privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization, NPR serves a growing audience of 26 million Americans each week in partnership with more than 860 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations. Each NPR Member Station serves local listeners with a distinctive combination of national and local programming. With original online content and audio streaming, NPR.org offers hourly newscasts, special features and ten years of archived audio and information.