Cecilia Clark  


Antarctica-Alaska-Aberration by Cecilia Clark

December 2020 - Antarctica-Alaska-Aberration

December 2020 - Cecilia Clark

Original

December 2020 - Cecilia Clark

Original 2

About the Image(s)

I often take photos of reflections and textures, try to make pleasing abstracts, but always feel like I’ve failed. For this abstract, I’ve combined a texture with my favorite reflection that has only ever been liked by me. I like the reflection because it so reminded me of the watery patterns in Uzbek ikat textiles. The watery technique is called aber-band.

The water reflection was taken in Tenake Springs, Alaska, in 2015. I used a tripod, Nikon D750 camera, ISO 50, 420mm focal length on a rented 150-600 Tamaron lens, f/6.0, 1/125.

The rust/bullet hole layer was taken on Deception Island, Antarctica, in 2016. No tripod, same camera, ISO 100, Nikon 35mm 1.4 lens, f/4.0, 1/500.

Processing for both images began in LR with exposure adjustments and spotting. I exported the reflection to PS, duplicated the image, and increased the canvas size add 1.5 inch of space to the top of the image. I moved the bottom layer up to cover the additional canvas space. Using a mask on one layer, I blended/smoothed the line between the images.

Next I tried a series of Topaz Impressions 2 styles finally settling on “A Pencil Haze” adjusted to eliminate texture and keep my original background. I set the mode to overlay and the opacity to 62%.

As a lark, I brought in the rust image as a layer set to soft light with 85% opacity and it seemed to work. I went back to the reflection layer to add a mask and gradient to the white side of the image to give it a bit of an edge burn.

I rotated the image to vertical and brought it back to LR to add a little sharpening and exposure adjustment. I really like the way the rust and bullet hole layer adds a whole new feel to the image while maintaining the watery texture that originally drew my eye to the reflection. I look forward to your suggestions and opinions.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




 
You've combined two interesting photos here. I like each one individually, esp the rust, but this particular mix of a soft flowing image and hard detailed one didn't work for me.

I tried a variation on your theme. First, I blurred the rust image by a couple of pixels and put the water image on top at 75% opacity. Since both were taken in cold locales, I added a bit of blue using a "Crisp Winter" LUT via a Lookup Adj Layer. Finally I added a bit of contrast to the top of the image using a levels adj layer with a black to white gradient on the mask. What do you think?
  Posted: 12/03/2020 00:15:01
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Hi Witta, To my eye I need more contrast than you have achieved. I followed your steps as best as I could with my starting point having more contrast. Because my starting point was warmer, the Crisp Winter LUT made the image too cyan so I added a hue/sat layer to move it to blue. Regarding my final image submitted above, I liked the warmth lent by the rust texture. Also, when I made the image a vertical, I thought the dark side liked like bird feathers. Thanks for exploring another way to make this. Not sure if I'll ever create an abstract that works for me.   Posted: 12/04/2020 15:50:04
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I like your color tone better than mine. And yes, it's fun to keep trying. Your feather thought is quite interesting -- maybe build on that...   Posted: 12/04/2020 15:57:42



Connie Reinhart   Connie Reinhart
My first reaction to this was confusion. It seems to be two separate images. Remember the film days when the processor would cut the film strip in the middle of a negative? My personal preference is for the horizontal version. I really like the colors and patterns. This definitely an image that is fun to play with.   Posted: 12/27/2020 12:49:19



Linda M Medine   Linda M Medine
I love these colors together. I feel like there is some many things that can be done with these tones, textures and colors. Love it. I have a sample what I would do.   Posted: 12/28/2020 12:41:52
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Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
Linda, I really like your interpretation! The diagonal plus the texture are impressive to me.   Posted: 12/28/2020 19:57:21



Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
Cecilia, I too am fascinated by patterns, and have taken many of various ripples and reflections in the water. I've also got a lot of rust images. I find the colors in rust to be mesmerizing! Your original images are very nice. I especially like the bullet hole and rust!

In this particular rendition, along with others, I prefer the horizontal to the vertical format. In my opinion, it would also be better if the two patterns did not bisect the final image through the middle. I'd sacrifice some of the water half or some of the rust toned half. You might also want to consider the use of a Selective Color adjustment layer, to bring out the reds a bit more in the final image or otherwise select one color to add emphasis and contrast.

Are you aware of PS's Content-Aware Fill option on the crop tool? It allows one to expand an image in any direction, and it fills in the new space with the same pattern near the original edge. You simply pull the crop edges out, click the Content Aware checkbox at the top right of the Crop tool menu bar, and then you crop. Another way of doing this is to use the crop tool to expand an edge, adding new blank space. Then you use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select all of the new blank space and some of the adjacent image (only a little of the image space is needed). Then click Edit > Fill > Content Aware.


  Posted: 12/28/2020 20:10:59