Tulips and Glassware

HAVING FUN IN YOUR CREATIVITY!

This may not look too creative, but for me having the glass plate in an upright position in front of a glass jar is being creative.

For me this was just a fun photo shoot experimenting with clear glass and tulips/daffodils. I actually have quite a few versions of all of this and I'll be sharing at least one more version further on.

Anyway, the background in the original image was white poster board.

After I got the image into the computer I took a textured image I had created which is just made up of colors. I then darkened it quite a bit before I placed it as a layer on the image I had just photographed. Then after quite a bit of mixing and erasing and adding back onto the original image, I got the above look.

It looks kinda wild and modern and I like the final result.


Challenge for today:

Experiment with positioning glassware in unusual positions.

Roses in a Cookie Jar

USING UNUSUAL ITEMS

The one thing about looking at magazines - you gain new ideas. However using a cookie jar was entirely of my own thinking.

Now actually this isn't a very good picture - the roses look too pale. Yet, I like the image because I used an antique cookie jar AND the background is one of my own images printed out to a size 12" by 18" in length.

Nothing special was done to the image except smudging the foreground material a bit.

Challenge for today:

Once again, try your hand at printing out and use one of your own images as the background.

Morning Glories and Other Flowers

LETTING THE MATERIAL GUIDE THE PHOTO SHOOT!

I had a soft, pastel colored night gown. I love it; however when you start using clothes as a part of the background/foreground, you generally are limited on how much material you actually have to use in the picture.

Anyway, I was willing to take the risk and I helped minimize my photography problem by using the material only in the foreground and I used white poster board for the background.

I'm not a floral arranger and the flowers in the vase proves it, but I do like the way the morning glories are arranged on the material. (Remember, morning glories tear easily and they are called morning glories for a reason.)

After I got the shot I wanted and downloaded the image into the computer, I got out a textured image I had created and placed that as a layer. With such light colors on the background/foreground it was easy to adjust the opacity of the layer and get just enough of a "painting" look.


Challenge for today:

Start thinking about photographing some morning glories - the blossoms are large and they can fill up a lot of space in an image.

Hollyhocks and Peppermint

HOLLYHOCKS AREN'T FUN TO ARRANGE!

I love it when flowers have large blossoms because they take up a lot of space.....And to be able to photograph flowers which seem SO much a part of the past - WOW!!!!

BUT.......hollyhocks DO have major photographing problems.

1. The flower stems are extremely tall - some over 6 feet!
2. Their seed pods makes the stems top heavy which causes the stem to twirl around and difficult to arrange in a vase.
3. When you are in the flower garden you pretty much have to decide which stem to cut into. A stem may have over 25 unopened buds on it, 3 blossoms in full bloom, 1 blossom starting to open, and 7 seed pods. And everything seems to be randomly placed on the stem. You might have 1 full blossom 5 inches down from the top of the stem.....then another flower in full bloom 7 inches further down........
4. And hollyhocks are biannual.

Now back to the above image.

I chose a few stems which had blossoms close to the top. Because the blooms were toward the top, I was able to leave most of the stem still intact with the plant for further blooming.

I then picked some fresh peppermint to add a different color to the picture and to add more foliage to the image.

I chose cream color material for the foreground and background because I knew I was going to add a light colored textured background later with the computer.

After I shot the picture I wanted, I downloaded it into the computer and placed a textured layer over the hollyhock image. I adjusted the opacity and then I went into Photoshop Elements 3 and used the pastel filter. Because I wanted to offset the brightness of the pastel image, I went back and made a layer of the pastel filter and placed it over the combined textured layer/hollyhock image and then adjusted the pastel image's opacity.


Challenge for today:

Hurry up and plant those hollyhock seeds. You still might be able to get some blooms next year. But you have to hurry now!!!!!!

Oranges and Flowers

GET SOME FRUIT INTO THE PICTURE!

Many paintings use the combination of fruit and flowers and you can too. If you don't have any in your yard, next time you go to the store just purchase several oranges, apples, etc. Of course you should know ahead of time how you will use the fruit in your photo shoot.

In order to minimize the cost of purchasing fresh produce, it helps when you plan on using a small vase. A small vase means you don't have to have a lot of space to fill up with flowers and fruits/vegetables.

Now on to the above image. The vase I used in the image wasn't too much bigger in height than the oranges I used.

For the background material, I used my favorite all around Wal-Mart purchased material. It is VERY WIDE and I have at least 3 yards of it. This gives me a lot of moving around room. One thing I love about about this material is the coloring. It has different shades of brown, yellow, red, etc., in it.

One of the hard things about still life images is trying to make everything seem like it ISN'T a still life and trying to keep it from being boring. Somehow peeling one of the oranges and leaving what I peeled on the table beside the orange makes it seem more realistic and not boring.


Challenge for today:

Check out the fruits and vegetables available and try your hand at combining them into an image with flowers.

Pretty Petals

LOOKING AT PETALS!

I fell in love with these flowers, though I'm not quite sure what they are. There is something about the petals which excite me!

I placed the flowers and some ground cover in a small vase.

For the background I used white poster board because I knew I wanted to add a textured background. White would not compete against the colors of the background I was going to add later.

After I got the image I wanted into my computer I added the textured background and adjusted the opacity of the textured layer.

I then combined the added textured layer to the original image and then saved everything as a different image.

As a finishing touch I softened the image a bit.


Challenge for today:

Take a close look at those flower petals.

Morning Glories

GETTING CLOSE TO THE FLOWERS!

Morning glories are beautiful, but you DO have to get to them early in the morning for they close when it gets pretty sunny outside and they do close on you after a while inside. Also be careful in picking them because their petals are very delicate and tear easily!

For this image I picked a few and placed them in a simple vase. The background I used was white poster board. I knew I was going to place a textured background as a layer on top of the photograph so I went ahead and made everything simple by using white as the background.

After I took the photo and chose which one I wanted to use, I got the image into the computer and pasted a textured layer on top of the original photograph. I then adjusted the opacity of the textured layer.

Then when I was pleased with the way the image looked, I softened the combined image/layer and "softened" it.


Challenge for tomorrow:

See if you can find some morning glories or some wild morning glories to photograph.