Forums → Art, Music, and Writing → Photography by Tiamot

I have to agree with Devoidless, that the third pic is pretty awesome, although I am looking at some of your pics. Are you filtering them using Photoshop?

No filters. I tweak the brightness/contrast and sometimes re-layer the same image. Other images are untouched.

well when I said filter, what I really meant was edit, like this image here...



It clearly looks like you selected part of the image and put it into a white background without feathering the selection before you pull it over, or not feathering it enough.(feathering the image I have found can make it look a bit more natural, and less like it is Photoshopped) Although I can't say for sure what you did with this image or the second image on this page for that matter, so that is why I am asking.

No problem. I was actually typing up something about this in openoffice, but you responded before I finished. I have no problem telling people which photos I've touched up and how I did it. It's all part of the art process, and I hope that my techniques will inspire other people to make art. (I dunno, there still is this part of me that wants to keep it a big trade secret or something, but I don't think that's progressive. ^_^ )

So, yes, the photo you referenced was obviously edited. I was never trying to hide the fact. (Not that I assume you thought so!) I guess you could say that all of my pics are &quothotoshopped" since I have to resize and crop things, but to many it only counts if you do some heavier editing.

In the pic you referenced I did what has become rather typical of my style: black and white/color layering. I never know when I'm going to use the technique until I open up the photo and see what I have to work with. If I get a shot that's a good candidate, I'll play around with it to see if the technique enhances the subject, or if it just mucks it up.

Here's what I did for the above pic: Made two copies of the shot. One was rendered black and white, the other was left in color. I then pushed the contrast and brightness up on the B&W pic to make it pop out. (You can see this effect real well in the first pic I posted, the one that accidentally went up three times. It was a natural shot, with the contrast hyped up to make it more dramatic.)

I then layered the color version on top of the black and white version and toyed with the transparency and blending until I was happy. I then used the eraser to get rid of some stray background lines. (Siding from my house!) On a whim I popped in the light burst on top of the star and it ended up looking neater than I had supposed! At any rate, I didn't feather anything because I wanted that stark contrast. I like the way the subject looks as if they're floating in a void.

Oh, and of course, I made a new blank layer and stuck my signature on it. That's pretty obvious.

For the second picture on this page, the white flower, I just blacked out the background. The flower part was left alone. When I got the shot home and looked at it, I saw that I got a great macro shot of the flower, but the background was distracting. So, away it went, leaving me with just what I wanted people to see: the flower itself!

Now, on the third shot with the violin, all I did was make the violin and necklace grayscale. I did this by placing the original color version on top of the grayscale version of the image and erased the parts that I didn't want color in. I then flattened the layers without blending.

The last two are untouched save for my signature.


Anyway, I hope some photoshoppers will give layering a try. Natural untouched shots are all well and good, but I really encourage photographers to get creative with their work. Some amazing results can come out of it. If anyone else has any questions I'll be glad to share!

hmm OK well I am actually glad you told me how you did the violin effect. I have been looking for a way to change colors of only certain parts without using selections, because of certain effects I have been trying to create with images I try to edit.(like this one time I tried to make a sword crimson red,and failed at it) Anyways the only I didn't like about the image I had reposted,was the way the hair looked. The rest of it was fine though.Although in the macro flower image was that streak of what seems to be grey at the top of the image on purpose?

At the very top of the image,in the black background? If you see something there it's probably just a matter of your monitor. I don't see anything on mine. But there is a gray blob on the edge of one of the flower petals. It's actually a little bug sitting there. He's out of focus though, since I was focusing on the center of the flower rather than him!

Let me know how your photoshopping is going and if that erasing technique is working for you.

Here's a few more, recently taken. The flowers are from yesterday. The photo of the girl is from today's photoshoot with my sister. ^_^

That one on the second page with the mountains was super! Where was it?

That one on the second page with the mountains was super! Where was it?

Okay because it was just gorgeous. Put some more mountain pictures if you have any.

Okay because it was just gorgeous. Put some more mountain pictures if you have any.

CORRECTION: That photo was from Trollstigen, not Trollveggen. I always get the two mixed up. So, ok, the difference, besides them being two different places? Trollstigen means The Troll Path and Trollveggen means The Troll Wall. They're nearby each other and I have photos of both.

I have a TON of Norway photos, so I'll do a few at a time.



An image of the small river that runs through Vang, the Viking Cemetery in Oppdal.




A view of Vinstradalen



A photo of Snøhetta, a high peak in Norway in the Dovrefjell.

That's supposed to be Snohetta, with a line through the o. Dangnabit, the proper character won't show up!

Wow they are awesome. Do you get to travel to take pictures?