Week 5 ~ Fruit

 

This week's topic was fruit and being summer, I chose summer fruits - luscious peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots and a tiny bunch of grapes. There's such a  wonderful variety available at the moment and they're all so delicious. I had intended the image to reflect the summer feel this fruit has, but summer seems to be missing where I live. It's been raining all week and I know that the heavy and constant rain is causing all sorts of problems in northern NSW and QLD. By the time I finished editing the images - I couldn't make up my mind which I preferred, so I did two versions - there is barely a hint of summer in the images!

with Lensbaby Composer f8

Before I started though, I came across Digital Photography School's blog post that talked about slowing down and really looking at the subject you're going to shoot. Let the light and shape etc, determine how you're going to shoot it. So I applied that thinking to the summer fruits image. The family were banned from going anywhere near the fruit until I had finished with it! I have to say that studying the fruit and slowing down really worked. I took a fraction of the usual number of images. Unfortunately, the article didn't address how you really should make up your mind when choosing the final image and not confuse things by using different lenses... I've included the lighting diagram below to give you an indication of the set up. Again, I used my own textures applied at various opacities.

How to Add Texture to Your Photographs - a simple tutorial

I’m always asked how I add textures to my images, so I thought I would write a quick and simple recipe for you with a before and after photographic example. I use my own textures, however in this example I have downloaded some free textures from Isabelle LaFrance Photography.  Isabelle has free textures as well as free actions on her blog, so go and pay her a visit.


Here is the image BEFORE:

Step 1: Download the Free Texture Pack from Isabelle’s Website and save them onto your computer.

Step 2: Open up your Photograph. I’m using Photoshop, but I’m sure you can adapt these instructions to suit Elements.

Step 3: Open up “Burst – Free” texture that you’ve downloaded and change the colours using “Colour Balance”. I altered the colour from the original terracotta/green to a blue/fuchsia.

Step 4: Add the “Burst-Free” layer to your image. (Right click on the layers dialogue box and select “Duplicate” and select the image destination you would like the texture image to be sent to).

Step 5: Go back to your original image. It should now have the “Burst – Free” layer over the top. Resize if necessary. Set this layer to “Soft Light” and to about 63% Opacity.

Step 6: Open up “Organic – Free” texture and once again change the colours to suit. I altered the colour from the original mushroom to a turquoise.

Step 7: Add the “Organic – Free” layer to your image. Resize if necessary and set the layer to “Soft Light at about 60% Opacity.

Step 8: Duplicate the Original image and position this on top of the two textured layers.  Change this layer to “Black & White” (Go to Image – Adjustment – Black & White) and set this layer to “Soft Light” at 100% Opacity.

Step 9: Open a Curves layer mask and create a very slight S-curve – to suit your taste.  And you’re done!

Step 10: If you are posting the image up on the web, and you’ve used other people’s images – then don’t forget to give credit with links back to their site.


Here is the image AFTER:

Please Note: The “recipe” will alter with each and every image as well as each texture layer you apply.  While setting it to about 60% Soft Light works in this example, in another example, Overlay at 20% may be the effect you’re after.  The trick is to experiment; there is no right or wrong way to apply layers. Of all the layer effects, I tend to use Soft Light, Overlay, Hard Light, Multiply and Darken the most.

If you have any questions, then please leave a comment and I will try and answer it for you.  In the meantime - Enjoy! :-)