Floating

There's too much going on here to explain my entire process.  A few things that were used are the Lighting Effects filter (for the frame), Liner Burn blending modes & smart objects.  Sometimes I wonder if subconsciously I've banded minimalism from my work.  

Inagural Ball Polaroids

As part of the Inauguration Events this year, I was able to attend an Inaugural Ball at the Smithson American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery. Lots of pictures where taken. I really liked the contrasting colors in this photo and the 'stopped' action of the people walking. 

The original photo was slightly blurry, which I actually liked.  To play this up in Photoshop, I used three filters, HDR, Fresco & Film Grain and added a layer of Gradient Shading to focus the focal point of the photo.  Instead of just posting the photo, I wanted to do something more with it. I have had an image of image of blank Polaroids just waiting to be used.  I changed the background and 'cutout' the blank Polaroid so I could add my image.  To finish, I added text with a scripted handwritten typeface.  

Tracks

A little nod to my roots and something I use everyday.  This image is composed of 3 layers.  The bottom, the photo of the tracks with an HDR Filter process applied.  The next scan of an old sheet of paper, with the layer mode set to overlay.  On top, I've used a gradient to darken the corners and focus the viewers eye. 

Abstraction Number ?

In my option making an abstract work of art is a game of opposites.  For me there is often little methodical thought of composition, yet in the end the product is complex.  It's normally a process with lots of  experimentation and small output.  In this case, I was taking pictures at night during the Holiday Season.  It was hard to hold the little point & shoot camera still, and after a few blurry pictures, I started playing around with shaking the camera to see what would happen.  Fifteen pictures later, I have one I like.  

I've applied filters & techniques that I'm a fan of, which I have listed in previous postings.   

Complimentary Phone

This image combines two photos.  On each photo I copied the original layer, desaturated it, then colorized it with brown tones.  I then set the brown tone layer to multiply.  The color of the frame was changed with the Hue/Saturation sliders before the this process was applied. The photo of the phone has a texture filter applied to it, so it appears like canvas.  

Just incase you didn't notice there's a little color theory lesson going on here and I also happen to like red and teal tones together.