Thank you for your lovely comments on yesterday's mystery (to me) creation of twirls. Today, I decided to figure out which PS tools I used to see if I could recreate it. Here's what I learned:
1. there are 3 places where 3D is possible and I found the one I used yesterday but did not write it down and now can't find it again
2. I used 3 layers to create this shot which is exciting as layers have intimidated me. BUT, I didn't use any masks which I realize is my actual problem, not layers themselves
3. I did export something back to lightroom and then back to PS again, but am not sure why -- and think it was what became the background to this.
4. Somewhere in all this I had to create something called a smart object from layers before 3D would stop being grayed out as an option
5. It was fun...will try again.
Oh, this started out as a rack of DIVVY bikes (the kind / color available for rent throughout the city) on a street with the L station in the background. The colors are from the bike and L station and I think the lavender is more or less from the shades of gray in the street. Not sure exactly where that came from.
Layers still intimate and confuse me, so I'll wait till I get a new laptop and a good editing program before ever attempting anything so absolutely astounding. I love abstracts and this was once again an instant fav for me. Taffy you are very creative and a talented photographer, love your work!
I love the colors and the swirls! I'm just getting the hang of PS layers and masks myself. One of the things it took me a while to figure out is that many options like filters are greyed out if your photo is RGB16. All of mine are when I jump from LR. If you select Image-Mode-8bits/Channel it will convert it and the filters will no longer be greyed out. Hope this helps and I didn't bore you with something you already knew :-)
I have read the above five times and now my brain hurts!! LOL!! Layers and Masks are my big thing in PS that I have not got to grips with yet. The least of my problems today!! I am hoping my 2 day course later this month will make this all become clear!! Fav for your creativity Taffy!!
I studied all that you did, not minding at all that I don't have Photoshop and don't have to understand very much of it. But I so appreciate hearing how you did it.
Fantastic! I bet you had such fun creating this. I imagine you can relate (as can most 365'ers to the Latest Discussion comment on "Has this ever happened to you?" I love this! Fav
I had a good chuckle when I read your caption Taffy, sounds just like the way I learn things, two steps forward, one backwards or maybe sideways. Whatever, the final result is stunning and very visually attractive, and I like it very much. Can see that hanging on the wall of the right house. I was interested to learn how you used the term 'divvy', here the only way it's used is in (police) divvy van, i.e. divisional van with lockup facility, or sometimes to 'divvy up' (divide) something. I love learning about linguistic differences.
@golftragic I thought you'd enjoy the steps, such as they are/were. DIVVY stands for something like Divvy-up your ride -- sharing the bikes. It may stand for something else as well, but that's the informal way of it. These are the bikes in racks around the city. You either get a pass or use a credit card to rent it and then it's timed so that when you return the bike to whatever rack you use in the city, you're billed then. Very useful!
@taffy Thx Taffy, we have them in Melbourne (and maybe other capital cities too), but every bike has a helmet to go with it too which is, apparently a huge deterrent to some people. But it's mandatory, too bad, so sad. Australia has gone down the nanny-state path rather too much for my liking, things were much simpler when I was a kid. For example, if I called some kid I knew an idiot there'd be a slanging match, now there'd probably be a law-suit.
Oh, another zingy result. :) I have to take time to play with this 3D feature... good for you, to do so. We have college kids visiting for spring break right now, but maybe in the future? Excellent and complex twirling play.
I use PS a lot for work based design stuff, so the layers don't worry me and I am getting to grips with masking. But there is still so much in PS that I don't understand, 3D, sharpening for example! So I really appreciated your narrative of the process. It really does feel like that sometimes doesn't it? I'm impressed that you can even remember some of it!
Good on you for making headway with PS! I am still so intimidated by it. Did you take a class or just find some good online tutorials? Love the result here!
@pflaume I'm embarrassed to say I was clicking around and saw 3D and wondered what it was. I then started testing different controls to see what they would do. After a few hours (probably 5 minutes worth of tutorial would have helped here!), I got a sense of what controls do, but not really why. So, the ones I've done that I like are sort of accidental, and sort of a mashup of sorting out some things on my own. I do want to figure it out!
@taffy Not sure if this will help, but I did some of my learning with masks in other products, outside of PS, such as Perfect Effects because there is no need to use the actual colours and brushes to do the masking. Thats where I started...
For me once I got it in my head about the black and white and how that affects the photo and shows in the mask thumbnail, it made more sense - white shows the effect you want (or adjustment layer effect) and black keeps the original.
I must admit that doing it in PS though does take some thought, because of having to use the b&w / grayscale colours and brushes.
Very cool. I took a class on Photoshop masking but am having trouble recreating what I did in class. The class went too fast to take notes. I guess you really have to keep at it.
For me once I got it in my head about the black and white and how that affects the photo and shows in the mask thumbnail, it made more sense - white shows the effect you want (or adjustment layer effect) and black keeps the original.
I must admit that doing it in PS though does take some thought, because of having to use the b&w / grayscale colours and brushes.
Good luck, you'll get there!