a bit of a craptastic mess created in photoshop... really struggled with sorting the stream of sand going by my face and landing in my hands... i am sure if i was more photoshop-savvy i'd be able to figure out how to make this look right...
too late! it's first thing i do whenever i have to look at your work - always view large! this is awesome, kiddo! i love love love it! although so sorry you almost got buried in that sand. :-)
We took two different approaches. I wanted to turn me into sand, not sure if that is what you wanted to do.
I first tried several filters to produce sand but that didn't work, then I switched to doing a displacement map of me onto a sand texture/pattern. This worked better, I didn't take the hourglass picture, I used one I found online. Thus I had to deal with the "built-in reflections" from the original image. I used the clone tool to get around them, and then placed me into the hourglass (and used some blending adjustments on the layers).
I then used the clone tool with a fairly sharp brush (for the more defined edges) some more to move sand and build the overall look of the sand within the hourglass. Sounds like a lot of work, but it wasn't too difficult (fortunately I think I've perfected this skill...it that good?). Once finished I didn't really like the overall look so to get some consistency across the image I've learned to add a slight texture (sometime a lot, just depends on the edit) on top of a snapshot layer. Lastly look over the composition to see if some tweaks are needed or final tone adjustments.
Clone tools, brushes…. no idea what you are talking about! It might have been quicker to build an hour glass from scratch, set the camera on a tripod, set to remote, climb inside, release the sand, hit the remote … and smile while catching the sand! :-)
must tag this for theme-through. if I wasn't
leaving for vacay i'd have rushed me to get one of this hour glass. maybe i'll find one during my travels, non?
@summerfield you can borrow mine when you get back... not sure about tagging it... this theme has me confused... everything is seen thru the lens of the camera soooooo - what isn't "through"?
I first tried several filters to produce sand but that didn't work, then I switched to doing a displacement map of me onto a sand texture/pattern. This worked better, I didn't take the hourglass picture, I used one I found online. Thus I had to deal with the "built-in reflections" from the original image. I used the clone tool to get around them, and then placed me into the hourglass (and used some blending adjustments on the layers).
I then used the clone tool with a fairly sharp brush (for the more defined edges) some more to move sand and build the overall look of the sand within the hourglass. Sounds like a lot of work, but it wasn't too difficult (fortunately I think I've perfected this skill...it that good?). Once finished I didn't really like the overall look so to get some consistency across the image I've learned to add a slight texture (sometime a lot, just depends on the edit) on top of a snapshot layer. Lastly look over the composition to see if some tweaks are needed or final tone adjustments.
Did this help or did I babble?
ps - i wasn't trying to turn myself into sand... just be buried by it ;p
leaving for vacay i'd have rushed me to get one of this hour glass. maybe i'll find one during my travels, non?