Here’s another attempt, and again gold didn’t really convince me. It looked much better than yesterday’s landscape, but this time I craved for more contrast. A B&W layer in “Overlay” mode did the trick, and apart from increasing contrast, it also shifted the colors towards amber. Not really bad, I think.
The Song of the Day is “Amber Waves” from the 2002 Tori Amos album “Scarlet’s Walk”. Hear it on YouTube.
Am I too direct and honest if I just say "to me it looks like conceptual stock photography done quite right"? To me, it lacks personality of itself or of you as the creator... Gorgeous colors, tho. cheers ®
No, not at all. Well, the saying goes that you shouldn't try to defend an image, and actually that's not what I'm up to anyway. When you make one of them per day, sometimes two or more, you can't be too attached to them. This is not painting. I don't invest a month or two of my life, and much of what I do is random experimenting. Take this "gold" thing. I found it by chance when I made that golden water, and then I've stored a copy of the PSD file with only the essential layers in it. I didn't even try to simplify the absurd combination of layers, I just apply it to images where I think it could work. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes I save the result, sometimes I throw it away and sometimes it becomes something else. None of this is a statement, none of this is meant to mean anything. It's experimental and I fully accept when it often leads to nothing. On the other hand, some of these things sometimes lead to surprising results, results that surprise me as well. Some don't 😄
I like this - as a conceptual abstract. But it really doesn't suggest anything about your personality, I agree. I've often used a pure black, a pure white, a middle gray, or a B&W layer to increase contrast, to open up shadowed areas and tone down highlights - usually with Overlay, but sometimes Multiply will work, too. But I never thought to make any of this into an Action. I rarely use Actions, anyway, as for me, each image is truly an experiment. I often end up doing something entirely different from what I'd originally intended, too. Also, sometimes I use a Filter>Stylize>Find Edges layer to sharpen, instead of the usual tools for sharpening. Multiply, usually. Sometimes the Find Edges layer works best on top, other times it works better beneath the other layer(s). Flo
John (2011-08-02)
A very appealing image. Good work! John
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