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Digital art from photos

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What to do with all those rejects?

I know, I should be striving to take the perfect photo (and I do! Strive I mean), but in the meantime it seems a shame to waste all the others. There are plenty of reasons for trying filters - over exposure happens, sometimes you just can't avoid those cluttered backgrounds, just a little bit blurred or out of focus. Sometimes a subject just looks better if it's made into a digital painting or sketch - you can up the colour saturation without it looking unnatural, add a sense of movement, and of course, get rid of or highlight certain details. For commercial use, you can hopefully do away with a model release as well. And time: I like sketching and painting, and photography, though it's a case of one or the other due to time constraints, and photography wins. You do still need the basics of a good composition there to start with, though of course you can move objects around as well.

You don't even need Photoshop. There are plenty of filters around that will work within other photo editing software, or even on their own - I use Filter Forge as a stand alone program, though it also works as a Photoshop plugin, and you can edit the filters if you get the right version. Included is a multitude of wondrous filters, effects, textures and pattern generators. What I like about these filters is that they have almost infinite variables, though that can sometimes be time consuming getting the right mix. You'll also need a reasonably fast processor and plenty of RAM to render some of the filters, my dual core Macbook Pro gets rather warm and slow with the more complicated effects (now a quad core iMac, with a great increase in speed).
Anyway, here are some 'before and after's"

Photo editing software on Amazon

The Show Pony

This pony really caught my eye at a local show, standing in the perfect pose with the sun backlighting it's mane and forelock, and the background fairly dark, so I knew it was going to be tricky. Even processing the photo from raw wouldn't recover the highlights, so I cropped and enlarged it, darkened the background a bit more, and applied an altered version of emme's sketchy painting filter from Filter Forge.

The Show Pony by ruralfrance

Nice portrait, terrible background

With such a pretty face I had to salvage this horse somehow, so this meant a complete cutout of the horse except where it was already against the sky, and cloning the background sky over the rest. This is using Northernshadow's 'Another Watercolour' filter, which accentuates the details nicely, lightens the contrast over all, and with a bit of extra saturation.

Ready to go by ruralfrance

Isolating the subject

This cluttered background meant a complete cut out, even between the wheel spokes, though the advantage of the sketchy painting filter is that you don't have to be too accurate. I had the filter set on one of the sketchier settings, which gives a feeling of movement and speed, and then later added a grunge frame filter to give a rough edge for t-shirts.

Trials rider birthday card by ruralfrance

A rock climber

A very mundane and low resolution photo of a rock climber given a new lease of life with some of the background cut away and a blue gradient added to give a better feeling of height, then given the watercolour treatment for use as a business card template.

Rock climbing business card by ruralfrance

The trouble with horse shows

...is the people and beer tents! It's almost impossible to get a good clean shot. With this one I cloned the background and removed the headcollars very roughly, enlarged it, and gave it a go with the oil effect Sketchy Painting filter

Mare and foal print by ruralfrance

Draft horse team

This one was cropped too close behind the horses, with a nasty pole in the background, an arm on the left hand side and a distracting diagonal of trees at the back. I extended the background on the right, removed the arm and trees, and desaturated the green a little, et voila! Sketchy oil filter again.

Draft horse team in harness by ruralfrance

What to do with a maple

This Japanese maple photo is quite nice on it's own, but I wanted just a little more oomph, especially to use on various products. So, I've used two filters here, the first one is similar to the Flood filter below, but from Filterforge. These water reflection filters are often overused, but can work very well with thought. I had 4 photos of this maple, and this is the only one it really worked on. You can vary the water height, amount of turbulence in the water, shading etc. Just right for a business card conveying peace and tranquility.
The second is an abstract filter, which I used just because I like the colours of the image, and makes it ideal for a canvas print. The settings can be varied from water ripple effects to completely unrecognisable abstracts. I'm not a great lover of abstracts, and I suppose this is a borderline abstract as it does look like water, but I like this more subdued setting, again for the tranquility of the image.

Maple reflections abstract canvas wrappedcanvas

Two examples from Bebop's store

Bebop cropped and sharpened the poppy on the left to concentrate on the colour, form and texture, to create this gorgeous poster. She cropped just the tiny portion shown on the pond photo, and enlarged it, flipped it horizontally, and used the watercolour filter in Photoshop Elements to make this lovely pastel poster.

Poppy by Bebops

Pastel Impressions by Bebops

Some other filter styles

Flood Filter
pics4merch has this beautiful example of the Flood filter from Flaming Pear

Zen business card by pics4merch

Watercolour filter
From littlewingdesign, a lovely example of the watercolour filter in Photoshop 7

Purple Iris Inspirational Poster Print print

Purple Iris Inspirational Poster Print by littlewingdesign

Displacement Maps
An interesting example of using displacement maps in Gimp. I must admit I haven't experimented with displacement maps at all, but one step at a time! DigitalDreambuilder describes the results here.

Union Jack Flag Of Great Britain Speaker Doodle doodle

The Naked Doodle Speaker & Union Jack Flag Of Great Britain Speaker Doodle
by DigitalDreambuilder
I can't show the Gimp layer I used but the Naked Doodle speaker above illustrates the features better in the image whose layers were used in creating the displacement map for Gimp. The doodle speaker with the Union Jack illustrates the effect of using the 'Displace Map' filter of Gimp to produce a 3d textured surface on a 2d surface. The flag appears to be laid over the surface of a loudspeaker embossed into the surface of the real speaker.
Using the Displacement Map filter in Gimp requires a lot of patience and experimentation to get the effect right, too detailed to describe the steps here.

Accented edges
From debinSC This photo was taken early morning and I liked the sun rays flaring. When I looked at the photo though, the blossom didn't have as much of a "glow" as it had seemed to my eye when I first saw it. I used the "Accented Edges" filter in PS Elements, maximizing the brightness of the edges, and this is the result.

Glowing Ginger Blossom Postcard postcard

Glowing Ginger Blossom Postcard by debinSC

Online Editors
A whole variety of filters can be found for use online, which means uploading your image to work on it. These examples are from CountryCorner, whose store has many other examples, using Befunky, an online editor with a subscription for commercial use..

Get Moovin! Funny Cow Office Reminder mousepad

Sheep Farm or Shear Service, Vintage Hair Salon & Get Moovin! Funny Cow Office Reminder by CountryCorner

Lastly, two great examples of what can be achieved by using combinations of filters - specifics not given.

Pelican Gliding by MaeFlowers

undisturbed life of an apple by hutsul

Comments Welcome!

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Gala98 Apr 21, 2012 @ 5:23 pm | delete

I hate having to ignore a photo due to terrible backgrounds too - looks like you've found a wonderful solution! I love the Draft Horses image but the maple one really appeals to me as I do like the abstract version a lot. Great lens :)

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CNelson01 Jan 1, 2012 @ 9:12 pm | delete

Great lens! It appears we have much in common in photography and country living.

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sjasis Dec 3, 2011 @ 6:45 am | delete

Lovely work, great post-editing! Love your photos!

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d-artist Oct 13, 2011 @ 4:12 pm | delete

Lovely photo work with great information...I use to be an Equine photographer, specializing in Arabian horses. Arabs were hard to photograph because there was a style at the time that you had to capture...

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Invitesandmore Sep 25, 2011 @ 4:18 pm | delete

Very interesting lens! Love what you did with these photos.

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inspirationz Sep 9, 2011 @ 10:42 pm | delete

great photos you've featured here!

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Jewelsofawe Sep 3, 2011 @ 10:37 pm | delete

Love this lens! Blessed!

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sandyspider Sep 3, 2011 @ 9:16 pm | delete

Blessed. Please add this to the Zazzle Tips plexo on my Zazzle Sales and Blessings for September 2011 lens. http://www.squidoo.com/zazzle-sales-and-blessings-for-september-2011

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Tipi Aug 30, 2011 @ 10:10 pm | delete

You are very gifted and creative, very nicely done with great examples and explanations.

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DigitalDreambuilder Aug 28, 2011 @ 2:15 am | delete

An excellent collection of tips

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Pukeko Aug 28, 2011 @ 12:32 am | delete

Beautiful and interesting lens. Blessed by a Squidoo Angel.

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Andy2302 Aug 27, 2011 @ 3:43 pm | delete

Thanks for a really interesting lens.
Well Done

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dbametrix Aug 27, 2011 @ 1:46 am | delete

Impressive demonstration with excellent lens creation. Nice knowledge sharing. Thanks a lot.

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naturesfun Aug 26, 2011 @ 5:48 pm | delete

Great lens. I love using filters- usually dry brush or watercolor..

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Ibadishi Digital Art Aug 26, 2011 @ 3:10 pm | delete

Listen Rural you rock! great demonstration. I guess all you need in a good photo is composition and a creative mind - and you have it!
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