Project #4 – Putting a woman (something) under/in glass.
For this composite image, I went back to last summer’s vacation photos.
This is Rachel. She lives at the Alien Research Center, Crystal Springs, NV. Now that tourism is shut down, Rachel decide to go back home.
This is Groom Road, just off Highway 375. This road leads into the infamous Area 51 – Groom Lake.
I wanted a night sky for my composite image. I shot this one not too far from home.
For the project, I need an image of a glass. Keeping it simple, I just took a picture with my iPhone and did a basic shot in my closet studio.
The trick to making this composite is getting the images in the proper order and using the correct blend mode and a mask on the glass layer to make the background show through. A light filter gives the beaming up effect.
Step 1 – Take a picture of some torn paper on a black background.
For this step I used medium weight sketch paper for the paper tears. I shot the pictures with my iPhone XR, on black foam board. I shots these in my photo studio – grow closet. There is a large grow light in there that I used to light the pictures, that is why the black foam board is so blown out.
Step 2 – Make a tear brush.
Take the paper tear images into Affinity Photo or Designer and create a brush. This is where Jeremy is awesome, he walks you through the steps on how to take the pictures above and turn them into a negative.
Step 3 – Choose a background.
I chose a background shot with an iPhone XR at an ice bar in Austria.
Step 4 – Apply Layers and Masks to achieve desired effect.
For me, this is the fun part. Jeremy does a great job of explaining how to make the picture below.
I got an email from Jeremy at 7th Seasons Studios, a graphics design studio, to join an Affinity Photo editing challenge. He, like the rest of us, is trying to find new ways to stay social and keep learning. This challenge is free and open to anyone.
Step 1 – Take an image of some dirty glass on a black background.
This proved a bit difficult because the only dirty glass in my house are the windows, the only thing that I have NOT cleaned since this began.
I set my camera up on the tripod, facing the dirty window and my back yard. I set the camera on auto everything and start the timer to take an image every 6 seconds. I then walk outside with my black foam board and hold it up to the window for a few shots. Check my images, epic fail – lots of black or the tree in the yard.
I reset the camera, turning off auto focus and manually focus on a white spot on the glass, manual technique of 1/60, 5.6 f/s, ISO 100 and then rest the timer and try again. No go, lots of black, however, the images with the tree has a nice background bokay effect with the dirty glass in focus. That may work, but I try one more round with a white foam board, but that turns out not so good either.
This is the image I picked to turn into a texture.
Step 2 – Take the image and turn it into a texture. This is where Jeremy comes in and tells me how to do this since I am a newbie to post processing.
The only thing I did different, was a black and white adjustment to create the same effect with a color image and I fliped it 180.
Step 3 – Find a stock image to use as a background.
I live in rural Nevada, so “social distancing” is a way of life here due to the fact that there are not many people who live here. I am still taking my dog out for a daily walk. This time I took my camera and the dog was waiting on me for a change. I took a few shots of a run down farm house and shed to use as my background image.
Step 4 – Overlay the texture over the background and make adjustments.
Again, after watching Jermey, I played around with adjustments and added a Light Filter. I was going for the “Walking Dead” creepy grunge look. Would you go in that shed?
Everyone Is A f/ Photographer 