Tag: Image Creation Technique

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EYES images (ICT #2)

Image Creation Technique #2

One of my favorite methods to turn a realistic and natural image into a more “artsy” object is by turning it into an EYES portrait.

My definition of an EYES portrait is a picture where the eyes were left in the original color and the rest of the images is turned into a black and white image.

Here are the steps I usually use to accomplish this (this can be done in Photoshop, Paintshop Pro and many other image editing programs).

1. Crop the image to your liking and save it under a new name (This is to ensure that you do to overwrite the original image 🙂
2. Copy the complete image onto the windows clipboard
3. Create a new top layer (raster) and switch to that new top layer
4. Paste you complete image to the top layer
5. Hide the top layer
6. Switch to the background layer and adjust brightness and contrast so the eyes are as you want them
7. Unhide the top layer and switch to that layer
8. Turn the top layer into a black&white image (also adjust contrast and brightness to your liking)
9. Create a new masking layer
10. Unmask the eyes with the eraser tool (which will bring out the color from the background layer)
11. Save your image (and produce a JPG or other format as required)

These EYES images look particularly well on canvas or on metallic paper.

Here is a link to some of my EYES pictures: http://www.sperka.biz/eyes

Please feel free to make comments or ask any questions (either as comments on the blog message or as emails to info@sperka.com.

Note: Photography Classes or Private Photography Lessons with Christian Sperka are available at Nashville Zoo at Grassmere – nashvillezoo.org

Information about the two images used in this blog:
The Leopard image was taken at Londolozi Private Game Reserve in South Africa (during heavy rain :-).
The Boehlen’s Python images was taken in Nashville, Tennessee, USA (she is part of a private collection).

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Bi-focal Images – ICT #1

Since I have published my “Nine Basic Rules of Motion Photography” quite a few people have asked me to share a few more of my image creation techniques.

So today I will be starting a new series of  message with “Image Creation Techniques” or short ICTs. From time to time I will publish blog messages explaining some of the ways I create my images.

Please feel free to make comments or ask any questions (either as comments on the blog message or as emails to info@sperka.com

Bi-focal images (ICT #1)

Often it is not possible to use small aperture to create an image with “deep” depth of field.

Here are two examples. One a is a snake picture and one is a scenic shot. In both cases I had to work with fully open aperture, because of the light available and the fact that the use of a tripod was not possible.

In case of the snake picture I wanted both eyes and nose in focus. So I shot multiple images
while slowly changing the focus from eyes to nose. I then used my editing tool (I use Corel Paintshop Pro) to merge two of the pictures and create the final image.

In the case of “the tree in the lake” I held the camera about 2 inches (~5 centimeters) above the water and shot one image with focus on the ripples up front and one image with focus on the tree in the background. Then I merged the images (stiched at the horizon). The results in an image with an interesting bi-focal effect.

Note: Photography Classes or Private Photography Lessons with Christian Sperka are available at Nashville Zoo at Grassmere – nashvillezoo.org

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