Malad Morning

"Malad morning", 36 x 24 on canvas. 10/27/10 - 10:22 AM - Crowther Reservoir, Malad, Idaho. Nikon D60, manual exposure, f/25, 1/15 sec., tripod.


As for edits, this might get a bit tricky . . . I didn't write them down, but I most definitely did at least three. In camera raw I raised recovery, blacks, lowered the contrast, brought up the clarity, and increased the saturation. Then in Photoshop I used the clone tool to remove a bunch of little black blotches--my sensor must have been VERY dirty that morning. Next I resized the image to 31 x 19 inches to allow for the canvas wrapping, and then a half inch border around the image to allow some white space. I then added canvas space, 2.5 inches on each side of the image to bring it back to 36 x 24 inches, and created guides so I knew where the edges were and how to gauge my white space. I then saved the image and reopened it because I was going to use the history brush tool a bunch.

With the reopened file I added a few different artistic filters, colored pencil, dry brush, paint daubs, palette knife, and watercolor, I believe. With each filter I added I took a snapshot of the new look, and then went back to the original image in the history palette, and added a new filter, and on and on. I also added an adjustment layer and messed with the hue so that the sky was violet--then took another snapshot and went back to the original image.

From there I've got six different "palettes" to paint from. I selected the entire image, deleted it, replacing it with white. Next using thick heavy brushes I used my history brush to "paint" from my six different palettes the image back in at 30% opacity. Once I was done painting I added my signature, which I made in Illustrator, and gave the signature a slight drop shadow. After everything was in place and I liked the image I saved the image, then flattened the image and saved it again. WHEW!

5. The photo-painting process creates a more painted look, and gives the rough edges. I'm going to do this technique for my tutorial, so the class will have a better idea of what I actually did. I chose this image because it was something I hadn't turned in before, and I think it would display well on canvas with the photo-painting technique. I love the reflection in the water and the clouds in the sky. I decided to put the lavender in the sky to give it that extra artistic kick. I may be becoming more of a Type Four photographer after all. I think it's a beautiful image, something that I would like to hang.