Weekly Photo Challenge: Create


A ghostly ship sailing across a calm sea, silhouetted against a vibrant night sky. Totally created with Photoshop brushes

Create! That’s an interesting choice for this weeks Weekly Photo Challenge and at first I thought I would have difficulty fulfilling the challenge. Nearly all of my photography is devoted to land and seascapes with some occasional wildlife photographs thrown in for good measure. I don’t photograph things I create, that’s just not me. But the more I thought about it the more I realised that I create images. An unusual word to use with photography, create. But it’s true. It’s very rare that I post an image S.O.O.C. (straight out of camera). I’m a firm believer in using software like Photoshop on my original image to transform it into my vision, “Oh no, another Photochopper” I hear you say, “Get me out of here.”

But wait. Think about it. Why should I let the software geeks and ultimately the processor inside my camera dictate what the final image will look like? It’s my photograph, my vision, my creation. For this reason it’s very rare that I take single exposures. I nearly always create multiple exposures.  These are blended together on my computer using software called Machinery HDR Effects to create what I think is the perfect exposure. That’s right; I’m a practitioner of the black art of HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging). Remember though, it’s my vision.

Right from the start I learned how to shoot in manual, TV, AV, you know all those fun modes. Why let a machine make the decisions, that’s how SKYNET started and we all know how that ended. I like using creative techniques, HDR, Long Exposure, Exposure Fusion, Panoramas, and Light Painting….and that takes me to this weeks photograph.

Well, not exactly, it’s not a photograph……but it is something I created using Photoshop brushes. But what is a brush? Brushes in Photoshop and other graphics programs are used to determine the shape of the line you paint with when you use the paint brush tool. They also determine the shape of the eraser when you erase around an image or through it. Using brushes you create artistic images, and, if you have a good selection of brushes, you may not even want to use photos.  You can create some wonderful images using just the brushes, colours, blends and filters. A quick search for “Photoshop brushes” in any search engine will show there are literally thousands upon thousands of brushes available, some are free, others you would have to buy.

Take the image above. The ship is a brush, so all you have to do is “stamp” it once to the page. Likewise the coloured skies, they’re made from Photoshop brushes. If you’d like to have a go at creating something like this please follow this link to a small tutorial I created showing you how to go about it.

Related articles
About these ads
Category : Digital Art, Mike Hardisty Photography, PostaWeek 2012
Tags : , , , , ,