2010 February | Still alive

Archive for February, 2010

Feb 24

Hand painted photo transfer

One of my favorite surfaces for image transfer is canvas. Recently I discovered something called Real Canvas Pad which is a pad containing 10 9X12 sheets of real canvas primed with Gesso.
An affordable alternative to stretched canvas.
I actually prefer the unprimed side which is rough and looks a lot like raw canvas.

To create this painted photo I chose a black & white Xerox photocopy of a picture taken in Downtown Los Angeles and transferred it using Mod Podge onto the canvas.
After the transfer was done I simply painted the transfer using acrylic paints.

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Posted in Image transfer, techniques acrylic Downtown Los Angeles Image transfer mod podge paint xerox

Feb 22

sky photography

Since I began taking pictures I developed a curious habit of looking out the window first thing when I wake up in order to inspect the state of the sky for the day.
Obviously, the more clouds and depth of colors the higher it is ranked in my
personal “sky scale” ™.
Here are a few occasions when nature took care of the beauty and marvel of a scene and all is left for us to do is get the camera out and capture the wonder.

Road trip 2009:
Top row from left to right: Roadside Pennsylvania 2009, East Los Angeles 2009. | Middle row: Countryside Virginia 2009. Alexandria, Virginia 2009. | Bottom row: sunset in Pennsylvania 2009. Geese over Virginia Fall 2009.

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Posted in Best Photos, Road trip, digital sky sunrise sunset virginia

Feb 16

Virtual Photographer

Recently someone recommended I try out a Photoshop plug-in called Virtual Photographer. I know, I know, every photographer out there is already familiar with this plugin and probably has been using it forever. But me, I somehow missed this great plugin, maybe because I usually prefer the “hands on” method when it comes to working on my photos. But never mind me, back to Virtual Photographer: I downloaded the plug-in, which is free and can be found here and took it for a test.
Well, OK, its really easy to use, not too much brain power needed, obviously the perfect software for me!
So you pretty much open your photo in Virtual Photographer’s preview window and play around with the large number of available photographic styles. (You can also manually control the styles but I really couldn’t find any benefit in doing so). When you find the style you like you simply apply it to your picture.
And there you go, your plain picture is now amazing.
And if it sounds like I’m patronizing this plug-in, I’m not, really.
I actually like this little thing and I will probably use it every now and then.

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Posted in Recommended, digital photoshop plugin Recommended virtual photographer

Feb 12

watercolor photo

If you like this artwork and would like to create a similar masterpiece, this is how it is done:
1) Make a black & white mirror photocopy of the photo of your choice.
2) Cover the photocopy with Gel Medium and put it face down onto a watercolor paper.
3) Wait a few hours until the image is dry.
4) Spray the back of the photocopy with water and rub off the access paper to reveal the photo which is now transferred to the watercolor paper.
5) Repeat step 4 as many times as needed until all the access paper is completely gone.
6) Use water colors to color your photo.
7) Make sure to protect your artwork with a clear protective finish.

Here is what I used for this artwork:
A photocopy of a picture taken in the countryside of beautiful Virginia.
Golden Regular Gel (Semi-Gloss)
Canson 9”X12” heavyweight watercolor paper pad.
Reeves water color paints.
Krylon Low Odor Clear Finish (Matte).
That’s it.

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Posted in Best Photos, Image transfer, Photographic art, Road trip, techniques color country paint photo transfer virginia watercolor

Feb 08

Photo transfer with color & paint

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Using a similar paint transfer process I selected to transfer a color image this time.
I chose a colorful picture taken in Philadelphia and used yellow and turquoise acrylic paints to transfer the image onto an 5”X7” flat canvas panel.
Very simple to do and with a high success rate

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Posted in Image transfer acrylic color Image transfer paint philadelphia

Feb 06

The last of the Polaroids

Now that I have about 3 or 4 packs of Polaroid 600 film left (I think one of them is actually the manipulative SX-70 Time Zero film – though I can only wonder if it still holds its manipulative characteristics when it is so long expired), and just in case the Impossible Project turns out to be in fact impossible, then when I shoot a Polaroid, I feel like I have to make each picture count.
Yesterday, as another winter storm approached Southern California I decided to take a few rainy Polaroid pictures. I took these Polaroids using my Sun660 camera –
I like this camera because unlike the standard 600 camera it lets you shoot without firing the stupid flash.
[Most of the pictures were taken in beautiful downtown Culver City.]

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Posted in Polaroid 600 culver city Polaroid rain sun 660

Feb 05

Dotphoto and the mystery of the metallic prints

In the past I mentioned here how much I love dotphoto, right? (here, I really did!).
and I do love dotphoto…
I’ve been using their printing services for a few years now and I was always happy with their printing quality and even with their fast and reliable customer services.
Until a couple of days ago when I tried to order a few of metallic prints from them.
So I went for the obvious; choosing the photos I want to print and selecting the metallic prints option… and nothing. I’m still on the same page. Ok, lets try something else. I start from the metallic prints page. Oh good, there’s a “choose photos” button on the page. It takes me to my albums. At the top it says “select photos and then go to cart” . I do just that, and guess what? You won’t believe it; my cart is empty. Ah? Now what? OK, I really want these metallic prints now so I go to the Help page and I put the “metallic prints” term in the search box.
In the search results page there’s a short explanation what metallic prints are, but nothing about how to order them… hmmmm… Ok, I admit this is a low point in my internet life and I begin doubting myself and my abilities to figure out a simple ordering process.

But I’m also upset and tired so I email dotphoto’s support:

Just letting you know your system for ordering prints is very confusing.
I’ve been trying to order metallic prints for about 15 minutes and it just doesn’t let me place the order.
I’ve tried a few different ways.
…

so I gave up. Just letting you know.
Nitsa

Aurora from dotphoto writes back:

Hello,
The problem you are most likely running into is that you are trying to order more than one at a time. With metallic prints, posters or gifts, these images go through our gift wizard so you can fine tune how your image will look. Please select one image and then click on metallic prints. This will take you to our gift wizard and allow you to order.
Aurora

Elementary! And oh so brilliant! You can’t order more than one photo at a time.
Would be nice if they mentioned it somewhere on the site.
I wish it wasn’t so, but sadly I don’t posses any psychic powers.

So I email Aurora:
true, I was trying to order more than one photo at a time.
However, no where on your site it is clear that I should order only one print at a time.
in fact when going to order metallic prints it says “Choose photoS” and not choose photo.
I’m just saying in case you want to improve your service.

Nitsa

But Aurora is determined to prove me an idiot or at least an unreasonable customer:

“Hello,
I apologize. This is stated in the gift wizard faq.
Aurora”

Ah. Yes. Obviously. The gift wizard faq. Dah!
It’s probably unnecessary to mention I couldn’t find the gift wizard faq, though I don’t doubt it exist somewhere on the site.

So finally I order metallic prints from another online printing service.
I can’t wait to see what they look like.

Meanwhile, here is my version of metallic prints
(an image transferred to aluminum foil)

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Posted in Image transfer, Recommended dotphoto metallic order prints service

Feb 02

Gold image transfer

Since my previous expedition in the land of transfers worked so nicely (i.e. transferring an image to a silver surface) I thought to myself; “well, why not transfer to a shiny GOLD surface” but of course! So before you know it I covered a 7”X5” wood panel with some shiny gold metallic tissue paper and using Mod Podge (obviously my favorite transfer medium) I transferred a photo taken recently in downtown Los Angeles.

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