Inkjet transfer

This is a simple and straightforward process:
You begin by printing a MIRROR IMAGE of your picture into any piece of plastic sheet; I use a standard sheet protector, and since this kind of a medium will not absorb the ink from your printer, you can easily transfer it into any type of photographic paper. Just place your printed image face down into the receiving paper and press lightly (pressing too hard will smudge the transfer).
Have fun while trying different surfaces to transfer your image to.
more about this process

Image transfer

This process is a bit more complicated than the printer transfer but none-the-less quite enjoyable to do.
Again make sure to print a mirrored image of your photo but this time you print it into a standard printer paper. Next, brush a good amount (but not too much) of Mod Podge on the image. Place it face down into the photo paper you are transfering your picture into (any paper of your choice), press it down (I put a heavy book over it) and wait a few minutes for the mod podge to dry. When it is dry slowly and carefully peel off the original paper from the receiving surface. Soak your fingers in water and rub off the rest of the original paper which does not separate easily from the receiving surface. Try other transfer mediums such as Gel gloss or Gesso. more about this process

Aged color photo

Aging a color photo is obviously more challenging than making a black and white or a sepia tone image looking old.
OK, now on to the details:
The first step is to un-vibrant (is that a word?) the image so it doesn’t look too vivid and you can do it during scanning or in your image editor by reducing the highlights and contrast.
Next step is to create an aged paper which I did using the leftovers of my morning coffee. Really! All you need to do is crumble a paper (I used watercolor paper), soak it in coffee and let it dry in the sun. Now it looks like it has seen many years of hardship.
Next you scan the stained paper and blend it on another layer with your color image.
Play around with the transparency settings until you like what you see.
You can also use tea to stain your paper or even distress ink which you can find in any art store.
Here is another way to coffee stain an image

Creative and extreme scanning

Scanning is such a pain!.. or is it? Well, it doesn’t have to be. Basically you can think of scanning as a chore or move up to creative scanning. Creative scanning is just a term I use to describe a cool way of cheering up the chore of scanning my negatives. One way of creative scanning is to scan the negative through a clear paper envelope. It tends to give the final image a soft and somewhat painterly appeal.
For a weathered look try scanning your print (not the negative) through a crumbled clear paper. And for an interesting effect layer a couple of negatives on top of each other and scan them together.

Extreme scanning is a term I came up with to describe a technique I developed while scanning (in a way it really developed itself).
So this is how it’s done: You can begin with an already neglected negative and skip the cleaning up part (as you can tell it’s a very good method for the lazy among us)
You then play with the scanner’s settings (contrast, color balance etc.) with no regards to “correctness” until you like what you see and then you scan away. Another way of achieving some interesting results is scanning a color negative with the settings set to black and white. The result is a nice sepia tone.

Canvas layer blend

The fastest way to spice up a picture is to quickly paint an 8X10 canvas, scan it in and blend it in with your photo (in your photo editor). Don’t be intimidated by painting the canvas; it really doesn’t matter what your great master piece looks like as it is going to be blended behind your image anyway. And the result is a special touch to the final presentation of your photo.

All these processes and many more are featured in details in my book
SO MUCH MORE THAN PHOTOGRAPHY:

BOOK CONTENTS

Part one: Why you don’t need to follow the rules – Intro to non.photorapy – no rules – The science (art?) of photography – Abandoning the rules – Street photography – Accidental Work – Unplanned and unstaged photography -The challenges of street photography – Photographing on the move – Constructing a street photograph – Alternatives in street photography – Photographing in the rain – Shooting in the fog – Sky, sunset & sunrise
Photographing at night – Long exposure – Flash effects – Motion panning – Zoom lens effect – Shoot different cameras
Part two: Unconventional and creative photography techniques – The cameras we use – Polaroid – Holga – Other toy cameras – expensive cheap cameras – Diana – Lubitel 166 – Holgaroid – Classic cameras – Best camera for street photography – Film and scanning techniques – Cross processing – Tungsten film – Time Zero film – Multiple exposures – Expired and damaged film – Extreme and creative scanning – The negative as a frame – Computer techniques – Canvas background layer – Aging a color photo with coffee – Adding texture to a photo – Make your own textures – Texture from a mixed media collage – Working with textures and layers – Fake HDR – Positive/negative composite – Inkjet transfer – Basic image transfer (inkjet) – Perfect photo transfers – Transferring with transparencies – Xerox (photocopy) image transfer – Test transfer – Packing tape transfer – Paint transfer – Mixed media transfer – Transfer to mirror or ceramic tile – Gel Layer transfer – Aluminum foil transfer -Transfer to Polaroid – Paint a transfer – More transfer ideas – Hand coloring and painting photos. – Modified negative – Distressed prints – Mixed media and journaling – Slicing and reassembling a photo – Print on Demand – Which Print on Demand should I choose? – Standard books POD (Lulu & CreateSpace) – Publishing a Photo book – Lulu Studio – Blurb BookSmart – Publishing on Amazon – Marketing your book – Selling at your local bookstore – Online Marketing – Website/Blog – Search Engine Optimization – Join an Online Network – Link exchange – Book review – Social Networks – RSS feed – Marketing services – Paid advertisement – Document sharing services – Tools you can use – Photo editing: Paintshop Pro – FTP Client: FileZilla – Blog: WordPress

Preview selected pages from the book here