Guest Blogger Friday...

I'd like to share with you the work of photographer and artist, Bob Gottfried. I was impressed by his creativity with an image that he transformed from the photograph below. Bob went from snapshot to work of art with a little artistry in Photoshop! The image has a bit of a nostalgic mood with the illustrative and sepia toned background, and the streetcar has a hand painted look that I find very compelling! Below are Bob's notes on how he worked with the image...

"I started with a photo of a streetcar in downtown Toronto. After some basic tweaking (Photoshop, mainly curves and cropping) I used Alien Skin Art presets (I played with the different presets until I got the desired result). For the background I used an illustrative style, then I dimmed it a bit and turned it into Sepia. For the Streetcar, I used a larger paint brush and reduced transparency by about 40%. At the end I used curves again to get the final photo." 

What a transformation! I'm very pleased to have Bob enrolled in my online BetterPhoto.com course, Enhancing Images & Creating Works of Art. During the four weeks, we work with a variety of concepts and techniques to enhance imagery. Bob incorporates his own personal style on how to work artistically, as he's beautifully illustrated with his image. Thanks to Bob for sharing his creative work and techniques!

PS - Hope to see you in one of my BetterPhoto.com courses, starting in August!

Love...

I like the message painted graffiti style that I found in San Francisco, California. It's colorful, creative, and I wanted to expand on the idea of painting by using a few creative techniques in Photoshop. I like Snap Art Stylize. It removes detail and adds marker type black lines in the composition. I added several layers of texture for a watercolor type look for more depth. The finishing touch was a layer of Rustic Grunge from Action FX that blends beautifully with the image, creating another subtle layer of interest with leaf and rose patterns. The element of adding textures can enrich and enhance an image, creating an entirely new look, plus it's just fun.  Make great pictures!