Some Fun With a Montage and Textures

I am getting some more mileage out of the tulip beds in D.C. The image above was made using a mirror technique. This involves taking the original image, duplicating it, flipping it and joining the two together. It's not a secret technique. Many photographers use the technique. But, Andre Gallant, one of my all-time favorite photographers is an absolute master at photo montages. He explains the technique on his website here . However, he not only explains the technique but also provides outstanding images that demonstrate the technique in his book, "Dreamscapes." See page 39 for the mirror technique. I caution you to not skip a single page of this book. It is full of incredible images using a variety of photo montage techniques. I digress.

Back to the image. I then applied a sandstone texture. On top of that I used a grunge-type texture and finished it off with a black border. The original image was captured with a LensBaby 2.0.

More Tulips and Tungsten

The above image is the exact image from the last post except I brought it into ACR and changed the White Balance to 2800 (from 5250). Wow, I really, really like this one. The colors are magical. For me, the image from the last post is remarkable as well. I love the complementary colors of red and green. Both of these will make outstanding canvas gallery wraps.

Tulips, Texture and Tungsten from Spring

The first image was captured from one of many tulip beds planted around Washington, DC every year. This was taken at f/22 and a 1/2 second shutter. Slight movement up during the exposure qualifies this as a pan. I added a bit of texture and watercolor effect.

The second image is from the same tulip bed. However, the lens was at f/14 and the shutterspeed was 1/8 of a second. The camera movement was different as well. As you can see, during the exposure, I moved the camera in what could be described as a small "u." This is evident from the elongated white lines in the image.

It's likely you are saying this can't be the same tulip bed, the colors aren't even close to being the same as the image above. It's true, the colors aren't the same. But, it is from the same bed of tulips. During the initial processing of the image, in the Raw Converter, I changed the White Balance to Tungsten. This changed the color temperature from 5250 to 2850. Much cooler in more ways than one. I also added some film grain effect to the image via Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3.0.

The final image is a "mirror" of the Tungsten-converted image.

Spring Tulips Landscape

This image was made with the same setup as the earlier "Spring Tulips Through a Lensaby" entry. That is, a LensBaby Original, widest aperture ring, and the Telephoto Adapter. "What, why would you use a Telephoto Adapter on a landscape image?" you ask. Good question, I did have the LensBaby Wide Angle Adapter (I mention this because I think your question implies "why not wide angle"), however, I wanted to compress the image. That is, "stack" the foreground subject(s) with the background. To me, it made a better composition.

If you haven't been able to tell up to this point, I have a preference for a more abstract approach to things. Abstract may be too harsh or too extreme of a word, but I gravitate towards soft focus, soft colors, certain in-camera techniques and other things that throw the subject matter into a different zone.

More Tulips

Here is another image from the same "tulip patch" I posted about the other day. This is a little more representational. It looks like a flickering flame. The camera technique used is called a swipe. Using a slow shutterspeed, during the exposure you gently tilt the camera up or down or pan left or right. Or, even move the camera in a diagonal direction. In this instance, I used an upward swipe.

Spring Tulips Through a LensBaby

I came across a "patch" of tulips the other day and knew I had to shoot some images. Tulips are probably one of the most photographed flowers around, especially in springtime. So, with that in mind, I wanted to represent them in a different, non-conforming way. In other words, not just the usual tulip portrait.

I got a few that I liked and will share them over a few blog entries. This first one was made with a LensBaby Original and the telephoto adapter attached. I was pleasantly surprised when viewing this image in the LCD of my camera and even more surprised and satisfied when I pulled it up on my computer screen.

I know you can't tell that they are tulips, so in that sense they are non-representational of a tulip, but I think the image clearly comes across as a rainbow of flowers.