Artwork Cards

The story behind the process

When I started taking photographs at the age of seven I really wanted to create art but didn't have much talent. In Hawaii, I started playing with the sliders on a Photoshop plug-in. The result is what you see here. I call it "artwork!" 

(As usual, click on the little picture to see the big picture.)

This is an original digital photo, untouched from the camera. This is the type of image all of these started from.	This is the modified image that looks a little like an impressionist painting.  This was the image that started the Hawaii series.	This was taken at the Fern Grotto on Kauai. One of the interesting parts of this process is looking for unusual parts in the photo that will change with the change. In this case, it was the kid in the orange shirt surrounded by earth tones.	Diana at the Admirals Club at San Diego Airport. No matter how the image changes, there is always a lot to do to get what my minds eye sees. In this case, it was substantial contrast work and perspective control.
This image of the Coronado Bridge over San Diego Bay was the first image made into a greeting card. The result was simply spectacular and my wife encouraged me to continue.	Some images do not work as well as others. I think that it is dependent upon how much detail is in the original. This photo of flamingos at Sea World was taken on high color and high sharpness. I'm not as pleased with it as others.	This is one of my favorites. I took another one on the same day that was only one flower with a great fluffy white cloud that I like better, but didn't make into a small image for the website. The original images are between 18 and 30 Megabytes. These JPG's are under 75Kb.	The original photo of Perry and Marie wasn't in as goofy colors as the card artwork. I got to really posterize them. Taken in State Capital Park in  Sacramento.
This was a sunset at the Princeville Hotel on Kauai. The original had much too much green but the card didn't come out as well as I'd like.	A fire hydrant started the first "theme" series of cards.  It started the Fire Fighter Memorial series of five images.	I have a lot of work to do on this image. I eliminated one of the palm trees that was a distraction and didn't do a good job. When I publish the series, I'll fix it.	The Photoshop filter Digital SHO fixed up the shadow detail and boosted the color intensity to bring out detail in the statue.
Delaney Street.	42nd Street. There should be dancers and singers on the sidewalk but there are not... they are all in the theaters.  Look at the awning for a caption of the photo.	The back deck on the Long Island ferry boat. I took several photos intended for the art project.	The subway
I'm not sure how I pictured this, but it is close.  There may be too much magenta. I'll play with it a little more someday.	The Long Island ferry landing.  I spooked the yellow a little more than I planned, but I like the effect on the concrete.

Before we met Goldie and Herm on Kauai, Diana and I went to a small town for lunch. Afterward, we were walking around and stumbled upon a shop with hand painted prints done by the proprietor. She had created giclee prints from her work and I was entranced by the process. Giclee (pronounced "zee clay) is a graphic printing process that makes very stable, high quality images on art paper, from computer files.

Giclee requires very specialized equipment that is quite costly and I cannot justify it. I also can't afford to buy prints so the search began to find a way to record these images on a suitable alternative. That was when I found text paper greeting cards at Office Depot and thus began my artistic career.  I made some very nice cards from these images and will be happy to send you some at no charge if you email me and request them.

The plug-in comes from Applied Science Fiction www.asf.com and is called Digital GEM. ASF also has a great plug-in called Digital SHO that brings out shadow detail in images that are too dark. GEM was created to reduce the "noise" in digital images that  are exposed at ISO "film speed" values in excess of 400. 

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