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Posted on 18/03/25 4:06:44 PM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 2971 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Thank you David, I have just replaced it. Incidentally your last two entries are really first rate. This is a really difficult challenge and you have dealt with it very well. |
Posted on 18/03/25 4:50:23 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5471 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
I think Steve was leaving as many doors open as possible, especially as we were being asked to work without a starting image. I must admit, that being said, I would have liked to know more. I did think it might be fun to downloaded the free Amazon kindle app which allows you to read Amazon Kindle purchases without a Kindle. But, for some unknown reason, it refused to accept my Amazon username and password to open and use the app, even though it accepted them to download and install it! Over the years, I have become so fed up and frustrated by username/password hell and all its multifarious infernos that, nowadays, when I encounter it I just turn my back and walk away. So Amazon didn't get to sell me Giles' book and I am none the wiser as to Suzi's role. Ho, hum ........... _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 19/03/25 01:25:39 AM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 836 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
One strange image.  _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 19/03/25 1:17:25 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3069 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Indeed it is...  |
Posted on 20/03/25 00:10:52 AM |
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tooquilos
Wizard of Oz Posts: 2880 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
http://vimeo.com/1067544165 After seeing Dennis' entry, (great entry, by the way) it occurred to me, it shouldn't be a woman in the pool but a 60-something Englishman! Geez! What a stuff up that was. So who is Suzi, I wonder?  _________________ Wicked Witch of the West: I'm melting! I'm melting! |
Posted on 20/03/25 07:23:14 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 2971 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
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Posted on 20/03/25 1:34:12 PM |
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Frank
Eager Beaver Posts: 1722 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Lots of great entries folks.👏👏👏 |
Posted on 20/03/25 5:10:55 PM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3953 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Some nice work again particularly as we had so little info to play with. dwindt that is weird. I see the book is now available on Amazon. The proof reader has missed a couple of typos that I can see. I have been playing with this image for a couple of days and thought I should post it 
_________________ Have you ever noticed that all the instruments designed to detect intelligent life are pointing away from the Earth? |
Posted on 21/03/25 08:55:57 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6977 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
First to dive into the pool this week was lwc, with Inspector Clouseau peering down. Great bubbles and ripples, they bring it to life. The book cover works really well, but do watch that wacky typography – it does need to be legible. The black and white version is very stark, especially with its spread of blood. An interesting approach. Serious spookiness from Ant Snell, with an underwater policeman… what an extraordinary thing to imagine. Beautifully done, though, and I’m sure Giles will relish his five star review. An elegant cover from Frank, with particularly fine dappled sunlight on the tiles. This was Giles’s favourite (he’s been keeping an eye on the week’s proceedings). A fine floating pose from Mariner, complete with police diver coming in afterwards. I don’t get much sense that she’s actually in the water, though; perhaps it’s the colouring? Would more of a blue tint help? Or perhaps some bubbles or other floating debris in front of her. And you lose 100 points for using Comic Sans! Some real drama in the second entry, which seems to show the murder in progress. Couple of points: the hand should at least have some blue tint to it; and shouldn’t it be facing the other way? I like the book construction, though, with its reflection. And I do like the view of Giles selling copies! Even if the book in his hand is unnaturally small. An interesting vision from GKB, with a chalk outline on the surface of the water… and is that a reflection of Giles’s house? A curious approach. Also, just to point out I’ve never seen a book title split in terms of distance and size like that. I enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes version, with its underwater reef view. Interesting that the area above the water is tinted blue, but not that below. Is that possible, do you think? I enjoyed DavidMac's finely-wrought entry, with the body floating on the surface. The screaming woman adds a lot of focus. Technical point: if the underside of the man is highly rippled while being beneath the surface, shouldn’t the underwater portion of the ladder be rippled as well? A very different view in the second entry, with its waterline camera. What’s with the fence? Is swimming not allowed in this pool? And interesting stab at the fence reflections. The third entry is my personal favourite, with a very fine floating woman (and her reflection in the underside of the surface). Don’t quite understand why the tiles point down at the corner when the pool surround points up. The landscape version is the most innovative approach, and I can see why it’s your favourite. That kneeling policeman is splendid. But there is a reason books are portrait rather than landscape shaped! And I’d have thought Giles deserved a bigger credit. Some pleasing light effects from michael sinclair, with fine animated ripples. There’s not a lot of sense of the body getting deeper as it falls, though; perhaps it should get dark as it moves further from the light. One strange image, indeed, from dwindt – and this one doesn’t look as if you’ve 3D modelled it. It really is very disturbing. Very interesting to see the other weirdness you came up with. I’m trying to get my head around the viewpoint of tooquilos's entry, which I’m finding really perplexing. Are we looking from above, but rotated 90 degrees? And is the blood on the surface, or floating out of a neck wound? I really like the sustained book motif in the animated version, and that rippling French tricolour makes a good background. ____ Outstanding work this week. I know Giles has been enjoying seeing all of them. For my version of the cover, see the page on Amazon where the book appears. The reason I’m directing you here is so that you first see the cover at tiny size, and this is something that has to be borne in mind when creating covers for Amazon. (You can of course click for a larger version, but you have to first intrigue the viewer enough to want to do that.) So everything needs to be big enough to see, which is why the two male figures are bigger than they would be in real life. The body at the bottom is deliberately somewhat obscure. I wanted to give the impression of something in the pool, but thought it wrong to put too graphic a corpse on the cover. The floating leaves, incidentally, are there to delineate the water surface. I’m not saying I’m right in all of this, just that this was my approach. |
Posted on 21/03/25 09:51:11 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3953 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Thanks Steve The “chalk” is actually supposed to be a yellow ribbon floating on the water. The idea came from an old episode of the excellent spoof “Police Squad” with Leslie Nielsen; think “Airplane”. A body had been pulled out of the water but they had put the outline on the water with a ribbon. The house is literally across the road from me. It’s not a reflection but is the distorted view as seen through the water. The underwater lighting is genuine and more than likely is because the foreground is lit by a flash. Most enjoyable challenge. Well done everyone. _________________ Have you ever noticed that all the instruments designed to detect intelligent life are pointing away from the Earth? |
Posted on 21/03/25 09:54:34 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 2971 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Thank you Steve for a very observant critique. I agree with all of your comments. However, we only have a week to do our stuff so some imperfections get left while more tricky manipulations are being undertaken. At the end of the week I am looking forward to a change of subject. Let's try some jellied eels for a change. Yuck. |
Posted on 21/03/25 10:02:21 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3953 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
I completely agree with Mariner’s yuck except I would spell it more like YUUUUCCCK🤮 _________________ Have you ever noticed that all the instruments designed to detect intelligent life are pointing away from the Earth? |
Posted on 21/03/25 11:11:40 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5471 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Strictly speaking neither should be rippled. But point taken.
Coming back to this entry with twenty twenty hindsight I shouldn't have posted it. It's somehow rather feeble. The long fence beside the water implies a river. The blue wall and bottom make no sense. The reflections are the original photo ..... but they do look suspect.
Nor do I!! The source photo was only tiles. The concrete moulded edge was added by me. No idea how I got it so misaligned. Classic case of woods and trees or Photoshop snow blindness.
The policeman was really hard. I had to build him from three quite different images. Portrait book shapes. My cover wasn't meant to imply that the interior print was landscape ...... that would be really stupid! However, I certainly hadn't taken into account the online Amazon aspect of this where it is only viewed vertical. In this context your remark makes sense. In the end I am being old fashioned but, to me, a book is something physical that you hold in your hands. In this context the odd way the landscape image sits in the vertical cover is a surprise that makes perfect sense only as you turn the book in your hands and make an unexpected discovery on seeing the back. As for size of Giles' credit, I haven't read the book so have no idea what might or might not be justified ................... ooooof! This was a very hard one for me Steve. I kept feeling I was doing the completely obvious. Which, ironically, was quite possibly the right thing to be doing. Thanks for pushing me in a new direction. Since you have offered up your own cover for inspection ...... now it's time for my pound of flesh! Is that really a French flic Steve? He looks suspiciously American to me. Even if he is real, I think the classic French kepi would have placed things instantly in a caricature French context. You could easily have popped one on his head! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 21/03/25 12:22:21 PM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6977 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
French policemen haven’t worn a kepi for 40 years! |
Posted on 21/03/25 12:31:04 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5471 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Am I using the wrong word? This is what I meant. It isn't a forty year old photograph and it screams French policeman.  _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 21/03/25 1:11:30 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5471 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
I stand corrected. You are quite right! Abandoned in 1982. The photo is older than I thought. I must confess I never knew! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 21/03/25 3:14:08 PM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 836 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Interesting follow everybody. Thanks Steve. Strange indeed. In stuck in Satire images at the moment hence the weirdness. It's an interesting art form. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 21/03/25 3:43:06 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3069 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Thanks Steve! |
Posted on 23/03/25 11:25:43 PM |
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Frank
Eager Beaver Posts: 1722 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1045: Suzi from Scunthorpe
Thanks Steve, glad Giles liked it - it was a challenge. |
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