How to Cheat in Photoshop

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Posted on 23/06/05 6:41:32 PM

Neal
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Outstanding image Glen. I hope you have room in your bookcase.

Posted on 23/06/05 7:00:27 PM

tabitha 1
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Excellent work there guys, I see you managed to fit in the bean this time round Glen?

Heres my attempt at what the Caplin household would look like after all these challenges... managed 40/50, as fitting in all those landscapes made my trial versions look like scenes from Monty Python!

High Res Version
http://www.pixpond.com/06/The-Big-One.jpg

Low res version

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Posted on 23/06/05 7:09:14 PM

tabitha 1
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Have to agree that this board has been looking very dull with the images not being posted until Thursday.
Can we go back to posting earlier? This isnt a competition after-all

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Posted on 23/06/05 7:26:18 PM

Neal
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Tabitha, fantastic job! You placed far more challenges than I did.

And, I agree with you; I hope we can post images as before.

Posted on 23/06/05 7:51:40 PM

Glen
Montage Maestro
Posts: 282

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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Excellent image Tabitha - must be your age, which is ...... (for a small price I won't reveal, but I have counted the objects). Really like the pinched fish

I only suggested posting on thursday for THIS challenge, come tomorrow morning it'll be back to normal I would guess.

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Posted on 24/06/05 09:32:29 AM

Steve Caplin
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

What a weird week it's been! My decision to offer a prize sparked off a huge discussion about competitiveness and the nature of these Challenges, and I'm hugely gratified to see that most of you are in it for the fun of entering, and not for the competition element of winning.

The issue of titles was raised, bringing into question whether this polluted the contests by introducing a further sense of competitiveness. The titles are there to recognize outstanding personal work, and shouldn't be seen as me deciding on a 'winner' each week: a title is awarded for personal advancement, based on the track record of each entrant. So many of you have improved your Photoshop skills enormously over the weeks, and it's really pleasing to see how you come along. The results of the poll were most interesting: the clear winner was 'I'm not bothered either way', which is exactly as it should be. So the titles will stay, partly because they're fun to award and partly because it puts my alliterative ambitions to the test.

Holding off until today for entries proved an unpopular move, and may have highlighted the sense some of you get of not being able to pursue and idea if someone else got there first. I'd like to stress that this is an unnecessary concern: it's the quality of work and thought that we're looking for, and if you feel you can do the same idea in a different way then that shouldn't hold you back.

That said, and after all the debate, we've ended up with just three entries for this 50th contest! But they're all of such outstanding quality that I'm going to take a little more space than usual to discuss each one in some depth.

First off was Glen, with a stunning charm bracelet. Turning items into metal is something discussed in the book, of course, so in theory you should all know how to do this. But there's a world of difference between grasping the theory and implementing it in practice. Glen's entry is magnificent, I'm sure you'll agree: and the addition of jewelled inserts really helps the overall impression. I spotted 18 past Challenges in this image, including the baked bean and the table lamp. His first entry was truly excellent, then I had the downright cheek to chuck it back at him with a request for reflections in the table surface. This was an almost impossible task, and one which Glen rose to with some success.

I have to point out the errors, though: the two most glaring are the reflection of the taxi (the solution here would have been to split the side and the front into two separate layers and shear each one individually) and the bottle of polish at the back - the curve on the reflected text should match the curve on the original, not invert it! Sometimes even Photoshop masters like Glen can have difficulty with this one. But top marks for the shine on all the items, Glen - it remains a fantastic piece of work.

Neal's approach includes 18 previous challenges as well, as far as I can tell (do correct me if I've missed any). As a piece of classically photographic montage, it shows enormous skill. Not only are almost all the items positioned with a strong sense of perspective and appropriateness, there's also a huge number of extra features to intrigue us - and you all know how much I enjoy these throw-away details. For those of you who may not have spotted them all, let me point out a few of the more elusive details: the reflection of the egg cup in the side of the computer, and the reflection of the pumpkin in the mirrored front; the fitting of the taxi image within a Photoshop window on the monitor; the translucent quality of the alphabet stencil, with its faint but convincing shadow; the shadows cast by the cat and the beer tin; and the immaculate cutout of the plant against the new window.

One or two errors and omissions here, and I hope you don't mind me pointing these out. The fish has a shadow above it, as did the original model on that wall, but the shading indicates that the fish is lit from above (and why is its shadow cut off on the left?). The wooden desk is a little out of perspective in that view, and its angle tends to lead the eye out of the picture rather than back into it. Flipping it horizontally would have helped here. Similarly, the angle of view of both the beer can and the chocolates is too top-down (and aren't they both a little too big to be truly convincing?). There's no sense of glass in those windows: this could easily have been fixed by simply increasing the contrast on the view in the gap between them. And there's still the reflection of my venetian blinds in the wall facing the fox! But these are all reall nitpicking points: it was a really great idea, executed with tremendous fun and great techniques.

Tabitha says her entry includes an astonishing 40 previous Challenges - although I can only make out 35 (my eyesight must be failing me). Can you see them all? Among the harder-to-spot elements are the treehouse seen through the window on the left, and the fact that the window itself is from my office; the bottle of milk beneath the mammoth; the motorbike, two digital cameras and boiled egg on the table; the door from the open-the-door Challenge; and the double instance of the fox through the window on the right.

There's some fantastic detail to explore here. The number plate from the Ferrari my brother smashed up on his birthday has grass growing in front of it; the mammoth reaches out through bars from a previous Challenge; the fox is creeping through the cat flap; and the expressions on both the cat and the fish make perfect foreground elements. How the hell do you get an expression on a fish???

A couple of small errors - the perspective on the tiny taxi doesn't fit its positin in the scene (I know you hate perspective, Tabitha, but moving it higher up the page - on the table, perhaps - would have solved this). The hand is a little too blue for the ambient warm lighting: Curves could have sorted this one out easily. And you stopped smudging out the cat's fur before you got all the way around! For a cat lover like you, I'm surprised you didn't give him a final grooming before he faced his public. But there are so many perfectly placed objects: the table lamp fits perfectly on top of the mammoth's cage, the logos on the board are spot on, and all the cutouts - the doors on the right, the door seen through the chair, and so on - are picture perfect.

So we need a winner, right? Never has the task been tougher. We have here three entries of tremendous skill and invention, and it's the difference of approach that makes the task of choosing both more difficult and more intriguing.

So let's turn our attention away from mere Photoshop skills, and look at such elements as composition and viewer interest. Glen's entry is a perfect montage, or at least it was before I threw a spanner in the works by insisting on a reflection. (Next time, use a slate table!) It's an ingenious solution to the problem of how to fit a load of objects together seamlessly, and the execution matches the vision. But no element in this picture draws my eye more than any other: the eye travels in a circle around the bracelet, and we could really do with a single central focus to captivate the viewer.

There's little doubting the skill and effort that went into Neal's entry, and it's exactly as cluttered and messy as it should be, given the theme he's chosen. But while all the elements draw the eye through the window, the composition falls apart on the right: the desk and the fish seem disjointed, and too surrounded by a void of empty wall to belong properly in this scene.

It may not be photorealistically perfect, but Tabitha's entry has an energy and drama to it that, for me, makes it stand out and scream for attention. It tells a real story, as the eye travels from left to right across the image. You can't take this one in at a single glance - it's like walking through a house that's crammed with mementoes, and the viewer comes upon each new object with a sense of discovery. And telling a story is, ultimately, what creating any image is all about.

So congratulations, Tabitha - your evocative montage wins this week's contest! A copy of Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers for you, together with the title Feline Foto Fanatic. And - seriously - well done, all of you. We all really appreciate the work you've put into this one.

Posted on 24/06/05 09:52:37 AM

maiden
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Posts: 471

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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Great work from everybody, and congratulation Tabs for fitting so many challenges into one image I totally agree with Steve's choice, not to take anything away from Neal and Glen. Actually I'm begining to feel intimidated to post anything because you're all so much better than me.

Becky

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Posted on 24/06/05 10:28:33 AM

tabitha 1
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Now I would have thought that a keen eyed person such as yourself Steve would have found my few 'hidden' images!

The blue lorry from a couple of weeks ago driving behind the Taxi?
The Golden Syrup can hiding on the table?

And my piece de la resistance--
Chelsy sitting in the back on the white taxi - you can just about make her out!

I do have an apology to make, I have used 40 of the original 55 images posted for the challenges (as some challenges had 2 images!). So hands up to my appalling maths!

Many thanks for your kind comments and my new title, anyone would think I have a thing about Cats?

And Maiden, you are the queen of this site and I for one cant wait for you to start posting again very soon.

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Posted on 24/06/05 11:47:32 AM

trinityofone
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Great work everyone! Congratulations Tabs, a fine montage!

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Posted on 24/06/05 12:16:53 PM

tweaknik
Pixel Perfector
Posts: 49

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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

An impressive amount of work from all three entries, and three lovely montages. Well done all! And thanks Steve, for taking the time to provide such helpful feedback to everyone.

Posted on 24/06/05 1:37:19 PM

mj
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Great job everyone. Congrats Tabs. Steve, thanks again for the site, it seems to get better each week.

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Posted on 24/06/05 2:58:58 PM

Neal
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Posts: 322

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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Congratulations Tabitha! Truly, Your work is the best.

But just you wait until the 100th Challenge! I'll be back. And be afraid, be very afraid.

Posted on 24/06/05 3:54:54 PM

Glen
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Posts: 282

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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

I couldn't agree more - conratulations Tabitha - I think the pinched fish did it for me. Wanted to download the big version and zoom in, in fact I shall now you've pointed out the 'hidden' extras - BUT - as Neal said, there's always the 100th challenge and now you have two gunning for you !!

(oh, can I borrow the book when you've finished with it please?)

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Posted on 24/06/05 5:55:39 PM

NW Rain
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Re: Contest 50: The first half century

Steve, you are so right about this being an interesting week. Congratulations to Tabitha, that must have taken a tremendous amount of time to create and it is just wonderful.

Kudos to Glen and Neal, you guys continue to amaze!

David and Maiden, sure would like to see you back here creating your magic once again.

Congratulations to Steve for creating 50 successful challenges. Looking forward to the next 50.

Posted on 24/06/05 5:57:55 PM

Atomicfog
Virtual Visualizer
Posts: 238

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