My attempt to make the Diorama Effect

Logo Ideas

My Own Stairway to Heaven

My Own Stairway to Heaven:

To create my own stairway to heaven, I used four of my own photos, from greece 2011

And I also Used a free stock photo:

that I upscaled and erased all but the stairs: 

First, I selected the sunset as the background,

then I overlaid the photo of the water with the  dark mode:

Next step was bringing in the red plant from the photo

  

and overlaying with pin light mode: 

Then I opened the picture of the stone wall and I cut out the ocean :

And placed on top of all layers: 

Last step was to place the stairway into the composition, under the stone wall layer: 

Composition: Paradise 1 and 2

In this assignment, I was asked to make a composition about my notion of paradise.

For the first composition, I used one picture that I took when I was in Dublin:

and another one of a midnight sky that I got from Google images:

For the second composition I used a Picture of my sister that I worked on my post named: 

Compositions: Blending Background and Foreground: 1

also I used a photograph that I took in Crete, Greece,

and also an image that i got from google images:

Collage: Photo story

This collage was inspired by the stumble:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/23FiRx/www.pictorymag.com/showcases/just-like-heaven/

And I created a photo story with both my sketches and photos from my last trip to Greece:

And thats the final result of the collage and my story:

I went to greece years ago when I was 19 and never forgot: I loved everything about it: the food, the scenery, the people...
This year I finally went back and realized that I am still in love with greece. This collage is the product of my sketch and photo of a church near by the temple of Poseidon, a quiet paradise hr form Athens.

My process was to take a photo of my sketch, import it as a Raw file, bring it to photoshop, add some contrast. Then, I cut out the house from the background using the magnectic selection tool.

I erased the church out of the photograph using a layer mask and the black paint brush (eliminates parts of the image that are not desirable)

Then I placed the church sketch cut out on top of the photograph, cutter out little pieces of grass to fill in the floor in front of the church.

After that, I copied the front of the house from the picture and placed on top of all layers

Then I changed the blending mode to multiply, made a mask to erase parts of the overlay I did not want and saved as a jpeg to export to blogspot.

Compositions: Blending Background and Foreground: 1

For this composition, I used a photo of my sister at my wedding:

and a photo of a coin that i got from google images: 

I started by cutting out my sister face and hair from the photo. 

Then I erased just the face in the coin layer.

After that I placed the face over the coin and I changed layer preferences to bevel and emboss.

After much clone stamping to match her hair to the coins hair, I substituted the color of the my sisters face to that one of the coin.

My last step was to write my sister name (Mariana) on the coin and the date (2011).

First I erased the words and numbers form the coin in order to make space for her name.

To match the font style from the coin, I copied the I from liberty and manipulated it to make each letter the same as the coins type. 

Then, I retouched with clone stamp and voila: The piece was finished!

Photo Retouching with make up

Photo retouching: Paul

Compositions: Blending Background and Foreground

Collage 1

tips: photography for beginners

Great tips to shoot on the beach: http://www.exposureguide.com/beach-photography-tips.htm

Stumbleupon Inspirations

1. A little animation but with so much character!the art is so clean and yet with so much emotional detail: http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5635400/pixar-intro-parody

2. Ever wonder how to sleeveface?

This video is about how to do it! it looks so much fun!

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-sleeveface-142258/

3- Those surreal paintings are amazing:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1rTyop/designerscouch.org/view-log/the-surreal-paintings-of-vladimir-kush-687





4- Under the water photography
 by Erin Mulvehill can freeze time// photography: 
I never seen such a soft silhouette like those before ... it looks  magical!
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1rTyop/designerscouch.org/view-log/the-surreal-paintings-of-vladimir-kush-687

40 Free Fonts Ideal For Retro And Vintage Designs

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1m5fpM/bluefaqs.com/2010/05/40-free-retro-and-vintage-fonts/

Raster/Vector Graphics: Comment on This Post with a Link to Your Blog

Raster/Vector Graphics: Comment on This Post with a Link to Your Blog

Selected Color Exercice 2

For this composition I will use the picture of my cat.
I like this photo because his position on the screen gives a sense of depth, of perspective ....
My vision was to contrast the old and new techniques, such as black and white photo and oil paining, to make the cat's face pop up as delicately as I could.

First, I separated the cat from the background with the magic wand tool.
Then I made the selection a mask.

The background layer was set to black and white, and then I started playing with the texture of the cat: I wanted to look as if he was oil painted... and I love the results!

I also have another version, in which i revert the colors and make the cat black and white and the couch colorful .... 

Selected Color Exercice 1

I will use this photo that I took in Portugal because I love the background trees and also my friend looks pretty statuesque so I decided to give her the "Statue look"

First I separated the foreground from the background with a magic wand selector and then converted the selection to a masque,

then I started playing with the layer style and texture to look as if she was made by stones

Then I started fixing the background: I used the clone stamp tool to fill up the white column behind her 

And the final result is: