I’m not sure where this is going but I’ve started experimenting with textures in photoshop – a totally self taught tool and not very well at that. Anyhoo, I’ve started fiddling with textures, inspired by seeing the work of some flickrites of note (AdeleS, *Mama*Lola*). These people have great technique and I suppose what I’m trying to do is make my images appear as if they’ve been reflected in tarnished brass, or in an ancient mirror with the back silvering has been scratched and is peeling off.
The first thing I did was to go out and shoot some textures, and therein, I suspect, lies the rub. Textures are like anti-images, they’re what you don’t notice, so I think I’ve got to train my eye. So I started out in our playroom which has a dirty perspex roof, covered in all sorts of bits of twigs, moss and other objets and from the underneath, backlit it looked like it might have some potential. I squeezed off a few shots of our perspex, brought them into photoshop, and you’re beginning to see the results above. The technique is a combination of layering, overlaying, levels and selective colour, restoring parts of the faces back in which have become too mangled.
As I mentioned on the my flickr site, I’m not sure what this technique is adding to the images yet other than a bad skin condition which none of us has.
I have another contact who is well into textures and layering, I think you will like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hills_alive/
Not something I’ve had a shot at myself yet, but I’m amassing a large library of texture type images inadvertantly so it may well go on the ‘to try’ list, for when I’m sitting at the PC, lost for inspiration 😉
I see what you mean Julie, the first one I saw “big grass” is just great. I’m sure there must be a repository of free textures out there somewhere for the purposes of experimentation.