Creation of “Misty Morn Along Gastineau Channel”Cathy Pemberton
(Cathy's photograph "Misty Morn Along Gastineau Channel" won 1st place in the Creative category at the May N4C Photo Competition. She was asked by the editor of Foto Fanfare if she would write an article on how she created this print. The following is that article. Mark)
In the summer of 2007 my husband Mark and I took a wonderful trip to Alaska. We spent 4 days in Juneau and then traveled by train to Denali National Park. The things that we saw during that trip were awesome. One of my favorite experiences was visiting Treadwell Mines along Gastineau Channel, adjacent to Juneau.
We visited the mines early one misty morning. There were mountains in the background along with a heavy mist draping across the mountains and channel. In one location there was a clear view of the channel along with an ancient salt water pump house that supplied water to the mines. It was an incredible view, although somewhat static. As I was setting up for the shot I noticed a person out for a morning stroll. I waited for about 10 minutes until he reached the perfect location in my view and then snapped the following photo.
Figure 1
Compositionally I loved the photo although it was a bit dull and lacking in contrast due to the morning light. I always wanted to come back to this photo and try to do something more interesting with it.
My husband Mark, in addition to being a photographer is also a member of the East Bay Artists Guild and has been attempting to find ways to integrate photography into the more traditional art forms. As a result, we have been experimenting with a variety of filters and plug-ins for Photoshop. One of the more intriguing plug-ins is called Fractalius produced by a company called Redfield. They make 20 different plug-ins for Photoshop. I decided to give Fractalius a try for modifying my Misty Morn photo.
My first decision was what I wanted the final image to look like. I was actually planning to use this photo to put on the wall of our living room, replacing an old Impressionist style print that had been hanging there for the past 8 years. Thus, I was looking for a soft, dreamy, semi-abstract look.
The process for producing Misty Morn sounds straight forward but in reality required many hours of work in Photoshop to tweak the image to give the exact result I was looking for. I opened the image in Photoshop and duplicated the layer, and then opened Fractalius. When you open Fractalius you are faced with a preview and 11 sliders for modifying the image. There are also a variety of presets that the user can experiment with. The final image and slider settings used to create Misty Morn are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
This figure captured the feel of what I wanted to express. However, too much detail had been lost and the sky was washed out. To bring back some of the detail I applied a layer mask and partially masked out the hiker, sand, salt water pump house, sky and mist belt. The result is seen in Figure 3.
Figure 3
At this point the image was starting to come to life but was still dull. Using Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast layers I was able to make the image pop as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4
The image was nearing completion at this point. However, the clouds were blah. I wanted more color, so using a dappled paint brush set for a very low opacity I painted some pink into the clouds and mist belt. The difference may be very hard to see in this reproduction but the subtle change is very noticeable in the final print. I also burned the clouds and mist belt to darken them slightly, and add the final bit of snap to the image.
Figure 5
And there you have the final image. It captured my original vision for the photograph as well as the emotional impact that I felt that morning.
I would like to end by offering a word of caution. There are may filters and plug-ins available for Photoshop and they offer the artist a wonderful variety of tools. However, they are only tools. I have seen many images on the Internet where photographers have simply applied the filter or plug-in without having any artistic vision of what the final image should look like. Initially the results are often astonishing to a photographer who is used to photo-realistic images. However, if you come back to the image later you will probably find that it is lacking in vision and originality. Use these tools wisely to create images that are original and express your emotions. Only then can you be considered to be an artist.
Cathy
I am pleased to announce that my image of the geothermal features of Namafjall Hverir, Iceland took first place honors at a juried art show hosted by John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek and sponsored by the East Bay Artists Guild. The judge was Arthur Scott King of the Diablo Valley College Art Department. In his comments, as reported by EBAG's Nina Tyksinski, he explained that while appreciating a beautiful and inspiring view, he wanted to see more. He wanted the photograph to reinterpret the world with a unique viewpoint. He also wanted to be able to read the photograph as he would a painting, with an eye for repetition of patterns, interesting tonal variations, among other criteria. He appreciated the way his eye was led through the 1st place photograph and how he kept discovering new nuances.
