Short circuit

Here's an example of a digital image that originated from one stock photo -- the original image came in a collection of low-res, web-oriented images, the kind that used to come bundled on other software. Anyway, this has been heavily manipulated in Photoshop -- as you can see the outstanding element here is the plastic wrap filter. Still, it works for me.

Colored rings

I find that complexity often grows out of simplicity. (Yeah I don't know what that means either.) Anyway, this is a simple image of car headlights in a parking light. The manipulation was done primarily in the camera, panning moving it around while taking a slow exposure. The tonal values and some duplicate layering were, as I recall, the only major modifications in Photoshop.

Tale worth telling

Here is one of the most complex images I've ever created. This is a composite of several different images, including an old nude study (the arms), one of my own photographs (a head shot of a woman on the island of Nantucket taken in the mid-1990s, and several stock texture backgrounds. Again the use of Flaming Pear's incredible "flood" plugin filter for Photoshop.

Icon

This is a collage of several stock images, each brought into Photoshop where, once wedded together, they became this image. I added a frame from PhotoFrame to edge it off.

Power lines

OK this is a very straightforward image manipulation: a stock photo, and low-res at that, was opened in Photoshop and heavily altered using a variety of artistic filters (the most obvious one being "plastic wrap"). It was finished off by overlaying two more stock images, one of a setting sun and a second one of a blue sky and clouds. Tonal values and saturation qualities on both images were subsequently heavily modified.

Principessa

A terribly complex and complicated image, not one of my favorites but I post it here to show what a bit of overkill can do. Frankly I think the complexity draws attention from the key element of the story, the "princess on the throne," as I originally called this piece.

Anyway, it is a composite of several stock images as well as a several photos I took over the years. All brought into Photoshop where they were heavily manipulated (like you couldn't tell that, right?) and then the tonal values were altered significantly as well. I do love Flaming Pear's "Flood" plugin filter though.