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.

Two sides to every story

This is one of the more complex images I've ever created.

It began with two different photographs of the same woman, taken on the Boston Tee many years ago. (As I recall she was part of a group of nurses or nursing students who were going into Boston for the marathon.)

Anyway, I was struck by how the two photographs showed very different sides to the same person -- not a novel revelation to be sure but I thought it curious nonetheless.

So I brought these two images into Photoshop, and then added several stock images of textures and objects. Many layers later and after numerous manipulations I ended up with what you see here. One of my most favorite images as well.