I've been using Photoshop forever...before there was such a thing as layers. When there was no going back in its history and you a to save a new file for every step or lose it.
Until yesterday, I was still using a few versions back from the current CS4. I actually had a newer version on my computer but stuck with the older one (CS) like an old and comfy t-shirt. Silly me.
Yesterday was the first day of my Photoshop for Film & Video class using CS4. I'm taking class for several reasons...I'm less skilled in the program than I could be and I want to expand my opportunities and knowledge for film. And for those of you who read this blog because of an interest in photography and movies, I'm going to include some of the stuff I learn on a weekly basis.
Class #1 was pretty basic. There are several people in the class that have never used Photoshop so the professor - who has an abundance of passion and an equal amount of patience - went through demonstrations of the tools and filters. Grouped students were grabbing pictures off the internet to create composites practicing with the various tools she was demonstrating.
Even though it was basic, I did learn some stuff. A big one was the pen tool. Being self taught on Photoshop I never got the hang of the pen tool and avoided it like the swine flu. It gave me a little hiccup in class, but I persisted and expect to master it in the coming weeks. I also picked a couple of shortcuts. One is Command J. You can lasso something on one layer and hit Command (Apple) J it creates the lassoed bit on a new layer. I also didn't know you could resize brushes up with ']' and smaller with '['. That's going to save me a ton of time over the coming months of AFM work.
I didn't do my Photoshop exercises with internet pictures. I was using my laptop (not enough computers in the lab for everyone) and couldn't connect to the internet so I used my own pictures. And since I already knew the steps of layers and compositing photographs and couldn't decide what pics I wanted to use, I worked on two projects instead of one.
We were instructed to choose a landscape for a background picture (the sky is from my May road trip), then to add another photo (I added Mick Fleetwood, figuring that would be the end of the exercise). But then she said pick out another picture to add. My design sense said, oh no. If I'd known it was a three-piece I probably wouldn't have used Mick...I had no idea what I had that would work in this piece. The instructor used a beach shot and added a seagull in the sky, then added a dolphin in the water. Well, I found a black and white baby picture of my daughter that I had sent her a few weeks ago and thought it would be fun to have her facing off with Mick...
This was the other one I was working on. Instead of adding a third picture I used it for the filter and gradient portion of the exercise. The background is the valley in Twin Falls, ID and that's my daughter after her brain surgery. I cut her out and blended her neck with the hill. I used the 'plastic' filter on her and then did a red to green gradient over the whole picture. Click on it to see it bigger...I think it's kinda cool...
And just for fun, I couldn't resist getting silly with the 'liquify' filter. This took less than 30 seconds...
BTW, the title of this post refers to Photoshop, not me. Although, I suppose it could...
Jewish Penicillin
I know it looks like a plastic toy, but it's not. It's real. A living and breathing praying mantis.
And they became fast friends...
Speaking of praying mantises...I mean preying mantises...
Wouldn't it be great if inspiration came in an IV that we could hook up as wanted? I'd be on it 24/7. I love inspiration. It is my drug of choice. And conversely, I hate the lack of it. Lack of inspiration is the most frustrating thing to me. It can shut down my creative juices in a nanosecond. Nothing worse than the creative juices not flowing...except the lack of inspiration. Since inspiration fuels the creative juices.
I immediately knew it was my post. I love it. The angle, the mixing board, the girl looking in the camera with her thumb up, the guy to her right, the crowd on the upper tier...
The photo is soooo bad I don't think their own mothers would recognize them.
And then of course it took another 20 minutes to figure out why I couldn't upload the post, nor save it. I kept getting an error message. I finally cut and pasted each bit into a new window and saved as I went along. Turned out you can't have an "&" in the post's labels...the last thing that I did. Sheesh.
Or even this one...
It's more like this one...
I have to take an extra beat as to what thought belongs on what task. I'm there right now. And when I'm in that space it's important that I keep lists. Hence, the first thing on my list for tomorrow morning is to make a list.
I didn't know it at the time, but Joe Walsh lost his three year old daughter in a car accident on her way to nursery almost exactly a year before these pictures were taken. I can't even imagine how he got through that.
This is my favorite of the roll...
Of course, there had to be a couple of frames on the end of the Joe Walsh roll portraying I guy who's name and place in my life I don't remember. If only I had a photographic memory. I look at so many of my one-off pictures where I have a familiarity of the subject but just can't remember the details.
If you see this, my apologies for not remembering your name. I'll blame it on the bout of spinal meningitis I had a few months after we met.
I went out last night. Very unusual for me. It was a meet-up with some film writer types.
That's Chuck and Emily. Chuck invited me to the gathering and was kind enough to drive me there too. Thanks, Chuck.
My dog kisses more babies than any politician I've seen. Obama better watch out in '12...
Baby-lickin' good...
Gotta get some sleep....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......
At that time I thought it was the best. But now I'm thinking this is the great one...
What do you think?
Rick Wright
How rad is it that I shot Joe Walsh one day and then Chuck Berry?
Little did I know at that time that we were going to continue with the exercise and that it would become our first project we have to hand in next class. The assignment was to continue by adding another 27 layers to create a 30-layer composite piece. I started by combining the two I did the first week and moving on from there. I did some of it in our lab time yesterday and then spent all of last night (until 11) finishing it off. Here is the result...
Click on it to see the details. It's not often that I actually play in Photoshop...usually I'm working on a movie poster or retouching photos. I'm wondering if they should have let me out of my box. I apologize to Mick Fleetwood in advance for the snakes. Oh, and that's me popping out of his ear.
My question... why is there always a fat housefrau in a tattered moo-moo dress on the sidewalk at every accident?...just standing there...gawking. Is she the real Mr. Death trying to grab another soul? I swear I always see her.
Please explain to me why someone uses a specialized biodegradable poop bag (just like the ones I use) to pick up their dog's poop...then ties said poop bag...and then tosses it on the sidewalk? Why not do what 90% of dog owners do and not bother to pick up the poop at all? Hello? The point is to bag the poop and drop it in a trash receptacle. Sheesh.
I will now be buried in figures for who knows how long. Please think good thoughts...cross your fingers...sacrifice a goat...anything to help me get this done. See you on the other side.
What has me excited about this story is the idea that Rambo is now the man chasing instead of being chased. The idea of John Rambo tracking a killer in the woods of the Pacific Northwest is just very cool sounding. So, what do you guys & gals think?
Sunday in the Park
Red Wine
Ride the Bus
BTW, the title of this post refers to Photoshop, not me. Although, I suppose it could...
Do you know how I knew it was a really big movie? First thing that gave it away was all the crew people standing around doing nothing. Secondly, the people that were working were unstacking a ton of cases of water and sodas and packaged snacks. Thirdly, the trucks were shiny and there was tons of gear. Really nice gear. Like this giant soft box attached to a cherry picker that could have been a crane...
I would have been salivating if I wasn't parched from already walking a couple of miles and the water left in my bottle almost reaching the boiling point. 
