I was fiddling with a photo, hoping to come up with an interesting if not also cool rendition to update my Facebook portrait with. I started with the picture on the left and ran it through the various filters in my software program, coming up with several usable ones, including the one on the right, the result of using "lights" under the illumination effect. What I generally do when working with this program is use its random button rather than mess with the individual settings myself. Click click click until I see one I like to save. There. That didn't take too long.
But I have no self control when it comes to trying out the various effects. Soon I was pulling up "patterns" under reflections effect. I've done this so many times that I'm getting used to seeing pretty much the same thing pop up, only in different colors depending on what photo I start with. This time was different. I'd not seen anything like this one before. Oo ah oh!
Nor these.
These look somewhat familiar but somewhat different too. Such fabulous fabric some of these would make.
Ok, shut it down, I said to myself. But really, do you expect me to quit before I've run this through the kaleidoscope effect? And I gasped at the first one. Definitely not what I've seen before.
Nor this one. It looks like feathers.
Here's another unique one, very subtle, no brown or peach in sight.
This one has quite a different look as well, and with no blues or whites.
This is so dynamic. I think I fiddle with the number of "petals" on this one to make it more symetrical.
Would you have guessed my portrait would have produced such designs and colors? It was all I could do to tear myself away, quit all that clicking and saving!
7 comments:
Now, it doesn't matter that these were all happy accidents, but in my view save, save, save!
It is definitely fun to play, and productive too as even if you do not use any of these directly they contribute to 'the back burner' of your imagination.
I do like your new portrait, and I imagine it would be hard to stop once you started fiddling with the other effects.
This is what I like to hear, Hilary and Olga! I'm getting over my guilt about time spent doing this sort of thing, partly because I think the culling of the random results in a way trains my eye for good design. And when I think of the hundreds of photos I have on file, few that I would actually pull out and work with, I know that just the time spent focusing in the capture and the occasional viewing has that "back burner" effect and helps in my designing and ideas in ways I don't even recognize. My external hard drive where I save these things is plenty big enough to keep saving saving saving!
Thanks Sherrie! Oh yes, so many options, so easy to keep trying them, so many better than the last, just one more . . . lol
Wow….how very interesting…leave it to you to take this side exploration!!
Mary, it sometimes feels like a lazy way to design. Something about technology makes me feel like I'm cheating at times. Or just whiling away the time to no constructive end. Olga and I have been discussing on one of her blogs about how one can feel guilty about time spent reading even though we are learning important things, and our brains are working, gathering information for future use. I feel that way about "playing" on the computer and doing research there as well. It's a wonderful tool so I shouldn't downplay its importance. I just have to be careful; like any tool, it can be misused. A little discipline keeps it from becoming a dive down a rabbit hole!
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