November 23, 2009

Giddy I Am!

Any one who visits here fairly regularly knows that I'm not only [usually] short on words, but I'm also pretty non-fancy with my photos. My style is pretty spare and simple - I'm usually ecstatic to get a clean color version and a classic b/w version of any photo I love. I don't usually play around with fantastical finishes or add textures or layer multiple exposures to make incredible HDR images. Because I'm, like, simple, k? Oh yeah, and I'm not terribly technical. Nor am I terribly artistic. And creativity? Totally not my forte.

But I so very much appreciate when other photographers create these artistic kinds of images. And these other images completely inspire me. They make me want to play and experiment and ... waste spend tons and tons of time reproducing the same effect. sigh. Usually my "experimenting" comes to naught and I end up right back where I started: with a clean, straight-up, no frills color version.

So you can imagine my mixed emotions when the very talented Patti Brown generously offered all of us I Heart Faces contributors her entire Kaleidoscope Collection of Color and Light to play with, test drive, try on our Fix-It Friday images. I was equal parts giddy-ness and trepidation: hopeful I could reproduce some of her artistry; fearful that I couldn't.

I'm happy to report that her Kaleidoscope Collection is magical. Even a non-techie, texture-challenged dork like myself can use her product successfully. Her tutorials are awesome: clear enough and simple enough that even I could understand them and copy the process.

And copy her processes I did. After watching her quickie tutorials, here's what I created when playing with a couple of my recent Yosemite images. The SOOC image is on the left or top, and the Patti Brown "recipes" are included below.

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Sun Flare 3 Warm (overlay mode), Dream Burst III (overlay mode), Alien Lightpour 2x (first time overlay mode 35% opacity; second time screen mode 12% opacity).

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Dream (overlay mode), TRA Get Faded Winter 65%, TRA Pool Party 30%, TRA Boutwell Magic Glasses.

And on yesterday's post I used a simple layer of Dream (overlay mode) on my first picture of Half Dome.

Here's a quick example (and sneak peek from this weekend's awesome session!) of Patti's magical overlays on a portrait ...

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The only thing I did to this image was add Patti's Golden Sun Glow (overlay mode). Easy, simple, glowy, and so very pretty.

Thank you, Patti!!! Your Kaleidoscope Collection is amazing!

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10 comments:

Sarah said...

Gorgeous! I think the second picture might be my favorite :)

Unknown said...

Those turned out really, really nice. Is her collection still up for play?

Mrs. E. said...

Love this post! Overlays or not, your photos are always stunning. I have a question. . .I know you use Lightroom. Can these work in lightroom or only photoshop?

Rhonda said...

Beautiful. And I concur - your images are always stunning.
I just got some other textures and are LOVING them. (http://exposinggrace.blogspot.com/2009/11/playing-with-textures.html)
I think I am going to purchase her Gallery Collection.
Thanks for sharing!

Beth@Pages of Our Life said...

Susan, I always love hearing what you are playing with. That first image looks like a painted piece of art. I have the "lite flare" and love it. Your right though it takes time to play to get a feel for all of those things.

Drew said...

Absolutely awesome! Guess I need to get over there and check out her tutorials. Maybe over Christmas break, I'll get more of a chance to try out her products. Angie has been using them and loves them too. If these photos are any indication, I can tell I'm going to love them!

angie {the arthur clan} said...

Susan!!! Oh my word! If I hadn't already been playing around with them myself, I'd be even more shocked at the gloriousness of these samples. Her overlays truly are amazing though, aren't they? I'm in love with her Sunny Marsh one. It adds that beautiful hint of fall color to the drab trees, skies and grass around here right now.

Unknown said...

So beautiful! I am in love with that first picture!! How in the world did you capture that? Lay on the ground? WOW!! Just amazing :-D

Unknown said...

Really outstandingly beautiful! I am so excited for you! : )

Melissa Stover said...

those are awesome! beautiful location!