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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 2/25/2007
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Hi Rick,
This photo was actually taken on Venus! :)
Andre
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Rick Page
{K:5242} 2/24/2007
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Just now came across the link you sent me to this photo.Reminds me of when I was in grade school and reading about astronomy.Back in the 60's some scientists thought Venus my be a big jungle planet with super dense vegetation.This neat photo reminds me of those articles.Thanks for taking me back with such a humorus photo!.RICK
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 12/28/2006
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Many many many thanks for the info, Andre! The effect, as I can see it on your image might be cheap in the sense of easy to do, but it doesn't look cheap at all! In fact it seems very distinct and subtle to me!
Another great thing I learned today! Thanks again and many greetings!
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 12/28/2006
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Hi Nick,
Occasionally I have tried using a method where I adjust the opacity of the layer that I put on top of the original. This creates a sort of dream-like see-through effect. A lot of people use this when working with photoart multiple images. It is a kind of "cheap" effect, but can also be effective on certain kinds of shots.
Here is an example.
http://www.usefilm.com/Image.asp?ID=733006
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 12/24/2006
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Just one question more, Andre. Do you know if some of the many ways to merge layers, like for example options for their degree of translucency, or options of additive, multiplicative etc merging, could be useful for this process?
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 12/23/2006
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Yes Nick,
Something like that.
You did a good job of describing technically what I was doing. I put the two images up side by side on my screen and try and get as close a blend as I can before I actually merge them into one image. Then.. maybe a little more adjustment to the entire image.
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 12/22/2006
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Yes, of course. Selection of a part of an image, especially in case of many complicated contours of the selected part, is likely to include pixels that opically do not really belong to the selection and also to exclude pixels that do belong there. So, such a selection is really a kind of art for itself.
I get the best results when I select something by adding and subtracting this and that part of the image to the selection, and then applying selection changes (like softening, etc) on the selection itself, *before* pasting it on something else. This way the pixels on the boundaries of some area are selected in a more or less "translucent" way, which makes them "blend" with the pixels of the picture where they will be pasted. Was that what you meant?
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 12/21/2006
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Hi Nick,
I found if you directly cut and paste a partial image into another image. The abrupt sharp edge lines of the pasted in image make the whole scene look very unnatural. I got around this by softning up the edges to give a better blend. This one is by no means perfect either. Just for fun and practice.
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 12/17/2006
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I couldn't even imagine that with more sharpness they were looking phony, Andre! Again a small revelation to me as I start imagining how they would look like without that softness.
Well, photography questions and so many answers, as always! ;-)
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 12/16/2006
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Hi again Nick,
I forgot to mention about the soft focus on the Legonaughts. They were perfectly sharp to begin with, but I found that adding some softness blended them in a bit better with the rest of the image. I think this gave them a bit more of the illusion of belonging in the scene. It's something to remember when trying an image like this. My first attempts looked very, very phony. This one is only slightly phony :)
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 12/16/2006
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Thanks for the comment on this one Nick.
Now that you mention it, I wish I had thought to line up that second mushroom in the shot and added a bit of foreground as well. It would have turned up very much like the scene in "2001" that way. Unfortunately, when I took the mushroom shots, I had no idea there would be alien visiters added at a later date :)
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 12/13/2006
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Mushroom Odyssey 2005.
The mushroomlith stands in silence, giving a headache to the astrophysicists (and old mathematicians), as the white points on the umbrella seem to follow the Fibonacci sequence! The legonauts are impressed. And the mushroomlith wonders what those guys might want to say to her. Oh yes, it is a she, judging from the colorful dress in fashion!
Nice angle and oveall composition, Andre. The legonauts are slightly out of focus, though perhaps this makes the whole more interesting. Only the second mushroomlith is a bit "wrong" there. Perhaps the legographer could move a bit to the right and line up the two mushroomlits so that the one in the front completely covers the second one? But who knows what the space background would like like then. (We don't want the legovery to be on the photo.) And maybe again, going even closer to the ground, the plain of the grass-ecliptic, could further enhance the image, having grass contours in front of the deep space background?
Best wishes,
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/9/2005
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Hi Endre,
I had some fun doing this one.
Thanks for the interest.
Like I said earlier to someone else, if you really want to see how this is done skillfully, visit Fadel J's site. He is much better at this than I am. I'm happy with this one considering I haven't spent a lot of time doing this sort of thing in the past.
Andre
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Endre Novak
{K:12666} 11/9/2005
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So, the little green fellows from Mars are actually yellow, hahaha.
Well done dear Andre!
Endre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/8/2005
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Thanks Marcus,
I'm glad this made so many people smile.
Do you remember the old Twilight Zone episode with the old lady in the cabin being invaded by little aliens? That's kind of what I was thinking of when I did this.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Thilo,
I know what you mean about the Bond movies. Several of them used special effects that were not much better than this image. Remember also all the orange jumpsuits on the workers in the evil doctor's mountain hideout :)
Also as someone else mentioned, I think there is a little 50's Sci-fi in there too.
While I was doing this I kept thinking of an old Twilight Zone episode where tiny spacemen invaded a little old ladies cabin in the woods. It was a classic! Not a word was spoken through the entire episode. The old lady in the house tracks down and kills all the little aliens and then the last scene is of a United States flag on one of the "aliens" arms. It was a great twist the first time that you saw it and realized that the old lady was not on Earth and Earth men were the visitors.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Ray,
I'll have to try a couple more like this one. It seems to have a pretty good response. People like to smile I guess :)
Andre
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Marcus Armani
{K:36599} 11/7/2005
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hahah, now thats original andre, This looks like a 50's sci fi movie, anything that make me laugh now days is a 7 in my book....
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Thilo Bayer
{K:50358} 11/7/2005
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Hi Andre,
well lol on this one! This reminds me of some old James Bond movie (Moonraker, if I remember right). These pals look like the came right out of the movie =) Very funny one.
best wishes,
Thilo
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stingRay pt.4 .
{K:250401} 11/7/2005
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Thanks for posting a lovely piece of humour Andre.
It's good to laugh. Well done on this great idea, best wishes...Ray
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Ali,
Just for a little fun and for something a little different.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Rashed,
If you want to see some excellent images like this, check out Fadel J's portfolio. He is much better at this than I am.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Hi Fadel,
It is amazing how close the method was! As I said before, I have a much older version of PS and I know I don't have some of the same features the newer versions have. But, The principle is the same. Even down to compensating for different exposures and focus. What I should have done with this is put some motion blur behind their jet packs to look like heat haze. That way no one would mistake them for being on the ground.
Maybe I will do a short "exploration" series with these guys.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Hi Rosario,
I just hope it is not a poisonous variety :)
Andre
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Rosario Esposito
{K:9796} 11/7/2005
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Also they must nourish themselves!!!!. Congratulations. Good bye
-Rosario-
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Ali Naghizadeh
{K:19600} 11/7/2005
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LoL .. cool shot .. Well done my friend ...
My best wishes,
aLi
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Rashed Abdulla
{K:163889} 11/7/2005
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Oh what a great idea like a space ship,very amazing and beautiful capture,great job my friend,very best regards.
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Fadel J
{K:13974} 11/7/2005
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You did it exactly the same way. I too shot the toy in flat light against white background in diff. running positions (the idea was for an image that is different from what I ended up doing, but hopefully will do the original idea soon), I did the selection differently from you, I created a a mask in Quick Mask mode using a hard edged brush, tracing the whole figure (and zooming until I can see the pixels as boxes when tracing the edges), then ended the Quick Mask mode to convert the mask to a selection then inversed it. I know that this is a time consuming way of doing selections but I'm more comfortable with it and it gives accurate results, then copied and pasted into the scene image and cleaned up some of the edges that needed cleaning. I adjusted curves for the figure layer (similar to levels that you did) to match brightness, I then toned the figure by painting in multiply mode over the areas that need to be in shadow, and painted the shadow on the ground in multiply mode as well. At the end I desaturated the whole scene, blended 2 other skies in overlay mode and added a brownish tint by using a gradient map adj. layer with low opacity, and finally added some contrast.
By the way I agree with Susie that this image is unique in the idea, what inspired you was the technique, exactly as I was inspired by it, and it is so widely used now even in commercial photography work. Beautiful once again Andre!
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Fadel,
I didn't want to copy your image too closely. I'm glad you like it. I'm not sure if I used the same method as you. The little spacemen are about 1" high. So I took some macros of the figure in different positions with a white drop sheet. Then I selected the white area and inversed the selection to pickout the spaceman. Then I cleaned up the edges of the spaceman and dragged him over to the mushroom image and rotated him to suit the image. They were a little too sharp at first, so I did a little gausian blur on them individually to blend them into the other image a little better. Then I did a little levelling and the usual adjustments.
I wonder if the method you use is anything like that?
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Hi Susie,
I got a kick out of you telling me how unique this image is. I used exactly the same word (unique) when I commented on the the image by Fadel J that inspired me to try this. So I guess mine isn't that unique after all :)
I had fun trying this anyway.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Ferran, for the comment,
And thanks for visiting my portfolio.
Andre
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Fadel J
{K:13974} 11/7/2005
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Wow very cool Andre! :) you've done it very nicely, and it's a great fun indeed! very nice imagintation :)
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Susie OConnor
{K:34798} 11/7/2005
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Good job Andre! This made me smile. Very clever and unique. Well done.
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Ferran Rial
{K:6670} 11/7/2005
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Funny!
ferran
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 11/7/2005
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Thanks Gustavo,
Just a little fun image.
Glad you like it.
Andre
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Gustavo Scheverin
{K:164501} 11/7/2005
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Muy cómica!
Bien hecho!
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