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Posted on 05/04/18 12:38:26 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5732 Reply  |
Another self imposed exercise challenge
As you will know from previous posts in this ‘strut your stuff’ section, from time to time I set myself technical challenges to try and develop or hone a particular technique or effect. Here is one such: I set out with a table pasted into a background and some objects pasted onto the table. The images are exactly as they came from various online sources. I did not use any purpose taken matched photos. 
The first challenge was to switch on the light and, apart from creating the light and shadows, give the bottles proper transparency and reflections, and the liquids in them varying degrees of different texture and opacity. 
The second challenge was to polish the table. 
I won’t pretend that there wasn’t a lot of trial and error and undoing and redoing and far, far more time invested than I can in a Friday challenge ......... but that is how I teach myself and try to develop. The final of the three images ended up with 60 image layers and 46 adjustment layers together with associated masks. That seems like an awful lot for a relatively simple image, but it's the way I habitually work. I have never been sure if this level of complexity is expert and clever or horribly profligate and wasteful. Just for amusement I attach the layers palette below. I like to think the results are pretty convincing but a detached pair of eyes can always see things that you don’t see yourself because you are ‘standing too close’ and can't see the wood for the trees. It's horribly easy to get tunnel vision when working in Photoshop. I would very much like to hear if anyone thinks I have missed something or has suggestions for improvement. Please do be as critical as you like. That’s really what I want. There’s always room to do better …….  _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 06/04/18 07:43:23 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7040 Reply  |
Re: Another self imposed exercise challenge
An interesting piece of work! And very nicely achieved, although I might have had some refraction through the empty bottle. I applaud your diligence in naming layers. |
Posted on 06/04/18 08:29:14 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5732 Reply |
Re: Another self imposed exercise challenge
Damn yes! How did I miss that? Thank you.
Sadly 'tis not always thus .... on smaller images I tend to be rather lazy. But when they get complex naming discipline is more or less essential or I can get hopelessly lost and confused in my own work! This is especially true of my bigger projects with very large layer counts done over longer periods of time which I need to come back to after periods of absence. I'd love to say it's virtue but truthfully it's necessity. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |