I took a nothing shot of an adobe wall and turned it into this (first photo). Here’s the process I used.
As you can see, the original picture (second photo) is nothing wonderful, just something I thought I might be able to use some day. It's brown, has no contrast, and is blah.
In Camera Raw I selected “Auto.” We see more detail, lights and darks now come into play, and the color turned quite golden. (Third photo.)
I did a “Threshold” layer adjustment, added it as a layer. (Fourth photo.)
I ran through the blending modes until this happened. (Fifth photo.)
Obviously everything is all wonky, so I rotated and cropped the image to get this. (Last photo.)
I think it turned out kind of cool, especially considering what it began its life as — just a nothing shot of texture. Now I’m seeing some sort of island view, as though I’m on one island, looking across the water at another. And maybe there’s some volcanic activity going on.
I’m not going to offer it for sale on Fine Art America because I’m just not sure about it. What I AM sure about, however, is the value of wondering “what if.” What if I choose THIS picture and then do THIS and then do THAT, and oh, it looks like something else, use THAT, and hey! This isn’t bad!
The value of play, with no preconceived final result, is that wonderful and unexpected things may result. Maybe not for sale, this time, but it’s a tool I can try again some other time, with a different picture, but with this same concept.
You just never know, do you?
Wishing you a very playful day!
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