Posted on Jan.17, 2011, under Travel
(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 58mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/500 sec @ f/5.6)
This shot was taken in St. Thomas, USVI on a recent trip. One of the things I was hoping to find was some brightly color boat which would make for an interesting picture. Didn’t find any of those. Instead, what I got was this gritty looking thing. The light was pretty bright and flat but I decided to take the shot anyway just for fun. When I looked through the days shots I wasn’t thrilled with what I had taken, so I decided to work on images that I liked better. After making another pass through those shots I decided to see what could be done with this image. I liked the gritty texture of the boat, especially the way the paint is all chipped and faded. I thought it might be nice to try adding some additional texture to the image through some image overlays.
The first thing I did to the image was crop it down to create a more abstract shot. It’s obviously still a boat, but I think the crop helps you focus more on the details and less on the fact that it is a boat. I then used a couple of texture overlays in Photo Tools. I had an earlier version which used ‘cracked paint’ among other things that I actually kind of liked, but I also thought it looked a bit silly to have cracked paint in the water. Instead I used a film scratch effect and a grunge vignette instead. The vignette made the bumper a bit too dark so I added a curves layer and made the bright area a little larger. I finished things up with a simple edge treatment.
Remember to click on either image to see them in lightbox mode.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Check out this textured piece of Italian Venetian Gondolier Artwork. the entire image is based on cracked paint and rotten walls blended into the scene.