The gaps appear to be getting longer…

No reason apart from not having a lot to say – must be a first for me. That is because not a lot has been happening on the creative front – just housework, shopping, sorting and reducing stash, optician’s appointment [=£££s for new specs] half - a quarter - about an eight of the porch ceiling falling in [=£££s I expect, but we hope the insurance will pay for it].

Just a normal sort of week then <g>.

All I’ve done which is at all creative was take a very simple drawing of a bottle…

 

 

 

 

 

use Photoshop to bend it, bend it, just a little bit [if you are now singing you are as old as I am], and colour it -rather unsuccessfully.

 

 

 

 

 

But a bit of pixilation in Picnik and saturation in Picasa work wonders.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now I'm going to find something entirely unrelated to college work to do…

I’m moving on …

to the programs which offer effects, photo editing [e.g cropping, red-eye removal etc.],  and/or paint programs – although I’m not getting into paint programs, that’s far too scary. This group vary in complexity from relatively simple to ones which  I find almost as difficult as PSP.

Most, if not all offer ways of changing the colour of the image and ways of distorting it. Some programs don’t do much more than that, so I’m only going to look at those which offer a bit [or a lot] more. Many offer you the option to add text,frames or speech bubbles, but if that’s what you want to do you’re on your own!

One of the more basic programs is Phixr. I find it relatively easy to use, and it offers the usual range – I had fun ‘colorizing’ the passion flower.

 

 

You can also add one [or possibly more – I haven’t tried] preset images – like raindrops.

 

 

 

 

The ‘Dot’  effect is quite effective too - although it is less effective on some images …

 

 

 

 

than others.

Sorry for the shock intrusion of a dahlia - ‘Bishop of LLandaff ‘ - photographed at Kingston Lacy yesterday.

I think this offers ideas for simplifying the image for embroidery – and I like the greyed background.

 

 

Here is the original photo.

 

 

 

 

Phixr also allows you to overlay one photograph on another  - which I find surprisingly effective. Possibly layered sheers?

 

 

 

 

Picasa  will also do this – so in the spirit of scientific enquiry here is Picasa’s ‘Multiple Exposure’.

Blame it on insomnia…

You would think after a weekend of child care I would have slept like a log last night – but not a bit of it.

So the over-abundance of manipulated pictures of a passion flower now residing on my computer is the product of those hours in the chilly fastnesses of the night. [Short pause while I Google that phrase and don’t find it – I thought it was a quote but maybe it’s just a family saying.]

I am NOT a computer manipulation guru – just an embroiderer who can’t draw, I’m not much of a techie either which is why I like simple picture editing programs. [I will learn Paint Shop Pro one day. I will. I will.]

I always use my own photos – this avoids copyright problems and they are more personal and meaningful anyway. Even a photo of a plank.

What I discovered last night was just how many free programs there are out there. I think I still like Picnik the best – but I did find one or two others that I will use again.

So to prevent this series stretching into infinity – today you get three – er, four- er five -for the price of one.

These were all done with Picasa, which is the [free!] program I use for basic photo fixes like straightening up slanted snaps and removing redeye – which Picasa 3 does brilliantly by the way. It also makes collages, as you may have noticed …

It has a dozen simple effects, of which my favourites are saturation, sharpen, saturation, film grain, – and did I mention saturation?

So I took that subtle passion flower image I showed you yesterday and …

This is saturated. Three times. [You can desaturate as well but where’s the fun in that?]

Probably not one to choose if you don’t like bright colours but I think this abstracted shape would lend itself well to stitch.

A quick extra – the green one in B&W – just a little more subtle.

 

 

 

 

 

For  this one I used the warmify and glow effects – oh, and a touch of saturation.

Perhaps not such an obvious candidate for stitch but some interesting colours, outside my usual colour choices.

 

And for something a bit more restrained – I used the the black and white effect and then, from the Tuning menu, I added highlights and shadows at the maximum setting.

Never do anything  by halves.

 

When I looked again at the B&W image just now, I decided it would be more interesting cropped – which you can also do with Picasa. Appliqué and stitch perhaps? I think there aren’t enough shades of grey to do anything  subtle with blackwork.

 

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did, Just wish I had the time/could persuade myself to do something with them – the muse has departed again, although I am getting a lot of knitting done. Oh, and playing with photo editing software…