I'm Not Kidding! Yet.

 Proof that I'm serious about being back. Here's another old oldie:  

Girl In The Treetops.

Another LuminarAI edit from a 40+ year old negative scan.

Hey Out There! Wake Up! I'm Back! Maybe.

 Has it really been ten years since my last post? Holy shit. New editing tools like LuminarAI, PicMonkey, the DxO Nik suite tells me it's time to revisit those old home-made porn  boudoir images for another go-round. Here's one, edited with Luminar AI (find it here: https://skylum.grsm.io/danielgauss3379 )

Simplicity

Original: color print

Another stab at the "Photocopy" filter on Photoshop Elements; Painted white, then some bits were colored.

Air-Cooled Part 2.

First, let me state right off, that my Photoshop skills aren't all that well developed. Over the years, all the photo manipulation that was needed was performed by Margaret.

Turns out that the task of removing the rest of the model's bikini could be accomplished with ACDSee Pro. The extra accoutrements were added using Photoshop's paintbrush tool.

Which version do you like best?

Dark Into Light

 

Original- Black and White negative.  A little bit of everything here..  Picnik, ACDSee Pro, Photoshop Elements 5.0, Picasa.  Altogether it creates a moody setting.  There was a lot of trash to take out!

Shower Door

Another of those ambush shots. In most homes, these lanquish, hidden in the bottom of the sock drawer. Here they become part of the gallery.

35mm black and white, with effects from ACDSee and Picnik.

Memphis Belle.

It's time for another image of the love of my life. Yet another medium is represented here, as this is a Polaroid black and white original.. (in fact, the sharp-eyed will see the box and some other prints! I've had this image since it's capture and I just noticed it today while zoomed in for the hand tinting!)

The picture was taken at a park somewhere in the Memphis, TN area when the young Margaret came to visit a lonely sailor. And dumped him.

At least it wasn't via a "Dear John", and of course, things eventually worked out just fine.

Rippled water effect from ACDSee Pro, hand tinting and "60's" color with rounded corners and frame from Picnik.

Kosher

No.  I’m not.  Title is merely taken from the unusual pattern on the necktie and,... well.. the obvious.
From an afternoon’s delight in the Seventies.  Black and White original; Creative color and beam effects from Picnik.

Analog Kenmore.

Here’s another “oil” from the tropics, c. 1969.  Drying socks.  We would soon learn from the old-timers that it was healthier to discard the socks altogether, as well as the boxers;  less surface area to “grow stuff”. 

United States Marines

Boogieing out..

Something completely different.. a scanned 126 Instamatic 3.5 x 3.5 inch print.  From my vacation in the tropics, 1969.  Converted to “oil painting”.

Naughty Miss A_____.

Something different.  A Polaroid instant print from the mid-70’s.  If this was still the era when a boss could still chase his secretary around the desk… this would be that secretary.

ACDSee Oil paint effect, and some basic color and exposure editing.

Another Pair of Breasts

Like Poles Repel ~ Perfect Balance

               …and finally, what happens if one doesn’t follow the advice in the old saw: Don’t get your tit in a ringer….

Tit-al Wave

…same starting image, taken to extremes.

Keeping A Breast

A simple black and white image of a young lady's breast, captured nearly 40 years ago. Home darkroom developed and printed, complete with squeegee marks, and decades' worth of dust speckles and other detritus of time passing. Cleaned up with a few editing tools and it looks pretty good. But we can do more with it. Much more.

Adding color, and a sun spot effect can change the mood completely.  But that’s just a start.  Here’s my favorite.

The Island

Tomorrow, I'll have two more examples, including one that might just go too far.

Auto - Erotica

Another "oil". Lube extra.

Bathroom Window

After Gaugin.*

Scan of original (not very artsy) color print. Converted to "oil painting" in ACDSee.


*Link will take you to a most amazing Google site: Google Art Project. Explore. Discuss.

Garden Sprites.

It's said things are not always black and white. I agree. This is an original color print, and has been turned into an "oil painting", using ACDSee Pro editor. It was mirrored with the same software.

Weatherball Red, Warmer Ahead..

Weatherball red, warmer ahead.
Weatherball blue, cooler in view.
Weatherball green, no change foreseen.
Colors blinking bright, rain or snow in sight.

Downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan c.1974. The Michigan National Weatherball is upper left.

Just to show that they're not all going to be scantily clad humans... (just most).

"Peek-A-Boo_"

More painting with Picnik, with an interesting addition. Picnik has "seasonal" effects. In the case of this image of a young lady, (who solicited my photographic services to do a "glamour" shoot to impress a gentleman), the snow on the ground is real. The falling "snow"... is not.

Dune Flyer

Last Summer there came what is known as an "Aha!" moment. Google released a new version of Picasa, which included something called Picnik. I began to explore the free version. (I don't like to pay for anything unless it's absolutely necessary). There are tools there that just opened up a whole new level of creative manipulation. The most important feature, early on, was "Tint". It took a few minutes to figure out that, unlike "tint" on Picasa, you didn't have to render the entire image in a single color. You can mix a color, and apply it with the "paintbrush" to different elements of the image, hit "apply", pick another color and do it again. I loved how this worked!

The above image is the first, and still one of my favorites. The original is a fairly low contrast black and white of a fellow student at the Thomas Jefferson College of the Grand Valley State Colleges,  where I was studying art, photography, creative writing, bowling and bicycling. She was gracious enough to model extensively over several days, which included this trip to the dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Once I saw the impact that localized color had on the overall image, you could say I was hooked. I'll have more examples of this technique over the coming days.

Dominant Female

Only thing missing is the whip?

Following up on yesterday's image, where a monochromatic color cast was added to a black and white original, I used Photoshop Elements again, to add multiple colors to the image, along with a Mardi Gras mask I found online. Then the whole image was "posterized". Finally, the border was added today, using the many tools available in the free version of Picnik.

I've had fun with this image again lately, experimenting with the effects tools in the ACDSee playbook. One particular humorous example, using the "mirror" effect is the aptly titled, "Two-Headed Monster". Margaret thinks it's creepy. (And no, this is not Margaret).