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.

Hiatus.

Taking a cue from the Europeans, I'm taking the Summer off.  Posting will return when it cools off..  meanwhile, enjoy this..

Cactus Flower

Recently, I started practicing extracting elements from images.  Yesterday's "Moonshine" image was the first try, and it seems to have worked out well.  Here's another "assembly" of old and new images.  The prickly pear blossom was shot just this afternoon.  The nude, about 35 years ago.

Blossom was "extracted" using Photoshop Elements "Magic Extractor".  Tree limbs were distorted with Elements' "Liquify" filter.  Black and white image was colored using "Tint" tool in Picnik.  Other tools used have slipped my mind.

Double Shot of Moonshine

This one took a couple of hours, and has numerous effects, as you might imagine.  Only the smooth, young buttocks are from an old scan, (original below).  The moon, and hawk are from current digital captures.  In fact, that's the famous "Super Moon" of just last March.

Elements were separated from their original files with Picture Cutout Guide, and assembled in Photoshop elements.  Some additional lighting effects were also added in PSE.  Many effects in Picnik, went into the final image, including "Thermal Image", "Doodle" (the clouds and stars), and of course, the "Mom" tattoo.

Original image from mid-Seventies

Simplicity

Original: color print

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

Wood Nymph

Yeah. I suppose you could infer a play on words there. A photo montage of two different images.. one originally color,(yes, you've seen it before), one a silly black and white.

Tried out some new software for this. "Nymph" cut out using something called Picture Cutout Guide, which is an easy way to separate different elements from an image. It's a memory hog, though, and very slow, but worked well for this purpose. Coloring was done using GIMP, which is free editing software similar to Photoshop, which was also used. I need a lot more familiarization with it.. has a few tools Photoshop doesn't have.

POV#3: Committed.

What once was a black and white, homemade porn snapshot, may not be quite your idea of "art", but you gotta admit, it ain't what it was.

POV#2: Curiosity

Like a headstone.   Pun intended.  Or maybe like plucking morel mushrooms.

"Embossed" tool from ACDSee Pro, colors from Picnik.  Original B & W negative.

POV#1: Discovery

First image of an erotic tryptych.

Let The Sunshine In...

Click to play

Another day, different colors.  The sun makes it warm.

Like yesterday's image, from the same session, this was first converted to black and white from the original.  Needed a lot of cleaning up, as the scanner was really picking up the "silk" texture, and all of these old 5x7 enlargements are really starting to curl bad.

Added the sun in ACDSee Pro, the graduated tint for "sunlight" in Picasa, then painted the colors back in in Picnik.  The original:

Reversal

Color print original, converted to black and white > reversed (back to color) > then "painted" black and white on the flesh only (plus the bits of interest!). Yeah.

Board Broad

Original Black & White

I think I like the "painting" more than anything. Another black and white negative. Colored with Picnik, and added "HDR" effect. Kinda reminds me of Mel Ramos pin-up artwork. Finished with a fake Polaroid Insta-Print look.

Gossip Girl

après la douche

From a black and white snapshot.

Is it just me, or does the simple act of adding color increase the erotic impact of these images?

Leave Them Be?

Some of the images I’ve run through the flatbed scanner are complete works in and of themselves.  They’re enlargements from actual photo shoots where I was attempting to be serious, rather than 1) sneaky, or 2) prurient.  They would require very little in the way modification to get posted here, except…  they were printed on really obnoxious silk-like texture paper, and the texture shows up in the scans.
In this particular case, I used the smudge stick filter in Photoshop Elements 5.0 to cover the silk texture, and added a border in ACDSee Pro.  The image was also obviously cropped, and inverted from the original.  The result is a more hand-drawn appearance to the image, without going overboard.

Here are a couple more images that have pretty much been left alone.  The interesting part here, is that these are scanned from 120 film square negatives… in a 35mm film scanner.  It was tricky, but I got it to work.  The image on the left, was a candid taken of customers at the counter of the camera store I managed in the Seventies.  I cropped out the surly boyfriend, (you don’t want to see the original!), and  used the Sepia tool in Picasa.  That’s the extent of the changes.  I was amazed how the feel of the picture changed with just that little bit of modification!
The image on the right is of one of my oldest friends, (although I haven’t seen her in more than 10 years).. we’ll call her Suzie.  She wanted a portrait for her husband at the time, and I was happy to oblige, being a perpetually  broke college student at the time.  I borrowed a friend’s apartment, gave Suzie my suede “hippie” hat and got to work.  This is also a scan from a 120 black and white negative that I somehow shoved into the 35mm scanner.   It was also given the sepia treatment, along with the soft focus tool.
There you have it. Not all old images have to be turned into weird and wacky abstract works.  Sometimes they’re just fine the way they are. 

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!

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.