Colorful Digital Fusion Photography Tutorial

Hey there!  It's that time again.  I just completed a set of digital fusion photographs that I thought would make a great tutorial.  I recently moved to a new location in the same town but it offers many more photographic opportunities than I have previously had.  So I've been spending time taking some pictures just for more practice than anything else, but came up with some pretty cool shots.  But not all of them came out clearly in focus the way I wanted them.  Oh some parts were focused but not the parts I was aiming for.  Need more practice there.  But there was one very colorful photo I took that wasn't really all that bad, but definitely wasn't good enough to stand alone.  There are little flower and vegetable gardens all around me here and in this one little garden is a planter of a darling little girl sitting on a garden bench holding a basket of hens and chickens.  The hens and chickens did not focus as well as I thought they did.  But other parts of the photo were okay.  But as I said, it is the color combinations that are truly fascinating for this tutorial.

Here is a photo of the full planter.

Below is the photo I am using for today's tutorial.  For your purposes, this time find something with some good color dynamics as well as some different textures, lines, and angles and then take your picture.

*Reminder:  I am using Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro X5.  But you can use Photoshop or other software of your choice.  The settings may not have the same names but this is your chance to explore what your software can do for you.

The first thing I chose to do was to highlight all the lines and angles by using the effects filter in the default grouping called "Artistic Effects" and within the group the effect called "Glowing Edges."  I love the black light poster or black velvet style poster that results.

I'm going to work with this at a later time.  For this tutorial, I want to continue using the original colors.  This next photo I used a default effects grouping called "Distortion Effects."  Within the group I chose "Polar Distortion" and got this result.

Hmmmm.  What do you think? 

Normally at this point I will back track and go back to the original for each new effect.  But I liked the oddness of this one so I used it for the following results.  These were all done using various settings in the downloadable filter effect group called Medhi.  This is one of my favorite filter groups and it is usable for both Corel and Photoshop.  It is also free.  Within this group is a favorite "Kaleidoscope" effects with lots of variable settings.  (The great thing about the colors and textures of this photo is that I have only just started creating new designs and there are so many more possibilities I can work with.  This is why this time you are to make a photo of something colorful and textured.)

The following are just kaleidoscope variations from the Mehdi group that I chose to use.  At this point, you can do what I have done, or experiment on your own with whatever special filter effects your software provides, download other filters if possible, and go from there.  These are what I did so far.

If I wanted to, I could probably go back to the Kaleidoscope and use it on the original photo as well and come up with all new versions.  I am not sure yet if I will do that or not.  I am always excited when I somehow manage to make hearts as in the bottom one here.

Another Fun Abstract Tutorial

As I was just looking back over some of my posts and especially at previous tutorials, I thought it would be fun to do another one.  So, here goes.  And as usual, I'm using a really bad photo to start with.  But to its credit, the photo has some really good colors and lines and textures to work with.  This photo here is one of the absolute worst I have ever taken.  Why it turned out so bad is a whole other post.  It's just bad and it isn't the only one I took that day that turned out bad.

Remember, to get the full effect of this tutorial, double click on the photo to get full screen.

So, just to take some time out to experiment with some software settings I had not used before, I decided to see what might happen if I tried a few.  This was using curves intense.  This was the only one I liked.  And really, it's BAD.  There's nothing redeemable about it.  Or is there?

Well, there is color.  There are lines, angles, textures.  Hmmm...

        I decided to try out my favorite kaleidoscope filter from the Mehdi group.  This setting was 2 petals, 0 offset, 0 rotate, and 1 zoom out.  Well, now that's interesting.  The more I look at it, the more I like it.  Yet, I'd like a little less white.

 This time I wanted to see what would happen if I worked on the colors only.  So I tried Luminares Color Glow.  Wow, I love this shade of blue, but this is a little overboard.  But I'm not giving up.  I'm seeing more and more potential here.  So I keep going.

 Back to the ole favorite kaleidoscope.  This time it was 2 petals, 46 offset, 0 rotate, and 1 zoom out.  That's much better.  But I'm not finished yet.

 Okay I don't really like all that blue even though it is interesting.  So I back up a couple steps back to the kaleidoscope directly above the first blue picture.  Yep, that's the one, with the all white pickets going across the middle and the colors top and bottom.  This time instead of more kaleidoscopes, I chose to use Toadies filter group and the filter called Picasso's Other World. You can certainly see the cubism there.   I am really liking this one.  But let's see what else can be done.

At this point, still avoiding more kaleidoscopes because there are just times when I can almost feel that I need something totally different, I have chosen the same filter group that has the kaleidoscope filter.  But this time I have chosen a filter called Melt within the Mehdi filter group.

   

 

Wanting to give it something...not quite sure what yet...but I am trying the filter group called Simple and the effect called Blintz.  

 Well that has possibilities, but I've still not gotten what I am looking for, and that is something that just pops out at me and says, "YES! This is it!"

So now I am going to try one more very easy filter that comes with the Paint Shop program and that is found under the title of Distortion Effects.  The effect is called Displacement Map.

And that's my YES! 

I could keep going, but I am going to stop there.  I am happily satisfied with this result and feel that I have gotten not one but two pretty awesome pieces of art out of this.  The first one is the one where I used the Picasso's Other World and got such an interesting cubism piece.  And then this last one above here.  

So did you follow along and do some experimenting of your own?  I hope so.  That's what makes this fun.

Digital Fusion With a Pineapple, a Camera, and a Computer

Pineapple is so good to eat.  But have you ever photographed a pineapple?  Okay, so what's so special about photographing a pineapple? And what is this thing called "Digital Fusion?"

Well, let's start with the last question first.  "Digital Fusion" is what I call the art that I create using my camera and my computer, specifically my Corel Paint Shop X5 photo editing program.  Over the past years as I have progressed in this specialty, I have felt hard pressed to know what to call what I do.  It's photography, yet once I am finished creating, it doesn't look much like photography anymore.  It's not actually digital painting either.  I really enjoy cooking shows, especially Gordon Ramsay's shows, and one of the things I have learned from those shows is that when you mix different styles of cooking together, say Indian and Mexican for example, it is called "fusion."  So, one day I was thinking that what I do is totally digital since I use a digital camera and everything else is done on my computer, and I am definitely fusing different things together.  Hence, the name "Digital Fusion" came to my mind.  I don't know if anyone else has ever used that terminology before or not, but I know for myself, I finally feel that I have found the right name and description of my art.

So, okay then, what about this pineapple and what are you going to do with it?  Well, I 'm glad you asked.  Let me show you.

Starting with these 4 photos, let's see what happens when I start using Paint Shop with them.  First let me say that I have added a great many more filters that you can find online for free just by looking.  The filters are plug-ins that help me create the art I so enjoy.  I didn't really do anything with the photo of the actual pineapple...yet anyway.  But I wanted to show you the different colors available from the pineapple itself.  Mostly I worked with the photo of the leaves, and the bottom photo of the single segment of the side of the pineapple.  You can see more here.

These 3 examples above show the vast amount of color that was provided just by the one photo of the pineapple leaves.  Be sure to click on each photo to see it enlarged for better detail.  My favorite among these is the center one, which I call "Florets"


Next, let's take a look at examples of digital fusion using the single segments of the pineapple skin.  With the first one, I got these final pieces of art.

The second of the above examples is actually the cropped version of the first one so that the cross itself is the main focus.  I have been using a Kaleidoscope plug-in to try to come up with different styles of crosses, and this is just one of many examples.

Now let's move on to the final individual segment of pineapple skin.  It is more in focus and also has a larger variety of colors in the palette.  

 

As you can see from these 4 examples above, the colors can be changed during processing.  All of these kept the brick texture simply because I liked the look it presented.  

So, there you have it.  What I call "Digital Fusion" and why I call it that.  It doesn't matter what I might find to photograph to start with.  Everything has options to be used as a final digital fusion piece of art.  With God as the Master Painter, the color palette provided by nature cannot be topped.

Kaleidoscopes, Abstracts, and Understanding It All

Why so many kaleidoscopes?

When I was a young child, I was totally fascinated by the magic of kaleidoscopes.  Knowing how much I use kaleidoscope filter effects in my art, I would have to say that I probably never outgrew my fascination.  When I first got online back in the late 1990s I found different websites that let you play around making your own kaleidoscope designs, but it was only on the screen.  You could not keep your designs.  Once I found that there was a possibility to create my own kaleidoscopes either with photos or from scratch designs on my editor program, I just kept going, and going, and going...

From kaleidoscopes I started branching out into other filter effects, sometimes finding things I really liked and other times not being able to connect to the designs at all.  As I have grown into more and more designs, I have also branched out to find as many more filters as I can to work with.

But I don't understand your artwork!

I've been asked by some who follow me online why I do what I do because they just don't understand my art.  In all honesty, I've never been one who cares if I understand someone's art or not.  If I like what I see, that is all that concerns me.  My only real response to those who do not understand my art is that I just like it.  I especially like using flowers, especially in the kaleidoscopes.  I love seeing how the various styles of petals move around the screen making totally new designs.  Just like when I was a child, I still find the way kaleidoscopes work magical.

If you look closely at my work, you can often see exactly what I was using as the base before I edited it.  Others you might not be able to tell anything about it.  One that has a pretty light blue color also has raindrops in the design because it originally was a photo of a light blue car after it had rained.  That was in my earlier years and it amazed me that I could see the raindrops.  Other photos may have words in them from road signs, or cd covers, or even books.

In high school art classes we were taught to try to figure out what the artist was trying to say in their abstract work.  I never could do that.  Actually I often thought it was a waste of time to try to figure out a meaning in a piece of art from some artist who was not alive anymore to speak out what they really thought.  It was the same in English Literature classes when we were to dissect a story to try to figure out what hidden meanings were tucked away in the otherwise simple story.  What was the purpose for that?  I remember a trip to a museum where people were looking at the huge paintings on the wall and doing this same thing.  What did the artist want to say when he painted it?  In my mind the real question was, why did we think he was trying to say anything at all?  And in Lit classes why did we think the author wanted to say anything more than what was already said?

So, I am now saying that for me, you don't have to try to understand my art.  Either it draws you in and you like it, or your eyes pass over it and on to the next piece.  There are no hidden messages or meanings other than this.  I like it.  I like the way the colors play off of each other.  I like how one picture can turn into many other pictures.  I like how blurry bad photographs can end up being gorgeous abstract art.  Hopefully that will make it easier for you to enjoy my artwork.  But if you are of the kind who has to find some hidden meaning, you will be disappointed, I am sure.  And you will continue to not be able to understand my work.

No Hidden Messages

Although I have not put any hidden messages in my artwork, I would be very happy if through my art, people would somehow see the glory of God shining through because each one of us is His creation.  He made us in His image, and there is none more creative than our Heavenly Creator.  I also would like my art to be an encouragement to others who are disabled and find it difficult to do what other people do.  When you see a landscape of mine, you will know that the efforts involved in my getting that photo took more planning and the assistance of others to not only get me to the location, but maybe even to help with setting things up for me.  My abstract work comes out of my disabilities because of the limitations I have for getting out to do the landscapes and nature photography that I love.  Abstract work keeps me busy in the off weeks and months when getting out is more difficult for me due to the weather.

Being disabled, I live on a very limited income at this present time.  Should the sales of my artwork grow into something I can live on, there should be a lot more opportunity for me to get out to do the landscape and nature photography I want to do. For now I am still learning more and more each day and hope to be able to sell more as time goes on.  In the meantime, if you are interested in purchasing anything I have done, please let me know.  You can leave me a message here and I will contact you.  Or you can go directly to my website, or you can go see my work at Xanadu Gallery.  Once there, you can purchase my work through the gallery.