It’s funny what we sometimes photograph. Lynne has shots of me taking pictures of a big rock or sand or gravel. Textures. Some time, that texture may come in handy! I’ve used an image of the skin of a World War II aircraft to provide a nice background texture, colored of course, for a poster for Streetcar.
And sometimes, you just need something that’s hard to create from scratch in Photoshop. I know there are terrific graphic artists like Bert Monroy, who can work magic from nothing. I attended one of his day-long classes and learned a lot. I’m not afraid of the pen tool any more. And some things I’m sure I could generate from scratch. But gold foil? Not so easy.
There are tutorials around for making your text look like gold, but they just don’t extend that well to a larger surface. And no one seems to agree on the right color. Sort of yellow, but not. Maybe a touch of green, maybe not.
Lynne to the rescue. She shows up with a roll of gold wrapping paper. Cool. I just need to take a few photos and pick one. Then cut out an appropriate piece to insert into my artwork. So, I hang it on the wall, which was a trick in itself, grab the camera and a flash. Aim the flash at the back wall, at the side wall, the other side, up and back. Click. Click. Click.
My 85% gray walls work well for setting the white balance and the hard part is done. I know how to insert it, adjust it for highlights, add some reflections of “nearby” objects, and we’re good to go. I just hope this doesn’t give something away for the new season. It’s obvious when you know!
