Watercolor effect
GR
some time ago I took a slide of a person while she was in a room close
to a window.
Because of the high level of the back light I had to over expose.
The result was a very plesant effect on the background (there was a
castle a bit far, seeble
from the window) which was blur and over exposed. I could discribe it as
a sort of watercolor
effect.
Remebering that, I shot a few pictures of buildings and landscapes over
exposing and changing the
focus manually in order to obtain a de-focused image.
Unfortunately the result is everything but similar to the original
slide.
Has anyone experienced a similar effect, can you give some hints on how
to obtain it again?
Thanks in advance,
GR
Terry Dawson
news:37A6F1AC...@ip-plus.net...
I used to do portraits and used Hasselblads. I would never think of
defocusing an image! However, I would regularly use their Softar filters.
The effect is a kind of "halo" diffusion that is quite picturesque.
Perhaps, in your example, the light streaming into the lens (diffuse lens
flare) caused a similar effect. Maybe you just need a good soft focus lens
combined with the over exposure. Just a thought.
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Laren Dart
<gianluca.le...@ip-plus.net> wrote:
[snip]
>Because of the high level of the back light I had to over expose.
>The result was a very plesant effect on the background...which
>was blur and over exposed. I could discribe it as a sort of
>watercolor effect.
Same thing happened to me by accident. I really blew a shot of some
flowers. It was over-exposed by at _least_ four stops, and had the
same watercolor effect. Had a nice pastel look, but most of the detail
was washed out. When projected, the slide was so bright it made my
eyeballs vibrate. This was long before digital manipulation on the
consumer level, but I saved it with the intention of someday copying
it, darkening it, and trying to bring out the watercolor effect.
The digitally-juggled image (my first try at extensive manipulation)
is at http://www.got.net/~ldart/album/orient03.htm The color is a
little bolder than I like in watercolors, and I'll probably work on it
later for a more delicate effect. It does have an oriental feeling. (I
imagine you can copy the slide/print to darken the overexposed image
if you aren't using a scanner.)
>Remebering that, I shot a few pictures of buildings and landscapes over
>exposing and changing the
>focus manually in order to obtain a de-focused image.
[snip]
>Has anyone experienced a similar effect, can you give some hints on how
>to obtain it again?
I'd recommend not de-focusing the image. (But try it both ways and see
what you prefer.) Also, if you open up the lens, you'll decrease the
depth-of-field, so try to over expose by changing the shutter speed.
It'll take some experimenting, bracketing, and keeping records in
order to duplicate the effect, but that's part of the fun. Maybe
you'll develop a new technique. ;-)
If anyone is interested, page 1 of "The Unicorn's Photo Album" is at
http://www.got.net/~ldart/album/ I'd appreciate comments on my work,
which is pretty much "generic camera club" stuff. I'm not into digital
wizardry yet.
Larry
--
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Rick bl928
suggested this effect (sorry I don't remember the specifics). They said to
shoot through an opaque pane of glass like they sometimes use in bathroom
windows. It's the glass that has a slightly wavy surface. As far as focus, you
would want it as sharp as possible and let the glass soften it.
I always wanted to try this but never got around to it.
Rick
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zeitgeist
> There was an article a few years ago in one of the photo magazines that
> suggested this effect (sorry I don't remember the specifics). They said to
> shoot through an opaque pane of glass like they sometimes use in bathroom
> windows. It's the glass that has a slightly wavy surface. As far as focus, you
> would want it as sharp as possible and let the glass soften it.
> I always wanted to try this but never got around to it.
>
there is a guy in San Fran who makes a bundle doing that, he
projects a slide onto the pebbled textured glass and copies
it from the other side. prints huge wall size images for
big bucks.