Plastified boat

[Otavio]

Dear fellows,
This is definitely not my field, but I decided to play with a picture from this morning, shot close to the broken bridge that I showed in another thread earlier today.

I'm not sure if I've gone too far, so maybe you will help me judge this. The idea was to transform the picture into something different, like a painting or something like that. Many thanks!

[FrankMi]

Hi Otávio, I don't think there is a 'going too far' in abstract art, just what appeals to you and the audience you are presenting to.

I do think there is an issue here with the distracting background. If the background were plain, the resulting simplification of the image would work in its favor and you could move on to expanding/cropping for the best effect.

[Otavio]

Hi Frank. Thank you very much for commenting. I do agree with you about the background. The way I found as a try to improve it was selecting it and applying a gaussian blur. Does it look better? Cheers...

[Bobobird]

Though I don't see the original shot, the new shot looks good to me. Some nice pp there.

There seems to be some un-natural blurring in the middle part of the boat compared to the sharpness of the surrounding areas. Can that be fixed ?

[Otavio]

Hi Bobo. Thanks for viewing. I think this is part of the effect used (highlight in the middle).

[Bobobird]

Ahhh, okie then.

[Otavio]

Although I'm not sure. I'm just adventuring into this kind of PP. It is possible to modulate the center highlight but, in this case, the effect looses its fun (the "plastic" reflection effect) and the picture becomes "normal" again...

[Bobobird]

You could try a local adjustment using layers and just working on that portion of the image.

[Otavio]

yes, I might try this. Thanks for the tip!

[FrankMi]

Hi Frank. Thank you very much for commenting. I do agree with you about the background. The way I found as a try to improve it was selecting it and applying a gaussian blur. Does it look better? Cheers...

I feel it changes the dynamics of the image but now part of the image is normal and part is 'plasticized'. Like most new techniques we learn, it may take a few tries before we get the results exactly the way we want them so don't give up if this is a look that you think you like.

One important item to keep firmly in mind is that if the image is to be somewhat normal, that is, not totally abstract, it is critical that you start with a good composition. In this case, the busy background would impact the scene regardless of what finishing technique is applied.

Another consideration is for special treatments such as this, the simpler the image, the better the treated result will be. For most viewers, it is far easier to accept an abstraction of a simple, easily recognizable subject.