The joys of hand colouring photos

I spent a great afternoon learning a little about hand colouring photos at a workshop run by Janina Green at the Monash Gallery of Art. Hand colouring precious photos was once an important aspect of preserving family memories or postcards for tourist, but it can be a wonderful way to add originality (and extra value, not just sentimental) to a photographic image.

There are some wonderful hand coloured works as part of the Photography meet Feniinism Exhibition on at the monash gallery of art till 7th December.

Five Fingers?

I had decide that I should photograph an obvious five, for this weeks Photo Friday. Five fingers was the most obvious first thought, but hang on what about the thumb. The obvious opportunity to create a five fingers hand was irressistable.

PA080779,
originally uploaded by imageo.

This is the original photo, before manipulaton. It required a bit of gymnastics to coordinate holding one hand steady, in an unnatural pose, and the camera with the other, whilst getting it focused & correctly exposed. I then used Corel Photo to move my first and second finger a little to allow more room for another copy of my second finger to be pasted in place. I also used the cloning tool to simpilfy the background and tidy up the reconnected hand. Finally I used Corel Photobook edges, the charcoal edge, to bring more of a focus to the hand.


for photofriday topic :five