Clouds & Big Sky Panos

These where powerful panoramas but not so creative so I decided to make a David Hockney Joiner style collage using 22 of the photos, as my daily photo.

The Patch :: Falling back on joiners

I had been scouting around for a photoworthy urban landscape and whilst I live in a “vibrant” city I really don’t fine it so attractive (infact this week I was more confronted by the ulgy side of the urban aspects), So whilst I took many photos of buildings and motorways, the only ones that even inspired the idea of a worthwhile landscape for me was a group of shoots I took hand held looking back on Melbourne at dusk.  However rather that try and work up a panorama I felt there was extra charm in leaving them as a stack of images.

Whilst photo collages have been around a long time its is the joiners developed by David Hockney that can bring a rich artistic feel of personality and being an original work. His original joiners where just polaroid images (lots of them) assembled and stuck down to make a larger image. Not necessarily taken from the same vantage and often deliberately not quiet matching. I have found the collage maker in picasa is an idea place to build similar joiner style collages. However there is plenty of software out their to do a similar job (Hockneyizer is a wonderful “filter” style app,originally for flickr photos but you can upload any photo to it directly, that will take a single image and break it into a hockney style collage)
In picasa you just need to select the photos you want and the select the collage builder tool (either the Create/Picture Collage menu item or collage button if you have one on the bottom toolbar).  The first step is to select the picture pile format which is as if you are just scattering the photos on your desktop. under that is a series of border templates (the collage above has the polaroid frames, in homage to Hockney but they are not what I wanted for the final image. I prefer borderless option.) However I like to using a drop shadow which emphasis (rather than hides) the join between photos. The next step is to move around and possible resize and reoriented to photos. When you select a given image a control circle if overlayed on the photo click on in and moving your mouse slides the photo over the surface. You can resize the photo with the mouse wheel (or clicking on the orange dot on the little control button on the edge of the circular tool and moving it in and out (horizontally). To rotate the image again click on the orange dot and now move the mouse vertically and you will see the image rotate. the controls are very easy to master and you will soon be able to rotate and resize at the same time.
One of the bigger charms of Hockney’s later joiner work is that he did not try to fill the whole space and left ragged edges and some gaps but he did take time to judge a suitable background colour, something that could bring the whole together. I like this approach and so I used the eye dropper tool to select the dark blue of the sky as my background, Then a bit more rescale and realignment of all the photos together (press select all at the top of the workspace and all the photos will be outlined and can be reoriented and scaled as one). You must then hit the create collage button, which creates the composite image and puts them in a separate album called collages. You can then work on this as any other photo in picasa so I did a fraction more cropping. The advantage of the picasa’s tool is you can return and re-edit the original collages in the collage album at any time.

There should of course be some “art” applied to your selection and arrangement of the images but if you are lost for inspiration you could always try the scramble and/or shuffle button at the bottom of the collage workspace (remembering that any alignment of images will be lost)

Under the Canopy

Joiner style collage of the shadows under the canopy, 

Adelaide Botanical Gardens. 

 Original: imageo.withknown.com/2014/under-the-canopy

A Really Big Collage/Panorama

Collecting Photographic Reference for Paintings

I was fascinated with the contorted shapes of the branches of some of the mature trees along the coastal walk (the promenade at Point Lonsdale) and felt they could make an interesting series of paintings. I carry a very small sketch book (A7 sized) in my camera bag (and in fact did a few scribbles as I had a coffee over he road). A digital camera can be a vey hand thing for an artist. However I like to use mine as a sketch book taking down important details giving and overall view, I shot many photos that may never see lightroom and printing, they are more an aide-mémoire. I also like to capture at least a couple of bracketed sets to be able some additional tonal investigation when I have a chance.

This tree, possibly a very mature bearded heath, overhangs the path. I original figured I could make a “joiner” collage, but the HDR worked out well so I got an autostiched HDR panorama, Now hopefully I have a better memory to inspire a wonderful painting?

PhotoFriday :: Big Tree, Big Collage

The Big River Gum, Multi-image collage.
(in the style of a Hockney Joiner, created in Picasa)

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Big

PhotoProject :: Creating a “Joiner” collage in picasa

ne thing I probably have included enough of in this blog is how I do stuff. This is not really as a step my step recipe because I’d rather inspire you to follow the approach than copy what I have done. This should just be something that opens the possibilities not a set of fixed steps. Picasa is being side stepped in preference to google+ photos (ie the on-line service) but it is still available for download for free (as at the time of this blog post at least). One feature it does have that hasn’t (yet) made it onto the on-line side is a wonderful collage maker set of tools. Here is one way you can use them to make a David Hockney style joiner.
The first step is to take a series of slightly overlapping photos. In this case I’m talking a set of the south east horizon at the southern end of Jells park and I’ve taken them with the camera turn into a portrait aspect, to let me have more photos across the vista. Once they are loaded onto Picasa I selected the ones I want (notice they are in reverse order (ie I was moving anticlockwise, but it doesn’t matter for this process) and open the Create/Picture Collage item from the menu (or just click on the collage button if you have that showing). In this example I’m using the Picture Pile setting (on the upper left)

Once you have the pile of pictures on the screen you can move them roughly into order and there will be overlap. Rather than try and match everything up (which you can do) I want to give that joiner style look so I am deliberately rotating some images a little (To do this click on a photo and a scaling and orientation scale appears if you grab the “handle” with the mouse and rotate it the photo rotate of move it in and out to scale the photo). You can do this individually or select a few or all the photos, and scale or rotate them in unison.If you want to change the order of the pile, right click on the photo you want, which brings up a submenu and you can Move to to Bottom or Bring to the Top.  I have left a lot of overlap in my photo set, probably more than I need, so I am taking some images out of the foreground making them a fraction large and putting them at the back to emphasis the overlapping nature.

You can shuffle around the set however you want. I’m not looking for such a regular appearance and don’t mind a bend of two in the horizon, as I feel this emphasise the fact that this is a set of images. You can select them all and scale them to best fit your frame (I’m using a special 2:1 landscape shape I have created in the printout options in Picasa). Then to finish off I use the eye dropper to pick a blue shade from the sky (you have to click in the colour swatch to get the eye dropper icon then just select a suitable point in the image or colour from the pop up colour menu). I have also choosen to use a drop shadow to further emphasise the overlapping photo feel. That’s it just click on create collage to save you creation. You can always come back and edit the collage, if you leave it in the special collage album.

My joiner is only a single layer and you can easily use this approach to assemble a large matrix of photos, All that is required are more photos and a bit time for the fun shuffling them around (and/or patience).

Russell Beach Collage

Joinery in Hosier Lane

Some simple Hockney style joiner collages of the Hosier Lane street art.

A bit of scouting for the patch.

I was out doing a bit of scouting looking for architectural features for this week patch theme and was sniffing around the Harry Seidler designed council offices. Like a lot of buildings it is now surrounded and towered over by less interesting buildings and you have walk around it and glimpse bits here and there to appreciate the whole. A situation that is hard to present in one phone, but a composite collage can begin to layout and unwrap the design.

The collage was created with picasa;s picture pile collage tool, which I do like for such situations as this. Its capable of assembling Hockney style joiners quickly and easily. I however ran into a persistent problem trying to use the Blog This button. Given that the Share on Google+ makes it harder to share to blogger I am getting that unnerving feelings about google’s intention to maintain or not the very popular blogger and picasa platforms?  So with a fair delay I ended up posting this via Windows Live Writer! Go figure?

PhotoProject :: Beginning the Year with a Wider View

After boldly claiming this might be the year of the photo book I have resolved to create several this year and write a bit about my experiences along the way. One of the books I would like to create is something like “A Year in Jells Park” (which is almost just on my doorstep, ok a short walk). Jells Park is vast and I’m sure there will be a lot to photograph and discuss. Already some of the post in the blog are fodder for the book. This evening I went to photograph the water birds down on the lake. on the way I liked the lighting across the lake but without a wide angle lens, I did my usually trick of taking a set of overlapping images, no tripod or fancy panorama head just hand held (like I always do). I then just sent the jpegs straight out of the camera into Autostitch to see what it looked like (well via Picasa)

I hadn’t tried to balance the exposure (of the sky and lake) across the set and autostitch returns ragged edges because my hand held overlap was pretty approximate. Yet it does give a wonderful view that is hard to capture without special lens (and cameras). I will certainly tweak this view further, when I have a little more time, perhaps even for a double page spread in a photobook! Ok lets not get ahead of ourselves here!

While I had all the images on my phototray in picasa I selected the collage tool to create a david hockney style joiner. I’ve set up one of the configurable buttons in the print/share area of the phototray. If you haven’t set up this key look under Create/Picture collage… item on the main menu. I then selected the Picture Pile under options. I set the without borders, and solid background colour which I selected with the eye dropper as part of the sky’s middle tone blue. I also click on the drop shadows to just highlight the photos edges a little. I then slide the photos around with the mouse to almost, but not quiet, have the photos overlap. Again clearly the photos don’t quiet match in tone and exposure but I think that just adds to the charm and realisation that this is a big vista.

PhotoProject :: The Cubist Photographer Within

I was looking for some city photos for this week photofriday challenge and came across a set I had taken of the shot tower in Melbourne Central. The original intent was to create a large autostitched version from three series photos, 46 in all, taken from slightly different views. I did create two stitched panoramas, shown below. However they were not really conveying the feeling of the vast space and dome above.

I have always liked photo collage and montage. I still have several I made in the Late 60’s and early 70s from my own prints with scissors and glue. Getting things to match was harder than you might think, so often I didn’t bother and the fragmented results where often more striking than the individual photos. This collage above was created in picasa’s wonderfully simple yet very useful picture collage tool. Its under Create/Picture Collage… on the main menu or you can set up a button on picasa’s task bar on the bottom of the screen (Tools/Configure Buttons…). There are a number of collage styles to choose and in this case I am using the picture pile, which lets you overlap the photos, with or without borders like a pile of photos on the desk. You can resize and rotate the individual photos and more them forward and back in the stack.I have also used the colour picker and selected a neutral colour from within the photos as my background. I have also set drao shadow on, the accentuate the overlapping natures of the images. I am really following the basic “joiners” technique of David Hockney, but instead of using polaroid photos I’m using the computer and picasa collage. The cubists had demonstrated in paint that you could break conventional perspective and photographic realism to combine the subject more convincingly way in space and time, in particular their fragmented assemblage of the detail as tiles are also my inspiration here, to open up the dome above, unlike the fish eye effect any wide angle camera view would create, which crowds in and compresses the aspect.

You can of course assemble collages in many software packages, and a collage like this, or even a more elaborate one, could be easily created any any graphics or photo software that has layers and objects, but picasa

Vert-o-rama in three versions

This was a welcoming little alcove within a mature stand of sheoaks [Casuarina] beside the jells park lake. Because it was a closed-in area it was hard to comtemplate how to show that in a photo. I decided to do a vertorama, which is just a fancy term for a stitched panorama combined as a vertical strip rather than the more conventional wide horizontal format. I also decided to try this in three ways, firstly as a autostitched panel (left hand side), then as a ”joiner” style collage (center panel) even a HDRi version (right hand side).

Under the Moreton Bay Fig

Moreton Bay Figs [Ficus macrophylla] can grow into massive trees, and it is quiet difficult in a single photo to convey that all embracing size, especially when you are enjoying the dappled shade well underneath the tree’s embrace. My simple solution is to take lots fo images. These two starkly different collages where prepared from the same series of photos, which followed up the mighty branches to the patterns in the foliage above me.

Collage Fun in Toronto

Multiple images made in to a David Hockney style “joiner” photocollage, using the photo pile feature collage in picasa.

Great Day for a Collage

Big sky and a wide sweeping beach. Perfect for a hockney joiner style collage in picasa. Well thats until I get back to a computer with Autostitch.