Yoko-chan's Daddy Unplugged
Last month we attended a small get-together at the house of one of Anthony's classmates, Yoko-chan. Yoko-chan's daddy really appreciates music ... jazz, classical, classic rock.... all kinds, and we were treated to a wonderful selection from his CD and LP collection throughout the evening.
He also plays the guitar quite well, and at one point he and another daddy had a little jam session. I snapped a few wholly unremarkable pictures, but I thought I'd see whether I could turn them into something more interesting. I know that he saw Eric Clapton two nights in a row when he came to the area last year, so I thought I'd try to create a Clapton-esque image album-cover type image.
The result is what you see above, and I'm really happy with it. This is one of those cases where the “happy with it” is more because it's better than I thought I'd be able to do, and not because an impartial observer would think it's great.
It required much more artistic skill than Photoshop skill, which is why I worried that I'd not be able to make what I envisioned. I futzed around with many approaches in Photoshop, finally happening onto this result that encompasses a number of layers: a gray background, the spotlight, the squiggled in shadow, a rough outline of Yoko-chan's daddy with a Darken blend mode, a full-opacity filled in version of Yoko-chan's daddy, and finally, treatments with the “Water Paper” and “Craquelure” filters.
In the end, I'm quite pleased.
On the other hand, others tend to laugh when they see it. Still, Yoko-chan's daddy liked it (or, at least, said he did), which was the intention all along. He even said that he didn't mind my posting it, so here we are.
Nice work!
Fun detail, we have that chair in our house too (we’re in Sweden). It’s cool, but hardly rock-and-roll 🙂
Yeah, I liked the Stokke as well. Are they worth it, by the way? Thinking of getting one in a couple of months for the baby.
Dan
Heck with the chair and Stokke 🙂 I just love your photo’s and the job you did using photoshop. Enjoy your blog each day here in Fla. USA. I also look forward to the lovely travel photos that you take. Keep up the good work.
Al