The Old Mill

Today I thought I'd share an example of a photo transformation with you.  The original photo shown above was taken by my brother on a trip he made to East Tennessee.  I love the shot - the composition is beautiful, and I could envision this as a stunning landscape.  A typical thing which happens when shooting photos of cool places is the blown out sky.  Which is the first thing I tackled with the addition of two layers of texture.  I have a favorite texture I like to use to give my artistic photos an old world, vintage glow, akin to that of the old masters, with just a pop of additional color.  I like rich, elegant artwork, and I could definitely see my brother's photo as such.

After adding my two layers of texture and adjusting their layer mode and opacity, I then go back to the original photo and adjust color to make it warmer or cooler (depending on my final objective), and then I increase light and saturation where needed.  Then it's back to the texture layer to gently erase areas where I want the colors and tones of the original photo to show through.  After the addition of one more texture on top of it all to brighten things up a bit, this photo was transformed.  Now it is a beautiful work of art with dramatic, rich colors, a beautiful sky, and a warm glow.

Not all photos transform quite this easily.  Some take many, many layers of texture "fiddled with" (how's that for a technical term?) endlessly to create the look I wish to see in the end.  Sometimes I can transform a photo in 15 minutes.  Other times, it takes as long as 15 hours.  It depends on the original photo and the colors involved, and how the textures interact with those colors.

If you have a special photo of a place, thing, or animal you'd like me to transform into a work of art for your home or office, please contact me and I'll be happy to see what I can accomplish for you!

--Jai