Fun With Photoshop and your photos

akabryanhall · Jun 26, 2013

Hey Guys,
Just wanted to show you something I was messing around with. I use CS5 and can't get pixel bender to work, but I wanted to create an oil painting effect.
I used one of my favorite tanks shown on glassboxdesigns.com, originally from cpfarm.com.

I used a series of filters to create this

And then I went a bit nutty with liquify lol

Dtech07 · Jun 26, 2013

Thats really cool!!! I will have to give that a try. Thank

KoleTang · Jun 26, 2013

Cool! What sort of cardinalfish are those?

Now make the most ridiculously obvious photoshopped coral pic you can. :tongue:

SeymourDuncan · Jun 26, 2013

Lol...just hit up eBay for photoshopped corals. I bet you can find a plaid gorgonian

"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon." And a link to my tanks https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123851

akabryanhall · Jun 26, 2013

Dtech07 said:
Thats really cool!!! I will have to give that a try. Thank

Please do, let me know what you came up with!!

KoleTang said:
Cool! What sort of cardinalfish are those?
Now make the most ridiculously obvious photoshopped coral pic you can. :tongue:

I think those are reef chromis.
Say hello to my bta

SeymourDuncan said:
Lol...just hit up eBay for photoshopped corals. I bet you can find a plaid gorgonian
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon." And a link to my tanks Links to my tanks (past and present)

Ahaha yup I'm sure of it.

revhtree · Jun 26, 2013

Very neat and I love the finished photo!

revhtree · Jun 26, 2013

Can you share with us what you did for the first rendering of the photo?

revhtree · Jun 26, 2013

Here is something I did with my 135g photo.

SeymourDuncan · Jun 26, 2013

I want to see a mulitcolored Xenia lol

"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon." And a link to my tanks https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123851

akabryanhall · Jun 26, 2013

Thanks Rev! Your's looks really cool as well! I will be happy to show what I did. It's a little long but here goes.
For this I am using an image of Mr. Kang's Korean Tank I found off of Reefbuilders, found here. I am also using one of R2R members POTM pics, Acro76's Acro pic
Here are the originals, it's best to start with a high res pic

First I do an image adjustment, moving the "Ahem" Saturation to unnatural levels.

I then apply several filter layers. The first is glass. I have to adjust the distortion and smoothness. With tanks, there is a lot of fine detail, so the distortion can't be too high and the smoothness must be, otherwise things become unrecognizable. With individual pieces like the acro, more liberties can be taken.

Next Layer is the Paint Daubs filter. I like to keep Brush and Sharpness to 1, but play with as necessary.

Last Layer is Brush Stroke. Direction below 50, Length 3 and Sharpness 1

Next I duplicated the background layer, went to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate

Now Change the Blend Mode (right above the Layer 1) from Normal to Overlay

Last Filter is Emboss Layer 1 (135 degrees, 1 and 250%) Change Opacity to 40%

This is the final Product, not awesome but pretty cool lol. I wish I could get CS6 or Pixel Bender to work. I obviously used liquify in Kangs tank (Not thrilled with it at all) and blurred all no essential background to help the focal points pop a bit. I like how that helped on the Acro.

revhtree · Jun 26, 2013

Very cool! It would be neat for someone to do a large image and have it printed!

ptboy6 · Jun 27, 2013

My rainbow yuma that died on me after a week.. it was magnificent

KoleTang · Jun 27, 2013

Mr. Kang knows what's up. :tongue:

akabryanhall said:
I think those are reef chromis.

The guys below those in the trench. (I wish my tank had a trench LOL)

KoleTang · Jun 27, 2013

KoleTang said:
Mr. Kang knows what's up. :tongue:

The guys below those in the trench. (I wish my tank had a trench LOL)

NVMD, they are blue eyed cardinals.

Where can you find more info on Mr. Kang's Tank? His website is down. Did he ever get a TOTM somewhere?

akabryanhall · Jun 28, 2013

I really love this! Broad bold strokes, no question what the focus is.

ptboy6 said:
My rainbow yuma that died on me after a week.. it was magnificent

akabryanhall · Jun 28, 2013

KoleTang said:
NVMD, they are blue eyed cardinals.

Where can you find more info on Mr. Kang's Tank? His website is down. Did he ever get a TOTM somewhere?

Those were two different tanks. The first was an 850G tank that can be found at CPfarm.com I believe. Mr kangs tank can be found on reefbuilders. I think every tank needs a trench lol. I have thought of building a green river through one using gsp, and then I remember, GSP sucks lol.

Daniel@R2R · Aug 19, 2014

Bump for more pics!

Daniel@R2R · Aug 20, 2014

Here's my newly designed paly...I call it...the WizeKrak! LOL

Btw, I did this with Paint.net (that's the name of the program)...so even my photoshop is fake. LOL

jpines · Aug 20, 2014

mdbannister said:
Here's my newly designed paly...I call it...the WizeKrak! LOL

Btw, I did this with Paint.net (that's the name of the program)...so even my photoshop is fake. LOL

Those are sick! I'll give you $xxx.00 per polyp! [emoji16]

tupes · Aug 20, 2014

mdbannister said:
Here's my newly designed paly...I call it...the WizeKrak! LOL

Btw, I did this with Paint.net (that's the name of the program)...so even my photoshop is fake. LOL

Intrested in the actual photo