Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Radiance

You may remember this fractal:


All that was applied to the above was a sharpen filter. Today I learned a little Photoshop color trick from Wontar, and below is the result. I'm only practicing right now, and to me, the color changes look good. But I'd like to know what you think about them. Please let me know if you like the above fractal better, or the one below. Also, please give me your reasons explaining why you chose that fractal. If you don't like the altered image, please let me know what I could have done to improve it. I really appreciate your feedback, because I can't get better without your help. I like to know what my audience wants to see!

11 comments:

John W Leys said...

Hmm they're both good, but I think I lean toward the above one.. in the bottom one you can see more of the detail in the.. er swirls above the globe, which might have been what you were going for, but I kind of like the effect of having them a bit in the shadows. But it all depends on what you wanted to emphasize in the piece, I suppose.

Hope that helps. Art critique has never been my strong suit :)

John W Leys said...

BUT... looking at it again,, the colours in the bottom one are much deeper and make the coloring in the above look a little dull... so maybe the bottom one... or maybe you should ask someone else LOL!

TotalChaos said...

The top fractal is the one I prefer. But as you know by my fractals, I am partial to hard lines and pushed colors. The lower fractal seems to lose the edges, at least at this size, to me.
BTW, thank you for stopping by. I put a flower up for the Ladies, on mine.

Intergalactic Stacey said...

'eliyahu,

I know... decisions, decisions! There are some who are devoted to the pure flame and wouldn't hear of altering them with software, and then there are others who stand by their use of Photoshop.

I knew it was going to be a hard choice. I called my dad and asked him to come take a look. He said he liked the bottom one better because it brought out the background more. He's a Photoshop "guru" and is a professional photographer who uses Photoshop to work on his photos, so I asked him for some advice, too.

I myself am torn between the two of them, although I would say if I had to make a choice, I'd pick the bottom one, because the colors seem less bland than the top version. But then, I liked having the focus on the bubble in the top version.

Maybe I shouldn't worry so much about it and should just have fun playing around with them. :) But I really want to learn Photoshop. On my education "menu" is to learn how to make nebulae!

Intergalactic Stacey said...

Hi Totalchaos, thanks for your input on this. I'm sorry to bug everyone for a critique here, when I maybe should have done it at the DevArt site, but I also value everyone's opinions in the blogging community as well.

I'm going to have to go see this flower you've made!

Ash said...

Very cool!

Intergalactic Stacey said...

Thanks, Ash!

goatman said...

Colors are more intense and brighter with the change. Perhaps they used a series of similar shades with a lot of white intermingled.
Yup, like the bottom one. Call it "Radiance".

Anonymous said...

I prefer the color-adjusted one. The colors are richer, deeper, and (to me) pack more of a punch. (And yes, I'm still reminded of Journey when I look at it.) :)

Intergalactic Stacey said...

Thanks, Goatman.

The color selection tool (gradient) in Apophysis is really an amazing tool. You can select from a long list of presets - already defined colors, or you can randomize the color. You can even create your own gradient. Photoshop just seems to make the colors bolder, which is great for me because that was what I enjoyed in Kit Chaos's work. Also, there's a lot to be done with colors in Photoshop that I'm not aware of yet, but I plan on trying this weekend.

Intergalactic Stacey said...

Thank you, Wontar! I really couldn't have done it without you. :) I'm glad I could refresh your Journey memories!