manipul8or

It´s over now, see you on Webs...

2010-03-10T19:27:00.003+02:00

This is the end of this blog!

I will, however, continue to write and post photographs on my blog over at Webs.

The adress is manipul8or.webs.com

There I´ll be using my native language, swedish. Hope to see you there!

Over and out
/Marcus

This is a conundrum

2010-01-30T16:52:00.006+02:00

What should I do now?

My photo-project seems to be going down the drain. For the moment it´s completely impossible for me to produce one fine art photograph a week. I´m not sure I could even produce one a month, either. Time is such a valuable thing. I need to balance work, sparetime and family. This meens no sparetime, and therefore no photography.

So what should I do with this blog? I would love to have this forum for me to display at least a small part of what I achieve when it comes to photography. Bur for now, we´re close to zero. Lately, familyphoto has been my main area. Extremely important documentations of our every-day life, but nothing one would want to share online. I really need to develop my photography. I need to develop as a photographer. Someone once said that photography is the language of light. Well, if that is so, then I have a serious stutter.

I guess, for now, this blog has to be a kind of a misc.-folder for me. Putting thoughts and, occasionally, one or two photographs online. I need to be able to combine photography and parenting in a way that doesn´t leave anyone unattended.

Frozen

2009-10-04T16:36:00.004+03:00

Wow, my project works out perfect. Not! The last weeks I´ve had absolutely no time for photography. I´ve been forced to watch the beautiful autumn pass by without exposing a single frame to the cascade of colours. Hopefully that will change now. Starting my photo-fall, here is a creation of mine showing frosted leaves, one cold morning.

Nomomortia III

2009-08-21T20:43:00.003+03:00

A dying flower embraced by spiders web.

This photograph is not as much a photograph as it is a graphic product, a collage. And even though I labeled it under 'one photo a week', the photo of the flower was taken last week, during my vacation. My blog, my rules!

The flower is one of the many interesting objects I found during my urban exploration field trip - in the countryside. An abandoned greenhouse with the doors wide open. I guess I was trespassing, but I left everything untouched. In this photograph I especially like the spiders web that is looking so soft, and is embracing the dead flower. And I love the fact that the dead flower still shines with beautiful colours.

Nomomortia II

2009-08-16T16:25:00.005+03:00

Predator fly feeding on another insect.

The brutal nature, or the nature of brutality. Or just the way of nature...

I found this killer fly sucking the guts out of another fly on the wall of our sauna. Inspite of the photographs tragic tail, the two counterparts do fill their purposes in the depicted story - and in our reality. They play their parts par excellens.

The Gift

2009-08-09T22:27:00.003+03:00

A medallion in the palm of a childs hand.

My daughter holding a medallion, a gift by her godfather, my oldest friend. Looks pretty fine in B&W. I think I should try out some new angles on this subject.

Going away next week. I´m planning on doing a lot of photography. Not sure about uploading anything, though...

The devil is in the details

2009-07-31T21:03:00.003+03:00

Detail of a flower

I recently discovered the - perhaps - cheapest way of starting macrophotography. It obviously requires a few lenses, but that shouldn't be a problem for just about anyone. This detail of a flower in my backyard was photographed with my D80, fitted with the 50mm. In front of the 50mm was a reversed Minolta AF 35-70 3.5-4.5, an old lens I used 15 years ago. No couplingrings, just a steady hand, some bluetack and a paperclip. In Memoriam MacGyver...

The Original Scrat

2009-07-23T21:53:00.003+03:00

Curious squirrel looking at camera.

No experimental photography this week, although I still favor infrared photography at certain occasions. This time I settled for a classical photograph - a squirrel. I think it´s kind of cute.

Garden Still Life

2009-07-15T12:50:00.006+03:00

Upward striving flower with old fence in the background.

At first I was trying to capture this image in infrared, but the fence in the background reflected just about as much infrared light as the flower itself, so the end result was not really that good.

So, I ended up with just a classical shot of an interesting plant. And I must say, I´m quite satisfied. This is another black & white shot, but with a hint of Sepia.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8, ISO 100, 1/320 sec at f/1.8. PP includes ACR and a great deal of photoshop techniques.

Infrared landscape

2009-07-09T11:47:00.005+03:00

Lake in the woods

Infrared photography i so cool! I´ve been adimiring beautiful shots in different Flickrgroups, most of them beeing created by semi-pros or really advanced amateurs. Many photographers swear by the IR-modified camera. To my delight, there is no need to modify your camera for IR-photography. All you need is a filter that you put in front of your lens. I bought my filter on eBay for 12 euros (including postage).

There are obviously certain challenges by using this specific method for IR-photography, the few I found most challenging were difficulties in composing, focusing and the long exposure. Composing the photo is not possible through the viewfinder when the IR-filter is in front of the lens. I solved this by using a tripod and locking the camera in the position that I wanted. Focusing is a problem. I haven't figured out why, but the image is no longer sharp after screwing on the filter, and this has nothing to do with clumsy fingers fidgeting with the focusring. I solved the focusproblem by trial-and-error and manually focusing according to the image on the display. The long exposure is not really a problem, not if you have a tripod, the method of finding the correct exposure thorugh trial-and-error was also used here. One tip I read on one of the many photo-mags writing on the subject is that when shooting RAW, if possible shoot RAW + jpeg, and set the camera to black and white. This way you get a feeling for what the photo is going to look like later.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 fitted with an IR INfrared Pass 950nm standard filter , ISO 400, 15 sec at f/4. PP includes ACR and a few photoshop techniques.

The Hands

2009-07-06T00:04:00.003+03:00

Old hands carrying a baby.

Fine, so I missed my deadline. But hey, I´ve been on a vacation. I didn´t do as much photography as I thought I was going to be doing, but I found several more relaxing ways of spending a week in my native surroundings. The photo above is one of the photographs of my daughter in the hands of my grandmother. Very emotional to me and perhaps also other viewers. PP as usual.

I´m not sure if I´m going to be able to pull through my one-photo-a-week-project. It just seems so hard to be doing this all by myself. No-one but me is demanding anything. I don´t even know if anyone is enjoying my photography. If you are reading this, then please leave a comment. It´s okay to be anonymous.

Thank you!

Rendevouz

2009-06-21T23:11:00.004+03:00

Butterfly meeting with flower in a B&W surrounding

Saved by the bell... With only forty-five minutes to spare, I finally came up with this photograph for my "one photo a week"-project. Deadlines truly are the greatest inspiration for an artist.

Solitude

2009-06-14T21:13:00.004+03:00

A single rock in a stream of water, surrounded by boulders.

Continuing on my new project: one photo a week. Obviously my aim is to improve as a photographer, develop my creative thinking and - basically - just 'get out there' more often. This weeks photo is from the central park near my home. We´ve had some heavy rain here lately, so the streams are filling with water. The photo is quite classic, and perhaps not that unique - but hey, there is no need to reinvent the weel everytime you go out.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 fitted with a circular polarization filter, ISO 100, 7.1 sec at f/8. PP includes ACR and a few photoshop techniques.

Nomomortia

2009-06-05T20:52:00.006+03:00

The legs of a dead frog on a bench.

This is the first photograph in my project "one photo a week". Just my personal thing, trying to force myself to be more creative and productive...

Colours of winter

2008-12-26T22:40:00.002+02:00

We went for a walk today, I brought the D80. The light was great, and the clouds inspired me to have a go at some HDR-photography. Here is "Academill", on the coast of Vaasa. I particularly like the reflections in the ice and the dramatic clouds. Enjoy!

Solarigraphy

2008-12-02T19:41:00.004+02:00

Finally! Here are 4 photographs, or solarographs, that I created using small pieces of Ilfords photographic paper that I placed in small containers with a hole in the side (basically pinholecameras). The exposures were 2-4 months. This project was totally experimental, and my main objective was to record atleast a few strokes of the sun on the sky. I´m proud to say I achieved this. I haven´t added any landscapes to the photographs, but I think that could be the next step in this project.

The paper I got from my pinholecameras was about 5 x 3 cm. I scanned the image and inverted it, flipped it horizontal and adjusted the contrast along with curves and shadow/highlight. I also added a sepiatone to these particular images.

the big dipper

2008-12-02T16:31:00.003+02:00

This landscape needs no further introduction. A 55 sec exposure and some ACR along with my beloved softing-technique. A memory from the summer past...

Classical landscape

2008-11-20T23:25:00.002+02:00

The archipelago needs no further introduction. The beauty, the drama, the serenity.

Autumn is still (here)

2008-10-06T18:56:00.004+03:00

I´d like to continue on my autumn-theme. Here is a couple of shots of a leaf in the water. And, yes - it´s the same leaf. It´s getting harder and harder to find colourful leaves in good shapes, they are all starting to decay. PP as described in the earlier post.

Nature is on fire

2008-09-14T21:11:00.002+03:00

I mentioned earlier that i like rust. Well, guess what else I like? Autumn! Finally the air is crisp and clear and natures treats us to a majestic cascade of colours. This afternoon I decided to go for a walk with my D80. I found some really nice scenerys. Along with some leaves. I had a go at creating a triptych of a collection of leaves I found in a park nearby. PP as usual.

Autiotalo

2008-09-01T21:03:00.004+03:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit an abandoned house in a small village in the Kvarken archipelago. Here are a few photographs from that visit.

I like rust

2008-08-27T21:19:00.003+03:00

You know, I like old stuff. Really old. The kind that others have already left behind, tossed away, or wish they could get rid of. That kind of stuff make excellent pictures. And rust is one of those elements in old objects that gives the photograph that extra punch. So here is two pictures of some old junk. PP include ACR, gradientmap, vignetting and softing.

Impressions:Vienna

2008-08-07T16:32:00.003+03:00

Vienna, what a fantastic city. The food, the architecture, the art, the atmosphere... I spent 5 days in this beautiful Austrian capital with my wife. I ended up taking about 1000 pics with my D80. I know, 1000 photogs isn´t really that much. But after all, I was on a vacation/honeymoon, so I couldn´t really spend all the time looking through the viewfinder :) Above is but a few of the many impressions I got from beautiful Vienna.

Boathouse

2008-07-09T10:02:00.003+03:00

This picture is more than one year old. It´s shot with my old Canon Powershot A85. So yesterday I found it on my harddrive while going through some other projects. I had already adjusted the luminance and colours, so basically I just needed to get the frame and the signature added.

The spinning wheels

2008-07-06T21:09:00.004+03:00

Here are a few spinning wheels I found in the attic of a really old building. These spinning wheels haven´t been used for about fifty years or so. The HDR consists of three exposures merged in Photomatix PRO, and then some tuning in Photoshop.

Angel

2008-06-30T21:21:00.003+03:00

Here is one of the photographs from the project I mentioned earlier. My theme was beauty, serenity and relaxation. The photographs depict an angel that has taken her wings of for a moment, as if she was taking a brake from being an angel (and what ever angels do). In this particular shot, the model is improvising.

Post production include Camera RAW, sharpening, vignetting and softening in Photoshop. The dodge-tool came in handy when I needed to get the dress and the wings even whiter.

Peace

2008-06-30T13:53:00.007+03:00

Peace can be a state of harmony or the absence of hostility. "Peace" is used to describe the cessation of violent conflict. ('source')

During the Winter War an iceroad was build between Finland and Sweden so that supplies could be transported to and from Finland. The hand above is a statue in memory of the iceroad that was part of keeping this peace-loving country independent.

This is my response to the challenge I received last week. CP Geek wrote: Mission: "Peace".
Photoshop: Not allowed.
Time to accomplish: Must be presented 4th of july at latest.

Since Photoshop is a well integrated part of my photography-workflow, the challenge was, well, let´s say challenging...

I insisted on that the use of Camera RAW had to be allowed, though.

So, for the artistic part that I missed out on by not being able to use the force of the mighty CS3, I had to do a lot of thinking. I tried different angles and positions. Different f-stops and shutterspeeds. Just like in the good old 'analog' days. Above is the result. I used Camera RAW to adjust the saturation and luminance and to crop the image. The frame is obviously added in Photoshop, but that is all about presenting the photograph (it has nothing to do with "what you shoot is what you get"). So, mr Geek. Your call!

Parthenon II

2008-06-30T12:41:00.003+03:00

I´m quite happy with this HDR render. The construction is actually a family grave I found while strolling around in the graveyard this beautiful sunny morning. I really like how the sun casts the distinct shadows of the pillars on the grass.

Angelwings on a wall

2008-06-27T21:26:00.004+03:00

Believe it or not, I can do other stuff than just HDR´s. Here´s a pic from my latest project, "Angel". Hopefully I´ll be able to post some of the other (200 +) images from that project later on. I have some contests coming up, so I have to be careful with what I publish.

This would be a great candidate for the peace-challenge I recently received, although I´m afraid it´s a bit too manipulated for my friend, the geek.
RAW-tweaking, vignetting, softing and a few dabs with the dogde-tool. That´s not too much photoshopping according to me. Weird guy, that geek...

"trophy", another HDR

2008-06-27T13:36:00.002+03:00

Here is my latest HDR production. To get the colours right, I used a part of the original image and did some serious masking. Finally I added a light vignette-effect and tried some softing techniques I´ve picked up lately.

Even more HDR

2008-06-24T18:01:00.004+03:00

I just love the colours in the HDR-pictures, so I´m going to be publishing a few more of them here.

Below are the three original exposures.

HDR - for real this time

2008-06-17T19:38:00.008+03:00

I just started a new era in my graphics/photomanipulation career. Yesterday I purchased the Nikon D80. What a magnificent piece of electronics! Above is the result of me testing the bracketing-funktion. I used Photomatix Pro to create the HDR, and I then gave the render the finishing touches in Photoshop. Below are the three exposures I used to create the HDR. As you can see I used the clonestamp on a couple of details. After getting the render from Photomatix PRO, I tweaked the colours in Photoshop using levels and hue/saturation. No colours added :)

A friend of mine is sworne by the principle that "what you shoot, is what you get". I´m not there yet, Photoshop is a much too integrated piece of my workflow. During my day out with the camera experimenting and shooting, I repeatedly caught myself thinking: I´ll fix that later in Photoshop.

Egographia subnormalis levis

2008-02-28T20:00:00.004+02:00

Egographia subnormalis gravis

2008-02-28T06:18:00.004+02:00

Transition

2007-12-13T11:32:00.002+02:00

Egographia

2007-11-16T17:33:00.002+02:00

Felt a bit artistic. Enjoy.

HDR (or atleast a good fake)

2007-08-26T10:40:00.001+03:00

I´m amazed. Really! I was browsing on Fotosidan and found this tutorial on creating "fake" HDR´s in Photoshop. The tutorial is created by Magnus Rydström, a guy whose blog I read on a daily basis.

This is the image I started with...

... and this is what I ended up with

This is so COOL! I´ve been admiring the images on Ben Willmores blog, and envying his technique. I stay humble and own great respect for mr Willmore - but I´m pretty darn happy with this result :)

Thanks Magnus. This is super.

Operation: Free Koodi

2007-07-24T12:50:00.001+03:00

From this

To this

This is a pic by a friend of mine. Her late rabbit, Koodi, is inside the cage. My mission was to remove some disturbing elements such as the cage and the couch. The techniques used are pretty much the same as in "Removing reflection" but for this piece I had to use different techniques to create a lighting so that everything would look realistic. I was also forced to use another image to get the face of the rabbit to look real.

Removing reflections

2007-05-07T22:25:00.001+03:00

Above is the original picture of the ATR 42-500, a FinnComm airliner on the runway in Kuopio, Finland. The sunrise is beautiful and the mood is magical with the plane in the mist. Unfortunately the photographer (a friend of mine) is visible as a reflection in the window. So, I was asked to do something about it. I must say the project was challenging. You can see the result below.

How I did it? Well, that´s a long story. For this project, the healingpatch sure came in handy.
-I created a new layer, chose a good color with the colorpicker and painted in the reflections. I was careful not to paint too large areas at once. I then control-clicked the layer, making a selection, merged the two layers by pressing ctrl-e, and changed the tool to the healingpatch by pressing the j-key. I dragged the selection to an area where the structure was similar to the area I was recreating.

The sky was hard to fix. So I ended up making a selection with the magic wand and creating a gradient where I picked the foreground-color with the colorpicker from the darkest part of the sky and the background-color from the light part of the sky. Some serious masking let the sun through while hiding some nasty reflections.

The clonestamp was used on some parts of the fuselage, I used low opacitysettings to avoid sharp edges.

A part of the runway was recreated by painting in the area with a good, dark color, adding noise and changing the opacity to about 30%.

All I want for Christmas is... Photoshop

2007-01-03T17:15:00.000+02:00

Here´s what I gave my mom this Christmas. A coffemug with her two newly-adopted cats. Pictures 1 and 2 were taken with the 3 megapixel camera in my Nokia N80. The camera in the phone is a nice toy but that´s all. The quality is crappy and I almost busted my ass off trying to get the cats to look somewhat normal in the pic (number 3) I sent to be burned on the mug (which is also photographed with the Nokia). I also had to recreate a piece of the ear of the B&W cat.

The mug came out pretty good, though. And my mom was happy, and that is ofcourse the most important thing.

Juniperus communis

2006-11-19T19:20:00.000+02:00

Inspired by mr Karlsson to try a new filter in Photoshop if a severe lack of inspiration suddenly hits. A copied layer of the pic treated with a dose of the chalk-&-charcole-filter, with the opacity set to about 70% to let the colours through. I find the result pretty good, concidering the minimal amount of work put into it.

Memories

2006-11-14T19:49:00.000+02:00

Perhaps you recognize the chair in this image. That's because I posted an image a couple of months ago from the same scene.

The techniques used are very similar to the ones used in my earlier post "silence". I combined some old text that I scanned, a picture and a few techniques where the image is made looking old. This time I got a bit more philosophical in my photoshoping, though. I wanted to present an image where the object (in this case, a chair) is given life. Does this sound corny? Well, perhaps...

This is, however, what I was processing in my mind as I created this collage.
The chair, all destroyed and worn out, has served its purposes. People have been reading, thinking, laughing, arguing and perhaps creating life in it. Is what we see with our eyes all what is left? Or does the object remember? If it does, then what could it tell us?

How about you? Does the pic make you think about this, at all? Please, let me know.

ExLibris 2

2006-09-29T17:33:00.001+03:00

Another ex libris created. Guess whose it is :)

Logos

2006-09-28T18:24:00.001+03:00

So, here are the two logos I created for my buddy CP-Geek.

ExLibris

2006-09-27T19:39:00.002+03:00

Summer´s gone, autumn is finally here again. This of course means a lot more time spent playing with my Photoshop.
Lately I´ve been working on the layout to a business card for a company and a couple of logos for a website.

Above is an ExLibris that I created for myself (for you who don´t speak latin, I can tell that nomen nescio means "the name is unknown", the prints I have naturally have my name there)

The words in latin are: perspicientia, commendo, disciplinae, decus and honestus
These words mean: knowledge, commitment (to care or protection), discipline, pride and respect. Words that can be described as my motto.
On the shield there are two swords, the symbol for medicine and the lion.

Silence

2006-06-10T21:51:00.000+03:00

From an abandoned cottage in the woods.
Once popular to local kids, the place was called "the 34" (perhaps inspired by a song called "this ole house"of a Swedish orchestra back in the days). The cottage saw many generations come and go. Moments of joy and anger. Laughter and heavy drinking. Love making and fist fighting. All that is over now, what is left is an empty building with destroyed furniture.
An era has ended, now there is silence.

What I have done to the image (in Photoshop 7):
-I made it B&W using the Channel mixer
-I copied the layer and added diffuse glow to the new layer, I then adjusted the opacity (once again, thanx to Mattias for that tip)
-I added grain and darkened the back of the chair
-I created a vignetting by making an oval selection, changing the feather to about 80 and darkening the selection with hue/saturation.
-The frame was created by adding a stroke to the pic, enlarging the canvas and adding some old text that I scanned from a 100 year old book to the black frame

mr Charisma

2006-06-04T15:02:00.000+03:00

For a couple of years ago I visited Buffalo, NY. One day I was walking through an area with some old houses, and I got to meet mr Charisma. I don´t know his real name but when going through my photoalbums I always refer to him as "mr Charisma". He was a nice man, with a nice dog. I hope he is still fine.

Reptilia

2006-06-02T11:25:00.000+03:00

Got a little crazy today and created this monstrum. Don´t ask me why. Perhaps I was inspired by Lordi...

Waking up the Sleeping Buddha

2006-04-26T15:32:00.000+03:00

In our bedroom we have a small statue called "the Sleeping Buddha". When there comes a time when you have too much time on your hands, and far too little to do, the result can be as shown above. The original pic is the smaller one on the left, and the finished result is on the right.

I photographed the statue with some roses in front of it. I then looked for some pictures of my fiancée in my archives and started my project.
This is what I did (briefly) using Photoshop 7:
- I copied the face of my fiancée to the image of the Buddha. Using Free transform, I made it the right size and rotated it correctly.
-I desaturated the image.
-I then created a new layer, which I placed at the top. The layer was created by copying the background layer and then making the eyes, nose and mouth of the statue dissapear using the clone-stamp. I used the patch-tool to make the new "non existing" face look smooth, without loosing the golden texture.
-I used layer masks on both the human face and the new "non existing" face to get them to fit perfectly onto the statue.
-I set the blend-mode of the top layer to "overlay".
-Using different layers and layermasks the face took shape. To get the face to appear more clearly I enhanced the shadows and the highlights in the picture. I found it important to use different settings of the paintbrush opacity (preferrably low values).

Creating this image took about five hours of work (breaks included).

Please tell me what you think about the result :)

Panorama

2006-04-23T11:05:00.000+03:00

I had a go at creating panoramas today. Here´s the result.
It consists of totally 5 images, from which I cropped the above.

In creating the panorama itself, I took the easy way and used PhotoStich (Canon Utilities PhotoStitch Version 3.1). Yes, it´s cheating. But:

I then fine-tuned the image in Photoshop 7 using
-the patch-tool,
-the clone-stamp and
-adjusting curves in LAB-mode.

I also sharpened the image in LAB-mode (sharpening the lightness-channel with unsharp mask). This I learned from the cool guys at PhotoshopTV

Winterlandscape

2006-03-01T11:12:00.000+02:00

Here is a view from our kitchenwindow one beautiful morning.

And, yes, the image has been modified (slightly)

-I copied the layers (twice) and set the blend mode to multiply, I used layermasks with gradients on the darkest parts so they wouldn´t be completely black.
-I used levels to get the most out of the colours in the image.
-There was also a lamppost in the middle of the picture, but I removed it using the clone-stamp. The glass in the window was also a bit dirty and caused dark spots all over the image, but using the healing-patch solved that problem (no more washing windows for me :))
-Finally I used the sponge-tool over the trees to get a warmer feel to them.

Poster

2006-01-30T15:09:00.001+02:00

Well folks, this is what I´ve been working on in the past few months.

I give to you: my first poster [a great roar from the audience]

The poster is for a one-(wo)man play that my fiancée is working on. And I got to create the poster (yeay...)

Layer masks, color fills, gradients and different layer styles have been my best friends (and worst aswell) for the past few months. This has been the largest project I have ever worked on. The imagefiles were just so huge; about 100 meg´s each. Any pro´s out there might laugh and say that´s nothing. But my laptop was crashing all the time.

Glamour

2006-01-19T21:06:00.000+02:00

I had a go at glamour-photo today.
The picture was actually part of a set pass-port photos of my fianceé Petra, but with some photoshop-magic, the picture came out pretty good.
So, what did I do...

Using Photoshop 7:
- I streightened the image using the measure-tool (eye to eye)
- I flipped the image to get better light on the part of the face I wanted to use
- I used Curves to get a Fiscus-effect. (Thanx Mattias for that tip)
- I added hair using the Clone-tool to get a more harmonic haircut. I also revealed more of the forehead above the eyebrow to get more focus on the eye.
-I enhanced the color of the iris using fill-layers, and setting "colorize" and opacity= about 60%
-I whitened the teeth and removed shadows under the eye using the dodge-tool
-And finally using the fine plug-in: NoiseNinja to get that Barbie-look of the skin.

Restauration 3

2006-01-06T15:57:00.001+02:00

Yes, I admit, guilty as charged - I´m repeating myself. But anyway...

Here is a picture of my grandfather in the winterwar.

The original image is 5x5cm small. I guess you can all see what has been done to the image; some cloning and some adjustments to both levels and color balance.

OK, I promise, no more restaurations. (Unless they are really, really good...)

Drawing

2005-12-10T17:23:00.000+02:00

Another image created thanks to the inspiration of mr Karlsson.

Creating reflection

2005-11-18T16:34:00.000+02:00

Yup, it´s a cliché. But I had to give it a go.
This is the skyline of my hometown. Located beautifully by the Gulf of Bothnia. Believe it or not - the image is manipulated :)

This is how I did it using Photoshop 7 (Thanks to mr Vainamo for the inspiration)
1. I made a selection of everything above the horizon.
2. I copied the selection onto a new layer (Ctrl + J (I use a PC))
3. Using Free transform I chose Flip Vertical and then fitted the new layer to the rest of the image to create an illusion of reflection.
4. To make the reflection more realistic I blurred it.
5. The frame was created using filters (poster edges). The selection feathered to about 50. Some good old fiddling with the Wacom tablet was also necessary.

Restauration 2

2005-11-11T12:38:00.001+02:00

Another restaurationproject. The original image on the left dates back to the end of the 19th century. It is the only picture of my grandmothers grandfather. As it was badly damaged, I had to copy bodyparts from other pictures of old relatives, in hope of getting a realistic picture.
I am well aware of the fact that the image on the right only depicts a possible image of my late relative, but at least it´s a picture you can put in your familyalbum.
Clone-stamp and layer masks were heavily in use.

Restauration

2005-11-06T18:19:00.001+02:00

My sweet old grandma handed me an old picture (taken sometimes in the 1920´s...) and asked if I possibly could do something about it as it was all wrinkled and mistreated.
-Who would say no?
I did my best, and even took it a bit further and colorized it as well.

If you´re curious about how it´s done, visit the links on the right.

In memoriam

2005-11-06T00:03:00.000+02:00

In memory of those before us. Their blood, sweat and tears made it possible for us to live the way we do.

Montage:Replotbridge

2005-11-05T20:03:00.000+02:00

One of my first montages. The famous Replotbridge. Picture taken on a sunny afternoon and edited on a rainy night. Credits to Mattias Karlsson for inspiration and tips.