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  #1  
Old 12-05-2009, 12:41 PM
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Cal Ganshorn Cal Ganshorn is offline
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Scandi Photo

Here are a couple pictures of a Scandi I just finished on a new and different background.



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  #2  
Old 12-05-2009, 10:50 PM
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Cal, Very Nice!!!!


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  #3  
Old 12-08-2009, 09:32 PM
Barbara Turner Barbara Turner is offline
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Cal, I like the 1st one better. The second one is very nice in portrait mode but I think the splotch of gray on the right side of the blade is distracting / competing. You may want to try a re-shoot with the backround rotated 180 degrees. Barbara


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  #4  
Old 12-09-2009, 06:42 AM
Wade Holloway Wade Holloway is offline
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I agree with Barbara. With the background flowing the same direction as the blade it competes with the eye for attention. I like for the eye to be forced straight to the knife. Anyway great looking knife.
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  #5  
Old 12-09-2009, 08:41 AM
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Cal Ganshorn Cal Ganshorn is offline
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Background

Barbara and Wade

I agree with your comments I rotated the background 180 degrees and still found that my eye first wanted to focus on the dark spot.

So I did another picture with the dark spot lightened, now (at least my eye) seems to be more focued on the knife.

All said and done, I still prefer the landscape shot of this knife the best



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  #6  
Old 12-17-2009, 10:07 PM
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Good choice rotating the canvas on the portrait mode 2nd photo. I would even rotate the canvas(background) a few more degrees C/Clockwise to lose the closeness of the ink to the handle. I like the background and it's interesting, and it makes the handle color stand out.

The lack of a shadow screams "Overlay!" though. I would create a shadow, either with PS's tool, or by recreating a shadow by duplicating the layer and filling with gray, blurring, adjusting size and position, and changing opacity. There is a thread where we did that somewhere.

Bottom line: you are having fun and the knives are good and clear and interesting.

Coop


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  #7  
Old 12-18-2009, 11:09 AM
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Cal Ganshorn Cal Ganshorn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SharpByCoop View Post
Good choice rotating the canvas on the portrait mode 2nd photo. I would even rotate the canvas(background) a few more degrees C/Clockwise to lose the closeness of the ink to the handle. I like the background and it's interesting, and it makes the handle color stand out.

The lack of a shadow screams "Overlay!" though. I would create a shadow, either with PS's tool, or by recreating a shadow by duplicating the layer and filling with gray, blurring, adjusting size and position, and changing opacity. There is a thread where we did that somewhere.

Bottom line: you are having fun and the knives are good and clear and interesting.

Coop
Coop, thanks for the comments. I tried finding that thread but nothing popped up in the search.
Will keep looking.
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  #8  
Old 12-18-2009, 05:24 PM
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SharpByCoop SharpByCoop is offline
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Hi Cal,

I couldn't find it either. Maybe I was discussing this somewhere else?

Anyway, I did a quick job of what I was referring to. Take a look at both:



Now the same photo with my created shadow:



Not perfect, but for the uninitiated it looks quickly plausible.

  • I selected the knife from the background with the polygonal lasso tool
  • Created a layer from it
  • Duplicated that layer
  • Filled the new layer with dark gray (paint bucket tool)
  • Moved the layer under the original
  • used the Gassian blur filter to spread it out
  • transformed (ctrl-T) the layer to my liking (less distance at the tip than the butt, and moved away)
  • Changed the opacity of the layer


You could have also gone to the layer adjustments panel and given it a drop shadow using their adjustments. That's real easy, but it aligns the shadow equally along the whole length of the blade. It's a preference thing.

Give it a try and post.

### Looking at this, I wish I had used a dark brown instead of grey.

Coop


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Last edited by SharpByCoop; 12-18-2009 at 05:28 PM.
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  #9  
Old 12-18-2009, 07:19 PM
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Coop, thanks for the info.
Here is my first try at a shadow. Should have been darker?

Last edited by Cal Ganshorn; 12-18-2009 at 08:09 PM.
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  #10  
Old 12-18-2009, 09:07 PM
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Hi Cal,

No the opacity looks good. But what I see is it's bleeding around both sides of the knife. Real shadows don't do that. One direction.

Probably just a bit too much blur or spread. Still good work. How did you accomplish this?

Coop


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  #11  
Old 12-19-2009, 06:41 AM
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Cal Ganshorn Cal Ganshorn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SharpByCoop View Post
Hi Cal,

No the opacity looks good. But what I see is it's bleeding around both sides of the knife. Real shadows don't do that. One direction.

Probably just a bit too much blur or spread. Still good work. How did you accomplish this?

Coop
Just followed your instructions.
I used a dark brown instead of grey for the shadow. I also noticed the BLEEDING around the handle,don't know why.
On the new layer I only applied the dark brown to the bottom edge of the blade and handle so I guess it must have had to much blur and it "crawled around". Your instructions said, Transformed (ctrl-T)the layer to my liking (less distance at the tip than at the butt,and moved away)
I couldn't quite figure that out. So I just put the shadow where I wanted it when I painted the layer with the brown. Then applied the Gassian blur filter to that layer.
At least I know how to do it now and will practice at bit more.

I would just like to say thanks to all the people on this forms that help,guide and pass on their knowledge to others. I try to do this with new knife makers and it truly is a good feeling to watch people grow in knowledge and experience.

Thank you.

Last edited by Cal Ganshorn; 12-19-2009 at 06:57 AM.
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  #12  
Old 12-20-2009, 10:37 AM
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Cal Ganshorn Cal Ganshorn is offline
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Removing Blur

Coop, I went in and edited the picture.
I simply opened the blur layer,took the eraser and removed the Blur from the top of the knife. There has to be a better way to do this because now I can see some blur on the sharpened edge of the blade.

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  #13  
Old 12-20-2009, 12:56 PM
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Cal, you're a sharp learner. That's a good job you salvaged. Smart with the eraser. I didn't admit, but I did a little erasing in my own version. (Some techniques just get done in private. ) The closer the shadow is to the background or object, the darker the distinction. I softened up the tail end of mine to look less bold.

It really looks plausible, and now you have this ability with EVERY background imaginable.

All that said: I find the usage of real backgrounds and actual shadows the most useful to me. It takes a lot of time to extract an outline of a knife and do all this duplicating, blurring, etc.

Here is the real deal:



Yes, there is some trickery going on. Why the hell is that knife elevated? Because it adds depth. (Shhhhhh.....)

Coop


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  #14  
Old 12-20-2009, 01:42 PM
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Cal Ganshorn Cal Ganshorn is offline
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Wink

Quote:
Originally Posted by SharpByCoop View Post
Cal, you're a sharp learner. That's a good job you salvaged. Smart with the eraser. I didn't admit, but I did a little erasing in my own version. (Some techniques just get done in private. ) The closer the shadow is to the background or object, the darker the distinction. I softened up the tail end of mine to look less bold.

It really looks plausible, and now you have this ability with EVERY background imaginable.

All that said: I find the usage of real backgrounds and actual shadows the most useful to me. It takes a lot of time to extract an outline of a knife and do all this duplicating, blurring, etc.

Here is the real deal:



Yes, there is some trickery going on. Why the hell is that knife elevated? Because it adds depth. (Shhhhhh.....)

Coop
Thanks for the tips.
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