Thursday, August 2, 2012

Photo Art Friday ... Doors

Photo Art Friday


Doors ... that brought up a lot of ideas.  I take pictures of doors all of the time so the trick will be to pick the right ones.  I am starting with a bathroom door in a restaurant.  This door illustrates what happens to me (and I am sure many of you) when you see wood grain ... suddenly there is something there :)  Are you spiritual or mystical ... is this a message sent from another place?  Is this someone in another world trying to contact you?  Oh, what fun.  I see these things everywhere, not just in doors, but it is fun to get to play with one in PHF.


This is the original ... do you see what I see?

Let me help you out a little with  Be Funky Pop Art 2.  Now do you see it?


On to a more serious door.  This door is the main entrance to the Old  County Hospital (if you recall I used this building in my Architecture Post).  This is the sad truth ... this beautiful old historical building has to be fenced off to keep people out of the building and from being destructive.  This Glorious Architecture left in shambles ... Sign of the times?  I hope not ...

     (Original)

I added PS filters Fresco and Craquelure to give it a little drama ...



 On to a more whimsical door ... this door seems to have lost it's house.  What has happened here?  Well, I happen to know that the house was torn down to build a new house!  But it was just a door when I passed by :)
                             (Original)

In this one, I used two pdpa textures to soften the background then I erased them from the door to help it stand out.  It is okay, but lacks pizazz.

Sooooo ...  I took it over to Be Funky, added SunBurst 4 and a simple border.  This is more like what I was after.



This one is my favorite.  I walk by this door almost every time I go to the University Campus.  I  have been taking pictures of it for years because I can't pass it by. 

(original)
Because, from the street the door is so small and there is a lot of  "distractions" in front of it, my approach was to try to highlight the door as the primary focus.

1)  I extracted the lighted archway with the selection brush and the magic extractor.
2)  On the foreground I applied the pdpa Age It texture @ 50% and the pdpa Vintage Cracquelur @ 50%.
4)  I used the PS filters film grain and poster edges to give it a little more depth.
5)  On the extracted section I selected the door, inversed then changed it to black and white, leaving the door it's natural color.
6)  Layered the extracted section into thecompleted forground.

Thank you Bonnie, for another fun prompt ...


I received a wonderful suggestion from a good friend in my comments which I tried and this is the result.  The door is much more prominent and, I think it looks even better.  I don't know if this is cheating to add to a post that is already posted, but if it is, Bonnie, let me know.  Thanks to my friend ... I love learning new stuff:)

18 comments:

Gardening in a Sandbox said...

I loved them all. Number one looked to have a pair of eyes looking back at you. Valerie

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Let me start by saying, you certainly did have fun and produced a visual 'feast' here for us. I do like the transformation you achieved with the last one.

As for the wood grain - I don't see 'it' ... I see 'them' ... :)

Love your enthusiasm Andrea. Thank you for sharing your creativity with PAF.

Bruno Laliberté said...

On the layer containing that last door, you could have augmented contrast and enhanced the saturation.

I love when you say that a door lost its house!!
:D~
HUGZ

Anonymous said...

they are all wonderful! very creative!

Anonymous said...

btw, I see an owl :)

Elephant's Child said...

Oh. Wow. Thank you.

Edna B said...

What a great job you did with these doors. I felt so sad about the third door. It's such a beautiful door, and I hope it found it's way on to a new home. You've inspired me to try photographing some doors.

The first wooden door brings back memories from childhood. My Dad used to "speckle" the walls with paint and crunched up pieces of paper. My brother and I would spend hours making stories about all the people and things that we saw in the speckle design.

You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.

Pat said...

Beautiful work. I like the internal framing in the last one.

Anonymous said...

Interesting, artsy take on Doors. It makes me want to see other interpretations. Art is so subjective.

Linda Gibbons said...

Looks like an owl to me. I do that too, look for faces everywhere. I love the processing you did on the loneny door and that wonderful archway.

The Artful Diva said...

What I see in the first and second image is the torso of a woman...

Currie Silver said...

I love the story and how you came to choose each door and the ways you have taken the prompt on a festive picnic!!

Janith said...

Very clever, the door in a doorway!

Ida said...

What a grand little tour of doors you've presented here. They were all very different and interesting. I think though my favorite is the last one with the red door edit.

Jeanne said...

Andrea these are great and i especially love how you have framed this last one with that amazing archway. very nice. This week was much easier that the improbable pairings wasnt it? Lots of fun!

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

I love how so many of you see different things in the wood grain door ... so far I have seen all of what you see, but there is at least one more unmentioned "thing" in there ... can you find it? Maybe there are even more ... it is all in the eyes of the beholder. Such fun ... I think it is a creativity thing:)

Andrea

lorik said...

I enjoyed looking at your doors - in the first I saw a little person with his arms folded - maybe it is a little animal - but then I saw a woman standing :) My favourite is your yellow headlight door-love the textures and the limited colour. Would make a good print, don't your think? And I can see why you love walking through that arched doorway - fantastic! Does it echo?

Miriam said...

I see a woman as well Andrea. I love all your door images and the processing you have done is wonderful. I can't stop taking pictures of the bark on trees! Thank you for your visit.

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