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Desert Light Fantasy

© Carolina K. Smith

Desert Light Fantasy

Uploaded: April 24, 2004 13:39:26

Description

Neon cacti help light the desert

Comments

Julie Turner April 24, 2004

Carolina, this is gorgeous. I love the rich vibrant colors. #120962

Carolina K. Smith April 24, 2004

Thank you, Julie :) While I think we are lucky, as photographers, to capture a moment, this was my first real try at compositing to get an idea out of my head. I used 4 of my pictures, which were originally 1) a hawk flying overhead, 2) a sunset, 3) the mountains/desert (taken from a plane as we approached the airport), and 4) a cactus. I used some PS plug-ins (Mystical Lighting, Mystical Tint and Color, Shadow) as well as PS tools, and will probably make the cactus shadows more evident in a redo. One thing I realized from doing this project is that some pictures you take may not be so great in and of themselves, but they may have promising elements to use in the future. (Isn't digital photography great? We can be closet pack rats!) Thus, I am now not so quick to delete some photos. #500338

Julie Turner April 24, 2004

You did a great job. I have photo suite 7, but I haven't mastered it yet. The only plug in I have used is dreamy suite so I'll have to check the sites for the ones you mentioned. Thanks for giving me more information on it. I'm still learning... #500359

Carolina K. Smith April 24, 2004

Mystical series at autofx.com
Shadow at andromeda.com

Note: if you are a teacher/faculty or student and can prove it w/ID, Adobe has some software at ~50% or more off.
See academicsuperstore.com

BTW, andromeda.com is offering an incredible bundle of $1000 stuff for $200. No I don't work for them! Just passing the info on since I'm on their email list :) #500400

Julie Turner April 24, 2004

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out. #500424

Evy Johansen level-classic April 24, 2004

Beautiful image and a great work, Carolina! #500536

Carolina K. Smith April 25, 2004

Thank you, Evy:) I enjoyed visiting your gallery and look forward to viewing your future work :) #501412

Dale Ann Cubbage May 15, 2004

Wow, stunning! Congrats on another finalist Carolina! #541723

Carolina K. Smith May 16, 2004

Thank you Dale Ann :) #543586

Susie Peek-Swint May 16, 2004

Many congrats on this cool image Carolina! You did a lot of work and it's paid off ~ well done! #543861

Carolina K. Smith May 16, 2004

Thanks Susan, I sure did sweat over this, but I couldn't quit until I was somewhat satisfied with it. Some things you could tweek forever, I guess... #543868

Susana Matos May 19, 2004

Congratulations on this great photo! I love the creative world you created here!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers from Portugal, Su #548581

Carolina K. Smith May 19, 2004

Thank you Su, the whole process almost felt like having a baby... the labor pains...
Thanks again :) #548592

May 30, 2004

While I must admit it is a creative piece, Mother Nathure is no where around ! Forgive my harsh comment. I stil feel Digital Photography is great but only when used to create which looks natural and produce something which human eye can believe it. No matter , how much saturation and creativty your photo has ,it will sooth a common man only if is natural or made look natural. Debate must go on . Is art in Nature or art is something which is not natural. #567586

May 30, 2004

No additional comments. but Natural Desert with man made cables, man fed camles and mad made railing is attached one. #567595

Carolina K. Smith May 31, 2004

Mitesh, Thank you for your comments. One of the things I love most about digital photography is that it can capture AND enable one to produce something not only what the human eye can believe, but WHAT THE HUMAN MIND CAN CONCEIVE...

Much of art, no matter what the medium, comes from the mind and people resonate with it, or are moved by it, precisely because we are more than the sum of the natural elements.

I do think you hint at something which is important in photography, since such 'mind concepts' were not as easy before the advent of programs such as Photoshop. That is, that I think it is preferable that when an image is heavily manipulated, like doing composites, it should be noted, so people can know what was real (the way photography used to be thought of as capturing reality. That is why I labeled mine a 'Fantasy'. Just my thoughts...

I have uploaded the original 'natural' photographs to show what I started with. #569299


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