love to use Photoshop to create composite images. A composite image is actually two or more images merged together. I began to experiment with composite images at our previous church (Old Forest Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA—recently renamed Redeeming Grace Baptist Church [rgbaptist.org], obviously so named in honor of R.G. - Rich Gelina), when the pastor wanted to use computer projection for the praise music lyrics and for rolling announcements during the prelude. I researched projection systems and software and in a few weeks got things rolling for projection in the services. But the backgrounds were boring, so I decided to dress things up a bit.
I took photos around the church grounds and merged other elements into these photos. I placed our church’s logo or name into well-known scenes. I even merged our VBS posters into scenes from famous movies such as Star Wars.
These experiments gave me a taste for the power of Photoshop’s compositing capabilities and I thoroughly enjoy working with photos this way.
Today’s header photo is of the sidewalk clock that stands at the center of our hometown—Front Royal, Virginia. Last Saturday, when we were exploring the town and taking pictures, I tried many different angles for this clock, but none of them really showed what I wanted. Then, while waiting on the side of the road for my wife to check out some of the local shops, I noticed the clock framed by two large trees. I liked what I saw and took the picture from right there.
Then, when I got it onto my computer at home I realized that it might make a nice header photo. So I created a sign of the blog title and merged it with the clock photo. I angled it 3-dimensionally and placed it over the shop behind the sign. I applied a slight blur to meld in with the out-of-focus background of the photo and reduced the opacity so the white of the lettering would not stand out as brighter than the other white areas of the picture. And today’s header photo is the result.
I love Photoshop!
BTW: Today we are visiting the National Zoological Research Facility here in Front Royal. The facility hosts many endangered species and they open their gates one day each year for visitors to come and see these unusual animals. Today is that day. Photos are forthcoming.
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ReplyDeleteI once had a VBS super who was almost as scary.
ReplyDeleteRichard, I love the Star Wars/VBS photos! That's also a creative way to merge computer graphics into the church services.
ReplyDeleteLove it. And then you're going to get some kid of 25 who is going to say, "What's that a picture of?"
ReplyDelete