NATURESCAPES.NET 2008 DIGITAL CREATIONS GALLERY
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"Jack Warmed Over"
Image copyright Gary Briney

Jack Warmed Over was inspired by the tired look of jack o' lanterns the day after Halloween, with a little more spookiness thrown in for fun. A sunrise off the coast of North Carolina's Outer Banks captured as a digital image provided the starting point for JWO. I twisted it a bit using Photoshop and plugin software, first Flexify and Swerve PS from Flaming Pear to get the basic shapes and colors, and then selective masking of black over blue gradients in Photoshop to provide the smoke effect. Nik Efex Pro 3.0 was used to adjust center to border brightness, followed by a final adjustment with the Efex Low Key filter.

About the Photographer

From the time I made a silhouette image of keys with novelty paper as child, I have been fascinated by photography. Shooting sports during high school drove home the lessons of depth of field, and an interest in morel mushrooms led to macrophotography while I completed my doctorate in chemistry. During my career developing high resolution products for the electronics industry, I migrated from film to a 1Ds II, and hours spent in the darkroom on techniques like solarization have been replaced by even more enjoyable hours with Photoshop and other software packages to create interesting unconventional images.