Friday 23 April 2010

Photo Overlays

Firstly, I’m getting a little slow at posting (sorry) because I’m getting more success with job-hunting and have actually made a bit of a break through today. If all goes well over the next few weeks then…well, I may be so busy I won’t have the time to post about it.

I found some interesting images yesterday during an internet-rummage. They’re on the following webpage – you’ll have to scroll down about half way to see what I’m talking about. There’s a screenshot here anyway (the first image).

http://www.spamula.net/blog/2007/02/

The author describes them well enough, so this is what s/he says: ‘Occasionally, printers will run disposable sheets of paper through the press several times in order to fine-tune the press, or to clean the rollers. The resulting “setup sheets” often display random overlays of images and type from various unrelated print jobs.’

I gave it a shot in Adobe and got some cool results – obviously, it’s always better to fart about with a printer or photocopier for image overlays but some of us can’t afford to do so! Good ol’ cheating on Adobe instead then. I just, really quickly, gave two images a duotone effect and then, in Illustrator, gave them different opacity styles to see how they’d interact. Not as bold or striking as the originals on the webpage, colour-wise, but that could be remedied with some Photoshop tweaking and it’s still something to keep in mind when seeking ideas. Lots to play around with too – composition, colours, duotones/tritones/full-colour, contrast…lots.

2 comments:

  1. interesting overlays! i have not looked at your blog in awhile, but you have had some very great posts! enjoying the reads :)

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  2. I get the same "cheating with Adobe" guilt. At a gallery last night I saw photos that had been textured with a special crackle emulsion process and thought, "wow, I wish I had taken the college course that taught that, but I could do it in Photoshop in 30 seconds." In the end, I think everybody has to appreciate their own process, and that's what matters.

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