"The Draw Challenge"

...11/03/08
*Please VIEW LARGE to see full detail*


The Challenge: Create a photo with your interpretation of the word, "Draw."

The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, jawsnap, Creative Deviance, and myself.

The Result: My interpretation of this challenge focuses on DRAWING ATTENTION to an image within an image, this being my image titled "Egg_n_Egg" The goal was for me to create a well balanced image that would enable the viewer to be DRAWN to a specific part of the image, this being the Egg WITHIN the Egg. I wanted this to look like a Cooked egg was contained in the egg shell with interesting lighting, shadows & textures using just 2 common objects being 1 egg and a set of high priced silverware that was a wedding present 20 years ago and never used LOL. So my task was to give the forks a USED & textured look instead of it's new & shiny look so it would fit my final goal of having various textures & contrast instead of a plain flat image. The hardest part was to crack the egg so that I had a nice defined edge which was accomplished by taking a straight razor blade, scoring the egg shell the way I wanted it to look and then using the back of a knife to crack it ever so gently, I managed to get it right the 1st time out! I had to replace some of the egg white which was lost during this conversion with water to float the egg yoke high enough for the photo, then the top shell was placed back on top using the rear fork to support it in the correct position. See I told you there were a lot of details LOL.

Way too many layers & techniques were created for me to describe the process here but I will tell you that I spent a TOTAL Time 6.5 hours from start to finish and created over 60 layers total. I even had to create my own Gun Metal TEXTURE to age the forks and then a slew of lighting techniques were used in my Still Life Studio for the original shot to have the proper elements for the completed project to look the way I wanted it to. This started life as a 9 image Bracketed HDR shot which was processed & tone mapped in "Dynamic Photo HDR". It proceeded into CS3 for the rest of the processing to include mega layers and custom Dodging & burning to bring all the high lights & shadows out especially in the egg shell cracks and to bring the egg yoke and mass out to look like a cooked egg which is where I wanted your eye to be DRAWN to. This image enabled me to try & create new processing techniques that will definitely help me in the future. So not only did I have fun with this one but I learned a ton of valuable information for business purposes.

Thanks for looking at my "DRAW Challenge" creation, I hope you all enjoy my creativity & hard work on this one.

Best Regards,
~Bill Pador~

"The Draw Challenge"

...11/03/08
*Please VIEW LARGE to see full detail*


The Challenge: Create a photo with your interpretation of the word, "Draw."

The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, jawsnap, Creative Deviance, and myself.

The Result: My interpretation of this challenge focuses on DRAWING ATTENTION to an image within an image, this being my image titled "Egg_n_Egg" The goal was for me to create a well balanced image that would enable the viewer to be DRAWN to a specific part of the image, this being the Egg WITHIN the Egg. I wanted this to look like a Cooked egg was contained in the egg shell with interesting lighting, shadows & textures using just 2 common objects being 1 egg and a set of high priced silverware that was a wedding present 20 years ago and never used LOL. So my task was to give the forks a USED & textured look instead of it's new & shiny look so it would fit my final goal of having various textures & contrast instead of a plain flat image. The hardest part was to crack the egg so that I had a nice defined edge which was accomplished by taking a straight razor blade, scoring the egg shell the way I wanted it to look and then using the back of a knife to crack it ever so gently, I managed to get it right the 1st time out! I had to replace some of the egg white which was lost during this conversion with water to float the egg yoke high enough for the photo, then the top shell was placed back on top using the rear fork to support it in the correct position. See I told you there were a lot of details LOL.

Way too many layers & techniques were created for me to describe the process here but I will tell you that I spent a TOTAL Time 6.5 hours from start to finish and created over 60 layers total. I even had to create my own Gun Metal TEXTURE to age the forks and then a slew of lighting techniques were used in my Still Life Studio for the original shot to have the proper elements for the completed project to look the way I wanted it to. This started life as a 9 image Bracketed HDR shot which was processed & tone mapped in "Dynamic Photo HDR". It proceeded into CS3 for the rest of the processing to include mega layers and custom Dodging & burning to bring all the high lights & shadows out especially in the egg shell cracks and to bring the egg yoke and mass out to look like a cooked egg which is where I wanted your eye to be DRAWN to. This image enabled me to try & create new processing techniques that will definitely help me in the future. So not only did I have fun with this one but I learned a ton of valuable information for business purposes.

Thanks for looking at my "DRAW Challenge" creation, I hope you all enjoy my creativity & hard work on this one.

Best Regards,
~Bill Pador~