Sunday, July 26, 2009

Pixel Magic

Greetings and Happy Cactus Monday!

I've been playing around with this simple Photoshop trick. A single line of pixels is selected and then pulled using Ctrl+T. This technique works vertically as well as horizontally. The stretched sections can be moved, and the canvas enlarged, if desired. These are some of my experiments:

Red Bird Of Paradise

There is something about viewing altered images that gets creative juices flowing. Hopefully I've included enough cactus examples to provide color and design inspiration for cactus lovers as well as art and nature enthusiasts.

Budding Barrel Cactus

Prickly Pear Fruit

House Finches in Red and Orange

March Ocotillos

Purple Prickly Pear

Cactus Wren

Azurite and Malachite

Creosote Seeds

Sunset
I learned about this process from an article by Evad at Colourlovers.com. Click here for some stunning examples of Single Pixel Color Inspiration from Photos.

Visit Teri's Painted Daisies to see more Cactus Monday posts.

21 comments:

•°°• IcyBC •°°• said...

You are so creative, Diane! I like how the lines can form together and look like a flower pot. The last picture is fantastic..

Naturegirl said...

Diane you are techy! Love the special effects! Oh how these plants remind me of my winter in AZ!! sigh

betchai said...

your work are inspiring Diane, it challenges me definitely to learn too, hope i get to that stage someday and be able to share my work too. someday....

Bhavesh Chhatbar said...

Anyone still has to say that cacti are ugly?!

Moon and Sun in One Photograph

soulbrush said...

wow this is awesome, i can't do this at all (yet), hcm fellow cactuteer.

Teri said...

WOW Diane, those really DO get the creative juices flowing! Beautiful colors and interesting alterations.

I love the look of this new blog! Outstanding job.

HCM!

Anonymous said...

Diane, I love your adventures into PhotoShop. The challenge for me is selecting colors that compliment the photography. You have got that down. It is great the way you selected the range of strips that enhance the colors in the photo. Love your new site--opens up so many creative opportunities. Of course, I still visit you other blog almost daily for my virtual fix in the desert. Judy

Cathy S. said...

Very nice and so creative with the photoshop. I have the Adobe Photoshop program and it's not an easy program to use. Happy CM!

-Cathy

stapeliad said...

These are really fun, especially those purple prickly pears!
HCM!

Debra Kay said...

I love photoshop-I haven't loaded it on the mac yet, because once I start with photoshop I never do anything else....

Lynn Cohen said...

This is fascinating.
Did you color the bulbs of that cactus purple or was that their natural color???

marianne said...

Wow what a lovely technique!
All pictures looks so nice!

HCM!!

Margaret Ann said...

Whoa... very cool indeed! LOVE this! HCM! :)

Diane AZ said...

@ Lynn, Good question! I didn't purposely color the prickly pear fruit, but they do look rather purple don't they? In nature they're more of a magenta. Red sometimes turns out weird with my camera.

Unknown said...

I love the prickly pear fruit! and that sunset works so well with your photoshop technique! HCM...belated...

Mahmood Syed Faheem said...

Fantastic effects Diane! Your blog is very nice. The images are very beautiful. God is Great. Best wishes.

http://www.thedynamicnature.com

Ashley said...

Very cool! I love the purple prickly pear cactus!

Victoria said...

Pura belleza captada con tu cámara a travez de tu vista ,los captus uno demis favoritos,laspenkas como llamamos enmi tierra y los higos picos morados son de vino,los solemos coger con unas pinzas largas demadera para no pincharnos,luego limpiarlos,y para comer los cogemos con un tenedor y los partimos por la mitad abriéndolos con elcuchillo y agarrandolo con el tenedor a la boca,son deliciosos,En Canaraias hay muchisima variedad de captus creo que es la más importante deLmUNDO..BESITOS

Admin T.H said...

wow love the pics, :) I love flower

Barb said...

These are so interesting! I'm going to have to try it.

sonia a. mascaro said...

Wow! Amazing pictures! Many times I have this images occasionaly... and I make a PrintScreen to catch the image. Thanks for the link, I will check it out.