Photoshop images. What do you think?

Question

This is what I'm using my limited photographic skills for. I'm a surrealist painter, now branching into graphic (mostly just for fun). I put this in so the regulars that i know in photography can see where I'm headed. Please click on them so they enlarge, otherwise there's no point looking. You'll find that I break all the rules (and... love it).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16949082@N07/?saved=1

http://notthetate.co.uk/lizzie (me).

Mr. Jessup,sigh, the writing is there for a purpose that relates to other people I know on here, as explained above.

Thanks Antoni, that's exactly the sort of critique I need, with detailed info so I can see where I'm going wrong.
I really appreciate your generosity. My email is linked up again, so you can email me with a postal address, a PO box is ok, and I'll send you a canvas print of Breakfast with Dali. I'll see if I can do something with that left side of it first. :o)

Pooky, thank you, I've seen your work and I'm flattered that you like my megre offerings.

Vance, Thank you. I have been nervous because I know it's all a bit left of field. Your validation is very helpful for my confidence. You're right that I've been working from the point of view of an artist and not a photographer. I'll have to have a look at illustrator. I'm a bit nervous about trying anything new because it took me so long to nut out photoshop (self-taught). Thank you again. Lizzie.

Thanks Mason, I had to think hard about the WTF,( didn't know what it meant at first) but I thiink I have it worked out now, that seems to be an important bit of photographic terminology :o)
Yes, all the bits I say are done by hand are done by hand, well wacom graphics tablet actually, but it's the same thing. Thanks for the input.

Answer 1

your so far into being arty i can only admire and respect your talent, they blow me away,

while i can see source issues, the final product is strong enough to hide them to all but the padantic

mr jessops comments are a little emotive and condisending in nature. the words are part of the communication, the placement is question able yes.

outstanding you are an artist - I am not....(sob) so i cant give you any critique of value, i can say im amazed and really pleased to to have seen them and want to go back to them now, so watch this space


EDIT: when i say source issues i can see different depth in the key elements, - top of the fork is blurrier than the other untensil tops - thats padantic and proberly not news to you........shadows inconsistancies etc, minor details

the utencils one is very pleasing, and like all the images i wish i could have your talent - are they photos or images? - i think images

lotus yeah remove the words, i dont know its just to over my head, it is most difinately art and i can see some will love it, it must be to sensual for me?

breaky with Dali, if i could afford your work i would like to own it and would treasure it above all things, theres some elements that trouble me on a tech side, the BG and elements seem to have light differences that dont do it to me - that might be what i love - the image challenges me, its got so many levels, there are so many messages one could take or create form it - i just love this, why i dont know, the sensualality i think ----- end of the day all humans like flesh - they might say they dont, they might preech to others that flesh is sin, its not, neither are landscapes or animals in the buff, flesh is wonderful, its warm, its hard, its soft, its dry, its wet, my god this image moves me, its sexy, sentual, it deserves to be looked at for hours, days and years, the left edge and the blur kill it a bit for me, its a 9.5, to to me, 9.9 with the left edge clean, then your the artist what do i know?

i downloaded it, to see if you have protected it, now im sick in my stomach, now i want to print it, i am in love, please tell me more about this piece can i purchase a copy,

the concept and art side turn me on in my soul, the tech aspects trouble me, however i can only love it

banksia copy, it doesnt move me, the concept is outstanding, the shoot is weak, the post is faultless, background im afraid kills it, its like a studio shot of a cat, they are clean no backyard blurred in the background no matter how pretty, the pre production lets it down, the source

its a shot you "took" then latter decided to add an eye to?

the creation needed to start well before photoshop - well before IMHO,

pre production - remove object from tree, take to better light source or make/create light in "studio" or spare room - like me,

the shoot - set up the lights, get the technique right, get a great exposure, then in post do the photoshopping. ok thats my angle - please its to help - and just my angle

GREVILLEA PONIES copy, ok this is where i show how artless i am, the concept execution is ok, the image is so close to great for me - like dali great, but its a mile or a inch but a distance, the concept, excellent, the post excellent, the source or shoot isnt, 2 out of 3 i think, your talent i am envious of, this one is not your best i think, the source lets you down

ok thats enough, im so under qualified to comment really, so i like them all really, there are bits nag at me a bit, they nag cause the sources are weakish and the let down your briliance in conception..

wow im so excited by them, you are amazing

jessop shows all the signs of jealousy, he has not one good thing to say, thats not critique thats emotive,

a

Answer 2

Hey Lizzie.

Your work is wonderful. That's about as far as I can go.

I could comment on my responses to individual works, but I will leave things with a group thumbs up. There isn't too much I can say about it as a photographer since your bridging to a new medium with the surrealist perspective of a painter.

Photographic surrealism, I think, is a different matter as a matter of visualization and approach. Your work, employing photography, is still rooted in heritage of painting. It's not photographic surrealism and the only thing I could comment on would be if you needed to take a photograph a certain way in order to establish the image. If you said something like 'I need the photo to be ...' then I might be able to say something constructive.

Antoni mentions 'source problems.' He is, I think, referring to technical deficiencies in the photographs. I don't see any problems there. As components contributing to the whole work, it seems to me that there isn't any particular weaknesses to them. That, of course, is an aesthetic judgment and separate from whether or not they work the way you want them to.

I don't see any problems with your use of layers and your airbrush work is a hell of a lot better than mine every will be. I can suggest that, besides photoshop, there may be other programs you would find useful, like Illustrator. Very much in the graphics camp, that.

Vance

Answer 3

Oh I really like them. The first reaction was (when I looked at the lotus with the eyes), was, I got goosebumps. What I mean to say is it freaked me out but in a good way.

These must have taken a long time to do. Honestly I don't know how to do these type of photoshop manipulation at all.

I think you did well really. Thank you for sharing them.

Answer 4

I was thinking some of the pieces looked Salvador Dali-ish. Very interesting...

Answer 5

Prettycool

Answer 6

antoni has a very good eye and good judgment and is more of an artist than he'll admit..,
your work is inspiring! i love duck hunting season...
i'm bookmarking your page, it is truly inspiring and my lovely and talented artist wife will want to see it when life normalizes after our mural project and the holidays are over.
i see nothing to correct, sorry...your work is awsome...wish i could do that well.
EDIT: holy cow i just clicked on the other link...i've seen your work before---washday and nervous ned especially...now i wish i knew where exactly...that is what felt vaguely familiar about it...(aside from the fact that i dig surreal works, though my strong point is abstract and textures with metalics)

Answer 7

"lotus": I thought was some kind of jewellery so too "embryos" pea pods.

Though duck hunting season is very artistic, not sure of title.

Ponies reminded me of something out of ET you know aliens.

Banksia copy is like witch craft stuff, something you might expect to see in Macbeth, scary.

Answer 8

They look amazing!!! Great job, From a graphic artist's opinion ;)

Answer 9

I like the silverware. But please stop putting type over the images, as in the first two examples. Right off, it looks very cheesy. Never explain what you're doing, i.e. "eyes drawn in using difference cloud filter". Either the image works and grabs you or it doesn't. No one cares how you did it, lacking that. And if it grabs them, and they DO care, that's why flickr has caption capabilities. The type within the photo doesn't look good at all.
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Indeed... sigh.

Sorry if my comments daunt you. I really want to encourage you to continue no matter what anyone online says. But I'm not a gusher. I state it as I see it, which intermittently, is the situation precisely as it is. I understand that people who dabble don't like to hear prescriptive comments. They want, and expect, "It's great" or no comment at all.
Well others can extend a critique to encompass other aspects of it as they are so inclined or capable. But the one aspect of the work to which I limited myself was the one which had the most immediate and sustained impact for me. I have looked at an awful lot of art, and everything I see out there doesn't astound me as new. And when I look at something I have seen before, I notice in what ways it fails to be quite as good as other things which it looks like. The aspect of your shots which hit me over the head was this, as antoni says, badly positioned type. Simple as that.
Keep banging away and have fun with it. That's the whole point, and you seem to have grasped that and be succeeding at it. Just keep the caption type off your photos unless you can do something more interesting with it than we see here.

Good luck.

Answer 10

I think you're art is incredible. And the fact that you 'paint' the eyes etc in with photoshop. Do you really do that by hand?

What I like about your images the most is that some people would see them as contraversial which I like.

The best thing about them is they have a very high 'WTF' factor. :-)