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The E-zine for all photographers wishing to develop their more creative side
Issue 2
Let The Creativity Flow is a community of creative photographers. It began at the start of 2013 as an on line community based on their own website. The aim of the community was to support and inspire other photographers who wanted to develop their own creative approaches by learning from each other. This approach of peer learning is at the heart of the community. The spirit of mutual help and support of Let The Creativity Flow meant that it is a community that is totally free to be a part of. There is no subscriptions, no charges, no advertising, and no attempt to “monetise” the website in any way. The downside of this approach is that as the community began to grow, the capacity of the founder – Peter Leech – to cover the costs of hosting large numbers of relatively large files became too much of a burden. The decision was taken to place all of the community Galleries, Challenge entries, etc onto a dedicated Flickr account. The Interactive parts of the community – software reviews, skill tutorials, articles and features, forums, and so on would remain on the community website. It quickly became clear that this separation was not going to work. Entries for challenges fell. Articles dried up. The forum stopped getting new threads. Essentially the website stopped getting viewers.
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In May 2013 it was decided that the website should be replaced with an online interactive magazine. This would take the place of the features in the website and allow the original aim of the community to be met in a more flexible way. In June 2013 “Let The Creativity Flow – the magazine” was set up. This is the second edition of this magazine. It will now appear every month as a vehicle for the peer learning process at the heart of the community. We want this magazine to become increasingly interactive. We are looking to you - the readers – to make it so. What form this takes will depend on your responses. •If you submit letters, we will have a letters section. •If you submit images for our challenges we will have Challenge Galleries. •If you write features we will include them in our articles. It is up to you. So here’s to the start of a new adventure. Join us on that journey. Peter Leech
Software Review
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Monthly Challenge 10 Image of The Month 13
Apophysis – starting with fractals
Starting Point Challenge
Abstracted Interior 6 by “Where the Art is”
Theme Gallery # 1 14
“Lines”
Useful Resources
Free Resources
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Featured Member’s Website 18 Tutorial 19 Featured Member Gallery 22
Project 12 26 Feature 29
Your Contribution 30
“Fotographically Yours” by Irene Martinelli
How to do it .....
Brenda Starr
Bomomo
Photo Humour
What Can you do ?
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Getting started with Fractals Using Apophysis Fractals ? What on Earth are they ? What do they have to do with photo editing.? Well fractals are basically mathematical algorithms. They programme patterns to appear on your screen. Every time you change one of the variables in the algorithm the pattern created will change.
Simple ? Well not if you have to change the mathematics directly, especially if you do not have a PhD in Algorithmic Mathematics. Fortunately for those of us who are less mathematically gifted there are pieces of software that allow you to change what the patterns look like in simple graphical terms rather than working directly on the maths. The programme I am going to use to illustrate this is in this article is “Apophysis”. This is a free programme that can be downloaded from various places including Apophysis.org .
B C D E
G
F
A
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This is the opening screen you will see when the programme opens. The items shown by the letters “A” to “F” are the main controls and will be explained on the next few pages.
Letter “A” is a column of starting points for your creation. These will be different each time you open the programme. Whichever icon you choose will be the starting point for your final image, though there are plenty of changes you can make before you decide that it is what you want
Letter “B” brings up a dialogue box to allow you to move the parts of the fractals relative to each other. You may well want to use this as the last thing you do before finishing, but you can play with moving parts around at any point.
Dragging the green triangle , for example, will change this image into the one on the next page. No right answers here, just play ‘til you like it.
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When you have made the changes you wanted close this dialogue box and open the one shown by Letter “C� . This is where you can rotate the image and move it horizontally or vertically. To make these changes simply use the sliders in the dialogue box, but be careful they are quite sensitive
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Letter “D” is where you can change the colours of your image. When you click on this icon you will be shown a new dialogue box with a drop down menu of hundreds of colour gradients. Just keep scrolling down to see the many possible colour combinations to choose from.
Finally Letter “E” allows you to pick the single fractal from the whole sequence that has been developed by the particular algorithm that you have been working on. The dialogue box that this icon brings up is centred around a matrix of 9 variations, with the one you currently have in the centre box. Here is an example...
When you click on any other pattern in the matrix, this new one will appear in the main window. You will also notice that the other 8 patterns have changed to give you another set of choices. How these patterns change follows a particular pattern depending on the “Trend” you choose from the drop down menu. The default pattern is just random, but each of the other trends will follow a different trend. On the next page we have a series from the Trend “spiral” to illustrate this. (Each new matrix comes up when you choose the pattern immediately to the left of the centre pattern.)
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You will notice that in this dialogue box the background is black. The main window will still have a transparent background, so don’t worry. You can change the main window to a black background by clicking the icon marked as “G”. (I prefer to keep it transparent because it downloads to your computer as a PNG file which keeps transparency and also allows layers. That way you can later add a background of your choice simply by adding a new layer in your favourite editing software. This means you are not restricted to black, nor even a single colour – you can put a textured background behind your new fractal image.)
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When you have finished with altering your fractal pattern you can download it to your computer as a finished image or for further work in an editor. The important thing to notice here is that if you save your work by clicking on the normal save icon, Apophysis will save the algorithm that you have been working on, Not The Image. Saving this allows you to continue altering the pattern at a later stage. To download the image you have created you need to use the render button ( Letter “F”). This will bring up a new dialogue for saving the image you created to your computer.
Submit any completed image that we can feature in our next edition of “Let The Creativity Flow” emailing them to peter.response at gmail.com and using the subject line of “LTCF Apophysis”
The main options here are as follows. The Preset is the location on your computer for saving the download file, with the file name just below that. Width and height are your choice for the size of the final image on your PC, but NOTE that the bigger this is the longer it will take to render and download the image. The same is true of the quality option box. Once you click on the Render button it is just a matter of waiting for the render process to complete. The final image will take the form of a .png file so that you can continue to edit it on most editing software and it will maintain the layers and transparency if you use those. This means it can be added directly on top of an existing image or background. So have fun and remember it is free so you have nothing to lose ( except the hours and hours you will inevitably end up using this excellent software. This is a free programme that can be downloaded from various places including Apophysis.org .
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Starting Point Challenge Each month Let The Creativity Flow holds a challenge in which community members submit an image which uses a given photo as a common starting point. Last month the theme was “Hero”, which was based on the photo of an old bike shown below. The rules of the challenge are simple. You can do anything with the photo to create a creative image, so long as some part of the original remains in some form in the final image submitted. A selection of images from last month’s challenge are contained on the next two pages. ( Copyright for all remains with the author of the image.)
Starting Point Challenge - “Hero” Selected challenge submissions are contained on the next two pages. 10
This month’s theme is “Stack” and entries must include the photo below in some form or other. If you would like to see how creative You can be, all you have to do is to download the original photo from by clicking on the photo. Do what you can to make this a more creative image and then submit it by clicking the e mail “submit” link. Include the image as an attachment ( 800 x 800 px max.) and use “Starting Point Challenge” as the subject of the e mail. In the body of the e mail give any details you can about yourself and the way you created the image. (Flickr members can submit their image directly to the thread in the groups Flickr.com home page. Others please e mail to peter.response at gmail.com)
Starting Point Challenge Submissions
Aneti91
Smallwon
Paloma Photos Jardiniere
Peter
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Aneti Smallwon
Bonvilston
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Each month “Let The Creativity Flow” Ezine will bring you the best Image in the community Gallery. The creator of that image will explain a little about the image – how it was created, software used, techniques applied, etc. The idea is that this feature will create a chain reaction. The person chosen this month will choose the best image from the Gallery to go into next month’s E zine, and so on. The Image of the month from the last months gallery submissions has been chosen as “Abstracted Interior 6” by “Where the Art is”
It has often been said that photographs almost always contain too much information. Although they represent a single instant in time they capture far more information than can be taken in by the eye in a single glance. While this can be an advantage in some circumstances, it works against photographs aesthetically. There are many ways of trying to restrict detail to what's important such as choosing a plain background or using shallow depth of focus. In developing this technique, which takes the elimination of detail to an extreme, I was inspired by some of Mondrian's studies of trees and "The Sea" in which he eliminates all but horizontal and vertical lines. In the abstracted interiors series I was also interested in seeing if a sense of space could be retained despite the extreme simplification . Working out how to eliminate all but the horizontals and verticals took some time and I'm not sure if I've yet found the best way. And so rather than reveal the precise technique at present, I'd like to see anybody's suggestions as to how it might be done.
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Each month in Let The Creativity Flow we will be choosing a theme linking images in the group pool on Flickr. A selection of images will be taken from the pool that fit with that theme.
The theme for the next month will be :- People So if you want your images to feature in this slot next month its time to get submitting images with people as the subject – real or otherwise !
Intervalo By Aneti
Universo perdido By Aneti
The Colour Purple By Stephen Gallagher
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Page 2
Buscando Salir By Paloma Photos
Reflections By Stephen Gallagher
Apophysis By Tadie
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Lighthouse By Peter Leech
Wheels of Change By Camilla Ask
Untitled By Gary Carruthers
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In each issue of the “Let The Creativity Flow” Ezine, we will be searching out resources that creative photographers might want to use in their work. These may be items of software, apps, fonts and brushes, tutorials, images to use, or just things to inspire you.
A photographic beginner ? Well we all are to a certain extent. Sometimes you read stuff about photography and end up feeling that the whole world is an expert except you. They know all the basics and have the technological jargon to match. Well for those of us who are mere mortals, this is an excellent place to get inspiration and not be put off by jargon. Carmel from Southern California has a selection of top tips for those beginning to take photography seriously in her blog about her “Fifth House”. www.ourfifthhouse.com/2012/11/photography-tips-for-beginner-from.html
“200 + + Photoshop Tips “ This is a blog that outlines , as you would expect, over 200 tips for creating creative effects using photoshop. Many of them also work with other editors, so there is something in there for everyone. Clear simple explanations. hungred.com/usefulinformation/photoshop-photoeffects/
Want to have a go at using collage techniques ? Not got any images of your own that would be suitable. Don’t worry, Photo Pin is a website that searches for copyright free images that allow you to use them in your own creations and on your blogs/websites. www.photopin.com
Adobe has shifted to storing its latest versions of Photoshop in the cloud for people to licence to use. Not everyone is keen on this idea and this has focussed attention on good alternatives to the market leader. This article takes you through the current best alternatives. www.lightstalking.com/isthere-life-after-photoshop
If you still have not got your own PhotoBlog together, then Aminus3 is a good place to start. Their free account allows you to post a photo each day in one of a range of very attractive designs. As well as this feature, the site also allows you to take part in various challenges and themes, and gives you access to a world wide programme of creative ideas. Even if you are a Flickr afficionario you may still find something extra on this site. www.aminus3.com
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This month’s featured website is
“Fotographically Yours” By Irene Martinelli www.fotographicallyyours.com
First of all an apology. Last month we featured the fantastic website showing the creative work of Crystal. The link to the website was not working and this may have meant some of you were not able to see this great site. Now you can. The link to follow is www.whatsthisart.tumblr.com
The three things I love most in life are travelling, photography and writing. Fortunately, all three complement each other. I view the world in bits and pieces; although I see the whole picture, my eye hones in on a detail, a nuance.
Fotographically Yours, a blossoming flower in the world of Fine Art Photography, offers the opportunity to view the world through the eyes of a dreamer…a vagabond in pursuit of permanence...impelling those who dream to search for the unattainable.
I have been blessed to have lived in several countries including the USA, UK, Italy and Curacao in the Caribbean. In the Caribbean I learned to love big, bold colors and although I will dapple in monochromes, my heart belongs to color.
Through the art of photography, Fotographically Yours offers a variety of artistic images intended not only to create a feeling of peace but inspire emotional expression. Words are irrelevant as the eye beholds and the heart feels. Irene
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Using GIMP
From
To
Colour “popping”, or using selective colour is a common technique that is used in creative photography. These two images show what it means very clearly. It is a simple task in Photoshop, but what if you can’t afford Photoshop. Well the answer might well be in using its FREE open source alternative GIMP. An article showing exactly how to achieve this result is provided on Debi Dalio’s excellent blog “Clown Fish Cafe” (clownfishcafe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/define-the-focalpoint-with-color.html). This fantastic blog should be checked out by every reader as it is a fount of good ideas for use with GIMP. Even if you are not interested in colour popping you will find something useful there
GIMP is an Open Source programme and can be downloaded for free by going to the www.gimp.org
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Suggested Reading The Top 5 Creative Photography Techniques This ebook written by Evan Sharboneau. You will learn about : 1) long exposure effects; 2) levitation photography; 3) 360x180 Planet Panoramas; 4) infrared photography, and; 5) multiplicity photography. This includes photo samples. The book is full of images and examples and is written in simple to follow short explanations. The book is based on using Photoshop, but the author acknowledges that the effects can also be used GIMP. It is full of links to videos that Evan has produced to illustrate how to achieve specific effects. It is well worth a read. It is a FREE e book and can be found at this link. www.issuu.com/futurezet/docs/top_5_crea tive_photography_techniques__photoextre
Creative Black and White by Harold Davies If you have ever wanted to get into monochromatic creative photography, then this is as good a starting point as any. It goes through all of the main issues and techniques in its 243 pages. It is full of exquisite images to illustrate the points being made. The books begins with the general issues of using mono ( seeing in black and white, Composition for monochrome etc.) and goes on to parts about “Black and White in the Digital Era�. Those wanting technical details will not be disappointed, but equally beginners will find straightforward explanations and beautiful illustrations. The ebook is available for free at : www.issuu.com/symbiosis06/docs/creative_black___white_digital_ phot
Photography Tips and Tricks by Kelbymedia This video is a kind of taster for the set of video tutorials run by Scott Kelby – one of the Gurus of Photoshop teaching – though this one is not just about using Photoshop. Throughout the series you will get plenty of ideas for developing in your own work See video – www.youtu.be/sIAIVIJtKOg
Star Trail Photography by Tony Northrup Ever tried the idea of taking night shots of the sky with trailing star lights ? Didn’t work eh ? This technique is not easy to get good results. There are a lot of things to take into account. This video is from someone very experienced who has made all the mistakes for you. It is practical and full of detail. Watching this 14 minute video will save you hours and hours of cold dark miserable failure. See video - youtu.be/V6ypRbPzoPM
HDR Photography by rticknor HDR photography is something that is used more and more. This is a simple video showing how to achieve the results by following through the editing of an image from original to finished HDR creation. See video - youtu.be/ub5oT3xmees
Levitation Photography by Tony Northrup Yes it is Tony Northrup again, this time accompanied by his wife. This time he is indoors and warm, but watch out ! His wife ends up in the air ! Simple, practical and very effective See video - youtu.be/dgzdiiC8_pc
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Brenda Starr I'm inspired by music, nature and the magic of light! It began in the year 2000, my love affair with color, shape and texture in digital format. Soon after my first big break was a T.V gig, an opportunity to showcase my work on public access television three times a week. I presented a slideshow of my early work that was accompanied by music. Each show was a half an hour of BrendaStarrArt. Like others that support my work, I did get a tickle out of tuning in!!!! We all know the wonders of PhotoShop, but it does happen to be my preference in sharing my passion for self expression! Technically, I have had to master the use of a computer (Mac), graphic design software and a camera (no phone included). But in the beginning I went kicking and screaming for help....Nothing ruptures my insanity fault line like technical issues...and often I fumbled on many potentially fatal levels. However, somehow it continues to work...maybe because my imagination saves me every time like a serious rainbow coloured life saver! Another important element of creating digital art is that it is definitely a healing experience for me. I take photos of what I'm drawn to...and oftentimes, at that precise moment with the subject directly focused in my lens, I know what I want to do with what I'm about to capture! Next, I transfer the photos into my computer and then into my designs, all with the luxury of listening to music of a classical piano nature...or maybe some delicious, smooth, sultry guitar. That genuine rhythm flowing through me is a colourfully textured part of my artistic journey where ever it takes me. Thus, I'm moved forward - moved towards a healing within - and sometimes even moved to explore the total universe in one, single design filter choice. As far as healing via the creative process, it may have much to do with the fact I'm also a Reiki Master. As to help others find healing is to experience love, light and growth - a truthfully heartfelt part of my purpose for being here. Endless Journey
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Angels Landing
Pieces of Time
Abstract Vases
Journey Earth’s Embrace
Spring’s Whisper
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Sailor of All Ships
Find Your Peace
Time Compass
Single Summer Night
All image copyright Brenda Starr 2013 242
Little Side Garden
To see even more of Brenda’s great creative artwork why not visit her website at www.picture-tiles.com/BrendaStarrArt All image copyright Brenda Starr 2013
Apology: In last month’s edition, the gallery referred to Vincent, when it should ofcourse have been VICTOR DENNIS PURCELL 25
Project 12 is a simple idea for improving your creative skills. It involves you being given a theme each month for a period of 1 year. The idea is that each theme will take a different element of creativity for you to develop. These might be.....
• A piece of software • A technique • A subject matter
Due to problems with Abstract vasespeople being able to register in last month’s edition, this feature has been reprinted and will start THIS month
The thinking is that by attempting to create a set of images each month on that theme you will gradually build up your range of skills and techniques.
Your own FREE managed website With Let The Creativity Flow, this idea will go several steps further. As well as the idea for the project we will provide these things FREE for those subscribers who take up the challenge.
The full set off 12 themes Journey
A series of “How to” features for each theme.
Calendar of activities and tutorials
Your own website to show off your images A chance to network with the others taking part All of these features will mean that you will be helped to get the benefits of this community by being shown how to use new techniques, learn from others taking part, and be inspired to develop new ways to be creative.
(Email to peter.response at gmail.com using “Project 12” as the subject line ) 26
Work within a supportive network
Tutorials for each theme Asian
Project 12 Themes
Theme number 1 - Bomomo
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Bomomo is a really simply on line programme. It is so simple that it could be called playing. There is a growing number of apps coming to the market that take a different approach to being creative. This is one of them and it is certainly a lot of fun.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Theme Bomomo Layer Styles Textured background Apophysis Collage Simple Shapes Surrealism Distortion New Worlds Triptychs etc Playing with Colour Presentation
When you first go to the site ( www.bomomo.com) you will not see controls for layers, or cropping, or adjustments tools. It doesn’t use any of those. Instead you will see a white box with 7 bouncing balls. Underneath this box you will see 20 tabs. That is it.
23 Move your cursor around this box and you will see the balls follow it. Hold your finger on the mouse button and it will draw a set of 7 coloured line. What pattern the lines take depends on which of the 20 tabs you click. Let the mouse button go and it will stop painting. ( be quick though, the lines develop very speedily.) When you move and hold down the mouse button again it will continue making patterns on top of what you have already done. This is the result of 5 rapid mouse movements on the screen. You could save this as it is or keep going to make it more complex. In reality if you want to create more complex images you might be better saving each movement as a separate image and layering them using an editor. ( files are automatically saved as jpgs with the name bomomo and a 4 digit number.) 27
Cont..... This second image from Bomomo was also saved. This one was put as a layer over theAbstract vases top of the first one, with the layer blending mode set to darken. The result was the composite image below.
If this is a little plain for you, and lacking in punch, then it is easy to alter the blending mode. If, for example you mix the layers using “difference” mode then you get a more striking image on a black background instead of white.
Journey You can use other effects from all sorts of software to add to the basic Bomomo image. This one features a light effect and a mirror frame from another free piece of software – iPiccy. Neither app needs you to register or join .
Bomomo is a fun way to start working on your Project 12. Why not give it a try ? What have you got to lose ? Project 12 is open to all members and subscribers to this magazine 28
Top ten reasons to date a photographer: They work well in the dark They’re used to funny smells They make things develop They work well on many settings They know how to focus They can make big things look small and small things look big They work well from many different angles They zoom in and out. And in and out and in and out and in and out… They shoot in many different locations They can find the beauty in anything The quickest way to make money at photography is to sell your camera.
How do you get the professional photographer off your front porch? Pay him for the pizza.
A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let’s go!” The tense man sitting in the pilot’s seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically. “Fly over the north side of the fire, ” said the photographer, “and make several low-level passes.” “Why?” asked the nervous pilot. “Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer. “I’m a photographer, and photographers take pictures!” The pilot replied, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?” 29
THANK YOU for reading this first ever issue of Let The Creativity Flow. We hope you found it interesting and informative. Future issues will appear at monthly intervals. If you would like to join the Let The Creativity Flow community of photographers simply click the e mail link below using “ Join” as the subject of the e mail. Please add your full name, desired user name , and your own email address and we will get back to you right away. To join email me at peter.response at gmail.com, using the word “join” as the subject line If you would like to fully participate in the photo sharing and commenting you will need to open up a free Flickr.com account . If this is the case then please click the e mail link and use the subject “Flickr membership” and we will send you a link with an invitation to join that site. To view the range of images taken by the members of the community you can view the group photo pool at this link.
To simply subscribe to Let The Creativity Flow each month please click on the green “Follow” button underneath the magazine. This will ask you to open a free ISSUU account and will notify you of each new addition. It will also give you totally free access to thousands of free ebooks and magazines on a wide range of topics.
And finally, if you like what you have seen PLEASE mention us to your friends. Let the Creativity Flow is free to all and no one makes a penny from it. The pay back is knowing that it helps as many people as we can reach. Please pass it on using the links to Twitter, Facebook, G+, or just the link to e mail your friends.
Peter Leech (Founder – Let The Creativity Flow )
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Things for you to do Pass word of Let the Creativity Flow on to all of your friends. Join or subscribe Start Project 12 and get a free purpose built website Try out using Bomomo tell us what YOU think about this edition. Tell us what else you’d like to see in here Tell us what you think is the best feature Comment on the images you have seen in here Send us a letter ( by e mail ) with your comments, critique, ideas or questions.