I took a year long online class that introduced us to techniques in photography, post processing of photo images, and software products used in these endeavors. Though the course focuses mainly on flowers and floral photography, it does include other subjects. Here are some of my results.

Here we were tasked with drawing (or copying a drawing of) a dancer and then using images of flowers, dressing the ballerina with those flowers. This is the final followed by the original drawing and the flower.

This was an exercise in creating a water painting like background.

This involved finding a subject and making it stand out so that there is no question of what the main subject of the image is.

This was an exercise in using and extending reflections.

The following were a few exercises in using textures to enhance images by masking out distracting items and to change the mood of the image.

The texture here was used to enhance the original photo, which follows.

Sometimes you learn a lot from working with a single image and trying different treatments.

I loved meeting this Guatemalan girl but was able to enhance the image using a texture to remove the distracting elements in the image. See below.

This technique uses something called a mixer brush to create a unique background – similar to using a texture but in this case the background is made from elements in the original photo.

This is called creating a digital mat – note the mat (frame around the image) is part of the image but looks like a mat.

This is called IMB or intentional motion blur.

The following is a composite made from multiple images beginning with one of the above IMB images.

Still life is a fascinating technique. Here is one attempt but I wish to perfect this technique.

This is called creating repeating patterns. It can be used for backgrounds or other purposes. But one must start by creating the original pattern.

Stylizing an image to create an effect

Creating movement

Floral portraits