Preserved Topic: longboarding... (Page 1 of 1)

http://www.zerominuszero.net/grafik2.jpg

i just whipped up that image from a photo i took of my friend cheetah at the skate park...

what you guys think? what elements need working? i still want to add his name to the piece, but i'll work on that later (any recommendations for working that element in too?).

cheers.mikey.milker

definately an overlay or softlight text addition ... nothing too 'in your face'

I like what ya did so far... what ya using for a selection?

I hereby quote an excellent article I read recently on clarity from the magazine "Critique":

quote:

---

Emphasis : Basically we're talking visual hierarchy here, which, naturally, we create primarily through the judicious use of contrast and flow. Usually uwe use variations in size, weight, and form to make things stand out. Sometimes we put lots of space around things to call attention to them. We can also exploit the reading sequence of the culture, or let directional axes in surrounding imagery and text point out the lead dog.
But the true key to emphasis is focus: you have to focus on what's important in the first place ... If you can't decide which idea matters most, you can't emphasize it. If you can't then steel yourself to kill off anything that isn't essential to it and discipline everything else to serve it, your design will go the way of all "kinder, gentler" entities. It may be a very nice design, and your friends might trust it with their children, but it will have no power.
Hey, power in it of itself isn't bad. People who misuse power are--so make sure your focus is clear.

---

So, I use this to substantiate my comment that the figure of your friend isn't emphasized enough merely by coloring. I'd say give some blurring to the background and dull down the contrast even more. As far as the colored blocks are concerned, I'm pretty pro-random-colored-blocks myself, but I could easily live without them. I'd be interested in seeing what it looks like without them, but nonetheless, I'm okay.

As far as working in the name is concerned, I'd try to do something very subtle, to maintain that the focus should remain on the person, not the name. Something grungy, but not too "in your face" as vogon says.

Otherwise, fantastic photomanip. Simple and clean.


(edit : typos)

[This message has been edited by twItch^ (edited 17-09-2000).]

i definitely like it.. i'm wondering if the boxes shouldn't take a more subtle role, as they distract a lot of attention from cheetah.. i'm with twitch on the 'focus' issue-- it seems to lack it.

as for the boxes, what if they were smaller and there were more of them, leaving cheetah the only large colored object (maybe the new boxes could be colored, but somewhat desaturated?

as for the photo, i am not so hot on how boring the sky is and how blown out the foreground is.



[This message has been edited by analog (edited 17-09-2000).]

vogon: thanks for the nice words, i worked on the text last night and totally #%#@$#@ it up.. i'll try again today though. oh yeah, what do you mean "what are you using for a selection?"

twitch: that was a pretty helpful clipping, thanks a lot. i tried to place more emphasis on cheetah in that picture with blurring already, the background outside of the boxes has a motion blur on it.. and i the area in the boxes that isn't cheetah has a pixelation i think. but i'll try making it a little more drastic, without being too overboard.

analog: fuck you. er wait... no. i think you're right about the boxes, i'm going to try and tone them down a little bit. i'm also interested in making the left and right boxes smaller and multiples instead. oh and i realize the sky is pretty boring, that's where i was hoping to work in his name.

thanks for the comments everyone, as soon as i get some new prototypes i'll post them.

cheers.mikey.milker

I think the boxes take away from it... also there's a strange blue glow surrounding his upper body that looks out of place. It'd look better I think as one of those B&W photos with a colored insert for him.

www.zerominuszero.net/grafik3c.jpg

any better? it's starting to feel a little overworked to me personally...

i think i'm just sick of looking at the same picture, maybe need to back off from it.

cheers.mikey.milker

Um, could you do one more version that has no boxes or blurred lower halves or dark outlines or anything... just a black and white photo with the skater and his board in color? I just want to see what it looks like.

www.zerominuszero.net/grafik0.jpg

better living through simplicity?

cheers.mikey.milker

Not to sure, I liked the colored squares, but...

I think that it is the amout of white on the bottom of the third one is a bit of an eye sore.

I like the blur you did to the second one.

Are you attemting to make the picture fit a fullpage, as in a promotonal item for a magazine???

If you are, then you have to keep with the size you have, if not, then I would bring the name down a bit and do some work with the crop tool.

Try placing the design on a different colored background. I think that the white background takes away from the picture a bit, because it is black and white, I set it on a black background and it looks a lot sharper.

It may be a way to get a better perspective of the picture.

That said the one without the colored boxes is by far the best, the boxes take away from the power of the movement. Blur the action behind the skater, and leave it black and white, and I think you may have the perfect accent. That way the color is reserved just for the skater, it makes it more powerful in that respect.

oooo... nono, I like that one... simplistic, yet fancy. Sometimes less is more. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

I like it with the boxes !!!! selection as in did you isolate cheetah using a selection and if so , how did you select?.. which tool? ~Vp~

Ahhh...clean photomanips...What a concept! Love it.

Mikey, the first one you showed with the colored boxes ... neato kean! Me likes...

Ask a stupid question, get 12 stupid answers...
*My* stupid answer:
graphic0 is the winner for me
The boxes are throwin me, maybe if you took grafik3c and pull the name down just to the right of the leftmost bluebox and cropped away the top portion above the boxes or take the name to the bottom left below the boxes and boarder. All that advice is a bit contrived I think but like I said them boxes are throwin me (you too I guess?). *Everybody* will dig somethin different. What's your winner Mikey?

personally i have wanted all along to see the boxes at a smaller scale, and maybe incorporate some kind of movement with the color.. there are a lot of possibilities, but i think the photo is strong enough to stand without any additions.

thank you so much for all the input... it's been really helpful in the development of this piece (though it hasn't shown in my work yet, haha) and i've gotten some great ideas i want to explore.

i'm not surprised to see that the majority of you guys liked the picture with the boxes, that one was actually my favorite too. for some reason i wanted to integrate more into the image, yet the boxes were just not implemented correctly.

i've been pondering the idea of using a sequence of smaller boxes across the top, in a haphazard arrangement. in those boxes i could be showing other tricks and shit of his... and since it's going into a 10x8 print, you'll be able to make out the other boxes with complex scenes rather easily nonetheless.

uh... so yeah.. the text definitely needs to be changed too, i'll probably end up writing something out by hand with a charcoal pencil.. then just scan it in.

simple it is then, i'll try not to fuck it up too bad and share it when i'm done with the next phase.

cheers.mikey.milker

(vogon: i selected cheetah using the pen tool and a little bit of patience.. i actually didn't do a great job, but it was nice to constantly fall back on the original path i made.)

aha! I knew it!

well ya didnt do a bad job... looks pretty good to me..

(the pen tool being my fav sel tool if I do say so myself)

~Vp~