Overlays

Today I was playing with overlays.  They're a fun way to either wreck or enhance your photos, depending on your point of view.  The idea is to take photos of pretty much anything that has colour and texture and combine it with your main photo.

You can use anything you want as an overlay.  In the following shots I've used two lumps of firewood, some papier maché, a lump of marble, and a detail from one of my mother-in-law's paintings.

For the main photos, I took my family and, of course, the back of teddy's head.

This, more or less, is how to do it.

You take your overlay picture and stick it on a separate layer over your subject photo.  As a Gimp user, I use either multiply or overlay mode for the overlay.  If you have too much of a pattern over your subject, use Gaussian blur on the offending part of the overlay.

For example, in each of the following pictures I selected the overlay then put a quick mask over it.  Then I erased the mask over the faces.  I toggled the quick mask to leave a selection.  Next (making sure I was still working on the overlay layer) I feathered the selection and then Gaussian blurred it.

One of the things I like about this technique is the fact that I don't have to be accurate with the masking.  In fact, it pays not to be too accurate because it helps tie the image together.

You can add as many overlays as you feel like.  They all add to the texture.

You can also be a lot more subtle with overlays than I have been in the following examples.

Go on, try it.  You know you want to.

Alex's great treasure hunt

One of Alex's birthday presents was a metal detector so today, after school, we went on a treasure hunt. We set off to the field by the car park overlooking chateau Gaillard to find gold, silver and assorted other treasure, and maybe some indication of human presence.

Alex applied himself to his search with full concentration.

After his half-hour sweep of the area, he was pleased to confirm two finds. Both artifacts spoke of human presence in the area.

The first find may have been the stopper for some kind of liquid receptacle. It was only slightly warped, but was otherwise in good condition. Looking closely at it, we could discern the legend "Heineken" emblazoned upon it. The second item was made of three twisted strands of metal. I was convinced that it was a straightened-out fragment of a steel torque, but Alex with the wisdom of a seven year old reckoned it was a bit of fence wire.

Then it was time to go home for dinner. So we returned triumphantly with the photographic evidence to show mummy.

A very quick setup

Sometimes you know straight away that you're not going to get the perfect shot. But you have to go for it anyway.

This particular shot is the final one of three taken in under a minute.

Picture the scene. We were just going to join my son's birthday party after Victoria had finished her afternoon nap. I'm in a hurry because I don't want to miss the cake.

Vic puts on the hat. I just have to take this picture. .

I pick up my camera, turn the flash to the wall and shoot. This is in "P" automatic mode. Naturally, it's too dark on one side. Ok, I pick up a super-cheap YN460 flash off the mantelpiece and set it to slave mode at 1/8 power. I stick it on the floor firing up under the hat on vicky's left.......Too bright. Two clicks down on the YN460 (1/32 power), and I shoot again. Not great, but it will do.

That's almost a minute of potential cake-eating time used up. Time to grab everything (daughter included) and run.

My grateful thanks must go to Victoria. It's not every supermodel who will consent to being shot when she has just got out of bed and has a cold. She let me mess around with my camera for a whole minute without complaint. What a trouper!

The more perceptive among you will have noticed that I already had a flash sitting on my camera. yes, I admit I keep it there just in case. Even if it's not the perfect solution, I believe it's better to have it instantly available than in my bag. This paid off here because the ambient light was so low that the camera was struggling to autofocus, and the shutter speed would have been about a week. Luckily for me, most of the walls in our house are white(ish) so I can point a flash pretty well anywhere and get diffused light. As for the YN460 on the floor; yes it was aimed direct, but I think I got away with it.

Neither time nor toddler ever stands still. You can't afford to kill one when you shoot the other.