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How-To: Painterly Photo Composite

April 21, 2018 Andrea Dixon
Palmer Station, Antarctica

In case you've ever wondered how to do photo compositing or how to achieve a painterly effect with your mobile photos, here's a quick how-to on how I created the photo above using a couple of photos that I shot on my phone this morning.

I started with this photo and did a bit of minor editing to adjust the contrast & color to start. I generally do all of my basic editing in Afterlight (NOT Afterlight2, I really dislike their newer app as it isn't nearly as intuitive to use). Actually, I do about 75% of all my photo editing in Afterlight. I think you get some really lovely results with this app.

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This is the second photo I used in the composite. I also made some slight edits to this one in the Darkroom app and in Afterlight. The Darkroom app allows you to adjust the curves but that's the only feature I use in this particular app.

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Next, I flipped the photo of the building backwards because I needed the building to be facing the other direction. This works well with subjects that don't have any lettering or a specific directional component to the object. This is easily done in Afterlight, or in many other photo editing apps, with one click.

Then I combined the two photos together to create the photo composite that you see below. I like to do this in Afterlight because the blend modes in this app usually render great results and you have a lot of control over how you blend them. There are other apps that will let you blend photos as well. Some will give you a lot of control of how you blend your photos but some will not, so you really have to try them out to see which ones will give you the effect that you're trying to achieve.

Next I took it into the Mextures app to add some overall lighting to it and then I took it into the LensFlare app and added the orange light glowing on the left edge of the building using an edge overlay sunflare. I like to use these to intensify the light in my photos and they work really well because you can adjust the color, opacity, strength and size of the flares so you have a lot of control over how it blends in with the photos & colors you're using. 

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The next thing I did was take it into Repix to add some bokeh. Repix has some totally amazing effects, and also some really, really cheezy ones. Try them all and use the ones that work for you. There are 3 or 4 effects that I use quite a bit but the bokeh effect is the one I use the most because I'm always trying to create a magical feel to the light in my composites.

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At this point I was ready to do something different with this photo. Because it turned out so dark and mysterious, I decided that a more painterly effect might be the right thing to do with it. I used an app called Brushstrokes for this. You import the photo and it will turn your photo into a painting with what looks like real paint brushstrokes, different substrates and filters. (Their filters are not that great though and I would suggest just sticking with the painting effect and use the filters in other apps.) I don't remember which painting effect I used for this one. I tried a few but I liked how this one came out for the most part. 

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I could have stopped at this point but after looking at this for a bit, I felt like the painterly effect was a bit too heavy for what I wanted. I often will take a photo into Brushstrokes but then blend it later with the unpainted version in order to lessen the painting effect. Which is exactly what I did this time.

I took this photo, and the one I used to create this one (the photo right above), and composited them again in Afterlight. This brought some of the detail back into the final piece. Then I wrapped it all up with a few last edits.

Total editing time from start to finish was about 2 hours. Here's the final version again.

In How To Tags 2018, DIY, How-To, Tutorial, Antarctica, Photography
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Antarctica Again...

April 21, 2018 Andrea Dixon
 Palmer Station, Antarctica

Palmer Station, Antarctica

In an unexpected turn of events, I've deployed to Antarctica for a second time this year and to a very special place.

After a long flight to Punta Arenas, Chile and 4 days on a ship sailing through the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage, I arrived at Palmer Station. The smallest and most colorful of the three U.S. Antarctic Program's scientific research stations. 

Given that I work at South Pole Station, I never thought I would have an opportunity to get to Palmer Station, but luck seems to be with me this year.  I get to spend 8 weeks in this incredibly beautiful place that I've been dreaming about for many years. 

Sometimes I imagine leaving this job to pursue creative endeavors fulltime, but then I get to do or see something spectacular in Antarctica and it reminds me how fortunate I am to live this life...

Arriving here was a bit like coming home because the place happens to be full of Polies at the moment. People I have worked & lived with in the past at South Pole. There are familiar faces around every corner which makes the experience a whole lot sweeter...

This isn't at all what I thought I would be doing this year but that seems to be how it goes with my life. Generally, I really love not knowing what's going to happen next so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the rest of summer unfolds when I return to the real world in late June.

Andrea

In Antartica Tags 2018, Palmer Station, Travel, Antarctica
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Happy New Year!

January 1, 2018 Andrea Dixon
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It's a sparkly New Year at the South Pole today. I can't help but look back at 2017 and after wondering where the time went, wonder how I could possibly have a better year in 2018. But I aim to try!

My time at Pole this year is starting to wind down with only 6 weeks left of the austral summer season. I wish I could slow things down and enjoy the ride a little bit longer this year. It's been a spectacular season spent with some of the kindest, most generous and talented people I've ever met. I feel incredibly lucky to have them in my life, even if only for such a short time.  

2017 was filled with adventure, laughs and days upon days of creative focus. The end brought some happy surprises and ended with a bang as my band, Jimmy Snippets & the Crevasse Detectors, rang in the new year with a fun set and my first time singing in public. At the start of 2017 I committed to doing intimidating things outside my comfort zone, and being terrified on stage while in the midst of the sweetest possible crowd was absolutely the perfect way to close the year out. 

I feel so fortunate to be able to live this abundant, chaotic life and I can't wait to see how my story unfolds in 2018...

Sparkly best wishes for the New Year,

Andrea

In Antartica Tags 2018, New Year
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Home Again

October 8, 2017 Andrea Dixon
Denver-3.jpg

After being gone for most of the summer, and then stranded in Canada for the last few weeks after someone crashed into my car, I finally arrived back in Denver today. It's so good to be back in a place that's familiar, surrounded by so many things I love and the people that I missed. I always talk about leaving here, but for the first time, I was really happy to come back to Colorado. Something has shifted. 

Canada was great. It wasn't exactly the experience I thought it would be, but I really enjoyed my time there. I made a lot of progress on several creative projects and have a lot of new things in the works for the coming year which I'm really excited about. What I loved most was just how it was so free from distraction. Being so far away from the pull of a social life and the day-to-day things that normally eat up your time was incredibly freeing and allowed me to find the focus that is normally absent from my life. It was the right decision to go, but I am happier than I thought I would be to be back home. 

So, I have a little less than 2 weeks to finish wrapping a few things up before hopping on a plane south for the next few months. It seems impossible to be ready that quickly, but here it comes ready or not...

One of my big projects is a re-vamping of this website. Chelsea, from 23and9 Creative, did all the hard work and created a beautiful online space for me to work in. I can't thank her enough! Sometimes you just have to give things over to people that actually know what they're doing, and I'm so glad I finally did because she knows her stuff and gave me a site better than I imagined.

I'm excited to fill this space now and take things in a little different direction. I have photography tutorials & videos in the works that will start showing up in the next few days, and of course we're heading into the Antarctic summer season, so you're about to hear a whole lot more about that. I'd love to hear from you if you want to drop me a note and I hope you'll come along for the ride...  

Tags colorado
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My take on how it felt at Palmer tonight... The long, low light here is only ever beautiful...
A bit of sunshine streaming in at Palmer Station today....
This is the view out my bedroom window of the glacier in our backyard. The glacier is receding now and uncovered the little island in the background a couple of years ago. Everything about this place is incredibly beautiful...
There will be Antarctic bombardment in this feed for a while... I don’t get to post from South Pole because we don’t have wifi. This is Palmer Station as we backed in today. This is the smallest of the 3 U.S. scientific research stations in Antarctica. And, the warmest.
 

 

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andrea dixon
digital artist + Photographer

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