Wednesday’s Impressions ~ PhotoFusion “Forest Fire”

“Forest Fire”
This is a “sandwich” of two photos using the overlay function in Photoshop.

What the heck is a PhotoFusion? It’s a name I make up for marketing purposes. One problem…it hasn’t caught on…yet.

What a PhotoFusion really is, is a combination of art photos fused into a new piece of art. Sometimes the resulting artwork resembles its originals and sometimes it doesn’t, like in this case. The two original photos I fused together to create Forest Fire are below. I know, hard to believe this came from those.

In several previous posts I’ve talked about how to merge photos in Photoshop and some of the things you can do with them. With this PhotoFusion I had a lot more fun. I wasn’t trying to create a representational piece of art. I just started playing with the layers and contrast and filters until I had something I liked. I couldn’t tell you how to recreate this if my life depended on it. This is a piece of art, which I’ll get into more in tomorrow’s post “Thoughtful Thursday ~ What Makes it Art?”.

In the meantime, please help me promote the word PhotoFusion by reblogging and or sharing this post. Thanks.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Thoughtful Thursday ~ It’s All About You

INSPIRE

I get inspired to go out and create photos just by waking up in the morning. I see photo ops everywhere I look. But this is about you.

Post a link to your work of art, photography or not. Let us see what you create when you’re inspired. Tell us what inspired you to create this artwork. Who knows, your artwork might inspire someone else to create a great work of art. Don’t be shy, it’s not like the whole world is reading my blog…yet 😉

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Wednesday’s Impressions ~ what do YOU see?

“Dramatic Yellow Dahlia”
I added the raindrop photo on top of the yellow Dahlia flower. The added texture creates a dramatic look and feel.

“Yellow Dahlia Under Water”
I added the yellow Dahlia flower on top of the raindrop photo for this one. This gives the finished artwork a completely different look and feel.

What I see, in the raindrop photo, is a great photo to use as a texture. I mentioned using your own photos as textures (I refuse to buy textures when I can use my own stuff) in Two fer Tuesday with a Lemon Twist. Here you see the order of which photo is on top makes a difference.

For reference, here are the two original photos before being combined.

Raindrop Textures

Yellow Dahlia Flower

Twofer Tuesday ~ Hit The Beach

Two Palms and Skeleton Tote Bag
You need this for the beach!

Two Palms and Skeleton Hand Sown Throw Pillow
You need this too! Because it matches the tote bag 🙂

We’ve pretty much missed Spring so it’s time to THINK SUMMER!

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Friday’s Photos ~ Printing Alternatives

“Orange Tiger Lily”

This tiger lily is blooming in a planting at an elementary school in Canton, MI USA.

“Grape Hyacinth Abstract”

Closeup of the underside of a single grape hyacinth blossom.

Spring is having a little trouble getting started here in Michigan so I thought I would give it a helping hand.

Photo Printing Tip:

If you have not had your photos printed on aluminum or acrylic, do it. The vibrancy is amazing.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Two fer Tuesday ~ Clocks and Skins

10″ Round Wall Clocks

Check out all the new clocks featuring my photography. Visit often to see my latest creations.

Available in natural wood, black or white frames, our 10″ diameter Wall Clocks feature a high-impact plexiglass crystal face and a backside hook for easy hanging. Choose black or white hands to match your wall clock frame and art design choice. Clock sits 1.75″ deep and requires 1 AA battery (not included).

Skins for iPad, iPad Mini and MacBook laptops
You can checkout the cell phone covers while you’re there.

Skins are thin, easy-to-remove, vinyl decals for customizing your iPad or laptop. Skins are made from a patented material that eliminates air bubbles and wrinkles for easy application.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

The Sunday Morning Post ~ 100 Posts, a Logo and Marketing

Onyonet photo studios logo

Onyonet photos studios banner with new logo

100 posts. Wow. It’s hard to believe I hit this milestone. I know there are a lot of blogs out there with far more posts, but every blog begins with the first post. It’s been challenging at times to get posts created, but it’s been a lot of fun too. So today I’m celebrating my first 100.

I’ve met a lot of great new people and have read a lot of great posts from them all. I hope the tips and stories I write have helped or inspired at least one person in some way. What I did not expect is how much writing a blog would help me. It’s been an excellent learning experience and a psychological godsend. Stopping the craziness going on around us all by focusing on writing about something I love? Count me addicted!

To celebrate my 100th blog post my wife Susan came up with the perfect logo idea. Susan’s suggestion is simple and creates a tie to the logo from my JUS’CUS note cards. The JUS’CUS logo is inspired by a photo of Susan’s favorite songbird, the Black-capped chickadee. The logo and banner above is the result of another wonderful collaboration between Susan and myself.

Why a logo now? I’ve never created a logo for Onyonet photo studios and have wanted one since the beginning. Recently I started selling my artwork on Society6 and they have some new products that rekindled my want for a logo. Having a logo for marketing is a must in my mind. Having a great logo is indispensable. Susan’s logo design is a great logo.

Word of mouth advertising is still the best advertising, even in the digital age (we just do it a little different). So email this post to two people, or reblog it, or share it on FB, or tweet it, or Pin it, or Google +1 it, or do all of these. Watch for my new logo and banner to start appearing on the products I offer and on the sites where I sell my artwork. Don’t worry, the logo will not appear on any giclee art photo print.

Thanks for following and reading my blog and thanks for helping me market myself. If you need the same from me, just ask. I’m glad to help out in any way I can.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

InspireMe Monday ~ Wind! Create!

“Black-eyed Susan in the Wind”

I used a long shutter speed allowing the wind to move the black-eyed susan to create an impressionist style photo. The black-eyed susans in the background were also blurred by the motion from wind allowing the background to blur perfectly.

“Impression of Siberian Irises”
We were given these Siberian Iris from a good friend when we moved into our new house. We’ve always loved these puprle little beauties and several clumps growing at our old house. This impression is inspired by the artwork of Claude Monet.

With 24+ MPH winds and bright cloudy skies in most of Southeast Michigan it’s a great day to create some wind impressions.

Stop reading this! Go out there and create some great photos. When you’re done, upload the best and put a link in the comments here.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Seriously, put the mouse down and go create!

Wednesday’s Impression ~ How to Create a Glowing Photo

Glowing Million Bells

These gorgeous liitle flowers brighten up any spot so well they seem to glow even in shade. This impression creates that glowing feeling you get when see this basket of beauties. Each flower is only about an inch across, but there are so many of them they reach out and grab your attention.

Using the multiple exposure function I blurred the second shot just a little bit to create the glowing effect. If your your camera doesn’t have a multiple exposure feature look for a function that will combine two existing photos in-camera. Take one shot with the subject in focus. Without moving too much, a little is ok, defocus the subject just enough to cause everything to blur a little. Take the second shot. If you’re using this combine feature, you can try taking several “second” shots and combine the photos more than once. Never judge the quality of your results by looking at the camera LCD. Wait until you get the photos on your computer so you can see everything large enough and not as just some crummy jpg inside your camera.

Don’t have a combine feature either? Ok, how about some software that has layers? If you can’t afford software like Photoshop, look for GIMP online. My understanding is GIMP is an excellent free software that allows you to do all things Photoshop does.

There are at least two ways to accomplish this with software. Use only the sharp photo or use the sharp photo plus a defocused photo (created as explained above). I say at least two because that’s all I know. There may be other ways that I just haven’t discovered or heard of yet.

Using the same photo:

1. Open the photo



2. Copy the layer to make a second layer of the same photo
3. Use the blur filter, in Photoshop I would use Gaussian Blur, and blur this layer. How much is up to your vision of the final photo. You may have to come back and change the amount if you don’t like the end result



4. Change the Opacity of the blurred layer. How much again depends on your vision. You’ll see the effect as you change the opacity so you can leave as much or as little glow as you like



5. If you want to show less glow in some areas, add a layer mask. Then, using a brush tool, you can remove the glow by painting over the areas where you want less glow

The concept for using two different photos is the same as using one photo. Your second blurred photo takes the place of creating the blurred layer. Adding the blurred photo to the the sharp photo will create a layer on top of the sharp photo layer. Change the opacity of the blurred layer and add any painting touches you want. That’s it, you’re done.

If you try any of these techniques I would love to see your results. Just comment on any of my posts with a link to your photo and I’ll check it out.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

FREE Cell Phone Cover ~ Featuring The Photography of Me

onyonet photo studios

It’s very simple. Buy any photograph at 20 inches on the long side or larger and I’ll include a matching cell phone cover with your order. 

No coupons necessary

You have to place your order from my Etsy store only

Cell phone covers are available for:

iPhone 5/5s

iPhone 5c

iPhone 4/4s

Samsung Galaxy S4

When you place your order include which model cell phone cover you want to receive in the note to seller section.

Not all of my photos are on the Etsy site yet. So, If you don’t find the photo you’re looking for or you want a larger selection, you can visit my Artist Website pages to see all my artwork. Don’t buy the photo from the Artist Website pages though because you won’t get your free Cell phone cover. You can leave a comment here and give me the Title of the photo you want. I’ll upload it to the Etsy site so you can order your photo and get your free Cell phone cover too.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

~ Daniel Kmiecik