My GPS Camera Phone

Photo credit: Daughter #1.

First, thank you to all of my visitors yesterday, especially those of you who commented. I’m enjoying posting an abstract image followed up by a how-to post, so if you want to be sure not to miss anything, please subscribe to my RSS feed (really, it only takes a second!).

There were some great guesses as to how I captured this photo, ranging from colored cellophane to on-board photo filters, but the magic was performed by Photoshop CS2 and a little extra something. I actually posted two photos yesterday. They just happened to be one on top of the other.

Some time ago, I posted an image using a similar technique but I used nearly identical source images. This time around, I used two completely different images – one of a cloudy sky and another close-in shot of a painting (taken by my daughter, hence the partial photo credit). Here’s how it works.

In Photoshop, open two photos and make them equal sizes. It works best to have more contrast between the photos, but I’m sure it will work with anything. Then drag one layer on to the other image. In this case, I dragged the clouds over to the painting image. This should create another layer in that image. Close the image that you just dragged from.

I left the bottom layer (the painting) set to 100% opacity and kept the blending mode at normal. (The layer blending mode selector can be found on the layers palette next to the opacity setting.) The top layer of clouds is obviously going to block out the bottom layer, so we need to make it more see-through. Here’s where I adjusted the opacity to 75% and then changed the layer blending mode to luminosity. And that’s it.

Try experimenting with blending modes and opacity percentages in general and you’ll see a lot of interesting things happen. Just remember that you probably won’t see anything exciting happen with a single layer. Add another image or text layer and then adjust the blending mode of the top layer. Some modes will lighten, some will darken and some will cause a ghosting effect. Any way you slice it, blending modes are worth a look and can amplify the effect of your images significantly.

Partial photo credit: Daughter #1 (The Big A)

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Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to see how this was done.

My children went through Montessori school, which is pretty much a free-form environment for kids to play with lots of educational materials in the form of books, music, art and other fun kid stuff. We were lucky enough to find and be admitted to Flowers Montessori (the best school in the city, in my opinion), which led to our kids getting a big head-start on the basics.

One afternoon while picking up my daughter, I noticed a lot of interesting black-and-white photos hanging on the walls. They looked so artfully done that I started to wonder about the photographer. Then I realized a common trait shared by all of them: the perspective was about thigh-high. Kids, I thought. What a brilliant idea.

Since that day, I have always let both girls take photos from the day they could hold a camera enough for me to trust them. There’s something about a photo taken by a child that evokes a feeling that no adult can capture. Kids take photos of things that the average person wouldn’t think of shooting. A television while it’s on, a toilet, a ceiling fan or the family pet while they’re eating. They bring a real-life quality to photos that professionals work to perfect over their entire careers.

Often, other parents will see my girls running around with my (shiny, expensive, breakable, fragile, non-kid-proof, please-don’t-drop-it) digital camera or camera phone and look at me like I’ve got three heads. However, they also have this look of amazement, at which point I tell them to give it a try with their little hellions kids. “You’ll be surprised,” I tell them.

“Yes,” they reply, with a forced grin. “You’re crazy.” (OK, they think that last part, I’m sure of it.)

The point of this is that kids revel in the light of an adult task, like handling a camera. Teach them to use the wrist/neck strap from the start and a few basic things, then let them go wandering. When they return, sit back and flip through the photos with them. It’s will probably be the most intense conversation you’ve gotten from your child in ages. Doing something like this will also provide your child with an abundance of creative, right-brain activity, which is unfortunately all but phased out of most public schools today.

I’ve decided to run with this on My GPS Camera Phone as a new post theme. There’s two good reasons: 1) read the above and 2) there’s no shortage of photos to post. Additionally, I ask everyone interested to submit your kid’s camera phone photos (or photos from any kid), and I’ll consider posting them.

Of course, you adults can submit camera phone photos as well. E-mail them to photos(at)mygpscameraphone.com and make sure to include the backstory, which will also be posted. You get a photo credit and a linkback to your site. How can you argue with that? Besides, if you don’t submit, I’ll just keep posting my kids’ pictures.