Friday, December 05, 2014

Photoshopping My Hockey Star Grandson

We made our first visit of the year to JJ's hockey practice. I well remember the first session that we attended last year — the one where he preferred to sit on the ice to skating. Well, he's doing pretty good right now. After shooting all sorts of photos through the plexiglass, I chose some for a collage, which is a good way to tell a story. At one point, I did whole photo albums using the collage method; when you can get 7 or more shots of one print, it's a good way to make an album. I haven't done this as much lately (who does photo albums in the digital age?), but I still more or less know how to make a collage (or montage or composite if you prefer).

This is the result.


And this is how we got there.












Layer 0: A shot for the background, lightened and blurred. I wanted a background in case there were gaps between the individual photos.

Layers 1 and 2: my larger, anchor images forming a frame for the rest of the photos. You can see my layer masks, used to blend the images with each other and the background.

Layers 3 to 6: 4 more smaller images showing different aspects of the practice session.

Layer 7: Putting all of the previous layers together into one layer. At this point, I cloned away as best as possible bits of yellow etc that you can see in the base layers that pull the eye away from the subject.

Layers 8 and 9: I added a title in the bottom left, and a little signature on the blade of the hockey stick.
























The next day, something in my brain told me to try to make a sports card, so I did but will just present it and not describe the process. I made it to the standard 2.5" x 3.5" which is just a 5 x 7 downsized. So, I really made a 5 x 7 and then shrunk to the correct size for printing.


I also took several video clips and mashed them into one montage.


12 comments:

Linda Kay said...

What fun. Grandkids are great subjects for photography. My hubby gets lots of our 7-year old.

ADRIAN said...

A great way to display the images.

TexWisGirl said...

really cute. i like the falling down one. :)

Country Gal said...

Nicely done . Papa here is the photo shop pro I like my Lightroom lol ! Thanks for sharing , Have a good weekend !

EG CameraGirl said...

I love the collage!

Mara said...

I remember the photos from last year and he looks so much more comfortable this year. And the collage is fantastic! He is a lucky boy to have you for a grandfather. Even if he might not quite remember everything, this will certainly bring back memories when he is all grown!

Tabor said...

You have great phot0graphic talent, but you also have a very creative talent.

KGMom said...

Well, that explains it. Not that I could replicate what you did, mind. But good job explaining.
Oh. my -- J is already playing hockey. He was just a babe a few days ago!

Shammickite said...

Great pictures but you lost me at the first set of instructions.

troutbirder said...

A young Canadian who plays hockey. It's also the nation sport but only here in Minnesota...:)

Unknown said...

Any comment I could make would be inferior to this precious tribute.

Jimmie Earl said...

Wonderful!