Oh no, did I just look at Medusa? (Get Pushed Round 5)

ruthlesscrab
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Oh no, did I just look at Medusa? (Get Pushed Round 5)
Oh no, did I just look at Medusa? (Get Pushed Round 5)

Astute viewers will be quick to note that the whole look-at-Medusa-and-be-turned-to-stone thing is a Greek myth, while the photo background is clearly Roman. But since I never studied the classics in any serious way, I'm pleading ignorance. In any case, you must press L to see it properly.

This image is for the new group Get Pushed www.flickr.com/groups/1681475@N24 where you are paired with a partner and "pushed" outside of your comfort zone as a photographer. For Round 5, I was paired with the lovely ~Helen Cat www.flickr.com/photos/hellsbells75/, who wrote: "My challenge to you is to do some post processing. I am so loving all the fabulous textures that are around and would love to see some texture on one of your fabulous images (your choice of subject)."

I've dabbled ever so slightly in textures for a few flower and fence photos, so I thought I'd better push on the boundaries a bit more. I used one of my discarded selfies from Round 3 and applied a stone texture, using Multiply at 80% opacity. My intention was to record everything I did, but I have to admit that I got so "into" it that I neglected to write any steps down after that. There were a bunch of adjustments (hue, saturation, etc.) and a number of directions taken then abandoned.

I tried doing blank stone eyes, for example. Didn't like it one bit. I tried desaturating entirely, but I wanted to create the effect of turnING to stone, not already being stone (or stoned, for that matter). So I needed to keep the eyes (partly for the horrified expression) and a little color in the face, which I imagined would be the last part to solidify.

I'm pretty sure this isn't what Helen meant when she said she's "loving all the fabulous textures that are around," but this is where the work took me, so...
:)

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Taken on: July 22, 2011
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with get pushed get pushed Everybody's photos tagged with stone stone Everybody's photos tagged with texture texture more » Everybody's photos tagged with medusa medusa « less
Sets appears in:   • Portfolio: Weird    • Get Pushed    more » • A selection    « less
Groups appears in:   • Get Pushed - Time to wake up!   
Camera: Pentax K-x, f/4.0, 1/10 sec, 21.2mm (=31mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Pentax K-x
Aperture: f/4.0
Exposure Time: 0.1 sec (1/10)
Focal Length: 21.2mm (35mm equivalent: 31mm)
ISO: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Portrait
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Scene Capture Type: Portrait
Color Space: Unknown (-1)
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
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