not your basic Cracker Jacks toy...

I love challenges.I have no idea what this was supposed to represent...there was no explanation to this abstract sculpture posted near by. It was an interesting object to try to capture a fun angle of with a 50mm lens standing under it...but the original image was nothing but plain to me once I could see it on the computer. I liked the comp on this just as it was shot, but the colors were dull silver metal and lifeless blue sky. After trying several things, I thought I'd just abandon whatever I thought might work and head to the filter gallery in photoshop for whatever seem to 'work' best. Here are the steps I took (if anyone is interested) to achieve this effect.

 

In the Layers Palette - I unlocked the background layer and made a duplicate of it to apply the filters to. (That way, if all else failed, I could toss that one and start again.) With the copy layer selected, I opened the Filter Gallery and applyed first a Bas Relief filter and then added a second filter onto that one - a Graphic Pen filter with a stroke of 15 and light/dark balance of 50. After applying those two filters the layer copy now appeared B&W.

 

Again, in the layers palette, the B&W layer sat above the original. I adjusted the blend mode of the B&W layer to Overlay with 93% Opacity and 86% Fill selected for this.

 

And with those simple adjustments this image took on a whole different appeal, changing vasting the original, giving it some character and punch with that gradient sky especially.

 

Thanks for visiting and for your comments!

Done