Jim Miller used an Alpha 700 fitted with a Tokina 28-70mm ƒ2.8 zoom, a lens no longer available in Alpha mount in the UK but with a good reputation and pedigree,
being based on the earlier Angenieux 28-70mm ƒ2.6 design which Tokina aquired. His wireless remote flash, triggered by the camera’s built-in flash which has no effect
of the exposure, was a Sigma EF 500 GT Super which is fully compatible (like the 530 model replacing it) with the Alpha digital TTL system.
the layers. Then I duplicated the
merged layer, flipped it vertically,
set the blend mode to Screen, and
moved the new layer up to meet the
one below. This has produced a
four-way symmetry. The amount of
overlap is done to taste, but at some
point there is a “wow” moment if
the image is going some place.
From there is is just a matter
of deciding what you want next.
I like to play with colouring, so I
created a new transparent layer,
set the blend mode to Colour (so
it doesn’t effect anything but the
smoke), and chose a radial gradient
fill pattern and laid out several
colors in the range. I went through
several before I got one I liked.
You can do this multiple times
if you want. Just create more
transparent layers and paint on
it or use gradient fills. You can
adjust the opacity to taste.
Some rather heavy Unsharp Mask
(radius 5, amount 50%, threshold
0), and you’re done. These can be
very complicated to do, or pretty
fast and easy, it’s all up to you.
The single shots are coloured
the same way. You can see two more
‘mirrored’ examples and a further
single shape on the following page.
Á
29 photoworld
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34