Using Selective Coloring to Emphasize Focal Points in an Image

The use of selective color in an image is one way to emphasize the focal point of an image. It is not always the best choice of techniques but sometimes it is just the ticket for emphasizing important colors that a riot of other colors would detract from.

This image of a stone in the middle of the Pemigewasset River at Livermore Falls is a good example of just such a situation. Note that the best way to create such an image is to take the image down to its bare essentials by making it monochromatic and then adding color back in where you want it. You have the choice of leaving some areas of the image in their monochromatic form or restoring color in muted gradations.

The Eye of the Stone

"The Rising Too" Chosen for Third Place in All Colors Competition

"The Rising Too" an image by Wayne King has been chosen as a winner in the All Colors Art competition. The image, chosen as the third place finisher in the competition held by The Gallery of Contemporary Art in Annapolis MD.

The image is a colorful abstract created from multiple images of various colored sheets on a washline.

The Rising Too

Purchase a signed original here

The Artist Enshrined Featured on Fine Art America

"The Artist Enshrined" an image by Wayne King has been chosen as a featured image on Fine Art America under its "Images that Excite" category. The image, captured in Lekki area of Lagos Nigeria uses creative manipulation to fold the artist known as "Arregie" into a montage of his own works.

The Artist Enshrined

Another image titled "The Artist in Black and Color" created from the same scene has been featured on other art website

The Artist in Black and Color

Color and Form on the Upper Baker River

Color and Form on the Upper Baker River 

A combination of unique forms and colors make this image taken on the Upper Baker River particularly interesting.

Join our email list for new images, stories and art delivered right to your inbox: http://eepurl.com/bbOh3n

Open Edition Prints: The image available here` is a digitally initialed Open Edition print providing affordable art for your home or office. The digitally initialed open edition provides you with the closest approximation of an original without the premium cost of the original.

Originals: Only one original edition of 10 prints of this image is created, signed, dated and with a certificate of authenticity Printed on fine art paper with archival inks. The image is used for creation of a digitally initialed open edition but otherwise archived and kept only for historic purposes and publications. To purchase an original click here: http://bit.ly/FCUpperBaker

Wayne D. King’s images are a celebration of life, blending the real and the surreal to achieve a sense of place or time that reaches beyond the moment into a dreamlike quintessentialism designed to spark an emotional response. Using digital enhancement, handcrafting, painting, and sometimes even straight photography, King seeks to take the viewer to a place that is beyond simple truth to where truth meets passion, hope and dreams. Join the mailing list and be first to see new images and to receive special offers on cards, prints, limited editions and more! http://eepurl.com/bbOh3n

Wayne King’s Website
http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

https://sites.google.com/view/waynedking

Wayne King's Art Website:
bit.ly/wdk_mindscapes

Follow Wayne King's images on Twitter:
http://Twitter.com/King_Mindscapes

Mindscapes Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mindscapes-The-Images-of-Wayne-D-King/192943997410699
on.fb.me/FBMindscapes 

Color and Form on the Upper Baker River Originals 
Edition of 10 signed originals
11x16
Printed on fine art rag paper with archival inks
$295
http://bit.ly/FCUpperBaker

A Golden Moment in the Larch Bog

A Golden Moment in the Larch Bog

Chosen as a Featured Image at Fine Art America

Hand painted sky completes the image in this image that combines elements of photography and watercolor painting. An edition of 25 signed originals is created with a certificate of authenticity along with a digitally initialed open edition. To purchase the signed original with a certificate of authenticity, contact the artist directly, or click here: http://bit.ly/2ou9Pqr

The digitally initialed open edition provides you with the closest approximation of an original without the premium cost of the original. Open Edition prints of this image are available for as little as $12.26

A Golden Moment in the Larch Bog 

The Rising TOO - Award Winning Abstract Image

The Rising TOO

Award winning abstract color image. Abstract color image created from multiple color images including colored sheets on a line and images of cornflowers.

Open Edition Prints: This image is a digitally initialed Open Edition print providing affordable art for your home or office. The digitally initialed open edition provides you with the closest approximation of an original without the premium cost of the original.

Originals: Printed in an original edition of 10 signed images on fine art rag paper with archival inks. To purchase an original or an affordable digitally initialed open edition print, click here:  http://bit.ly/RisingTOO

Wayne D. King’s images are a celebration of life, blending the real and the surreal to achieve a sense of place or time that reaches beyond the moment into a dreamlike quintessentialism designed to spark an emotional response. Using digital enhancement, handcrafting, painting, and sometimes even straight photography, King seeks to take the viewer to a place that is beyond simple truth to where truth meets passion, hope and dreams. Join the mailing list and be first to see new images and to receive special offers on cards, prints, limited editions and more! http://eepurl.com/bbOh3n

Purple Haze

Abstract image of purple cornflowers. Only one original of this image is created, signed, dated and with a certificate of authenticity. The image is used for creation of an open edition but otherwise archived and kept only for historic purposes and publications. To purchase an original contact the artist at waynedking9278@gmail.com.

The open edition, featured here provides the closet approximation to an original work at a more affordable price, especially for those who love art but don’t feel the need to purchase original works.

Wayne D. King’s images are a celebration of life, blending the real and the surreal to achieve a sense of place or time that reaches beyond the moment into a dreamlike quintessentialism designed to spark an emotional response. Using digital enhancement, handcrafting, painting, and sometimes even straight photography, King seeks to take the viewer to a place that is beyond simple truth to where truth meets passion, hope and dreams.

Follow Wayne King's images on Twitter:

http://Twitter.com/King_Mindscapes

Mindscapes Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mindscapes-The-Images-of-Wayne-D-King/192943997410699

on.fb.me/FBMindscapes 

http://www.redbubble.com/people/waynedking/works/13598591-purple-haze

King Images Chosen for Juried Cotton Cancer Center Exhibition

News Release
For Immediate Release
April 9, 2015
For more information: 603-515-6001
King Images Chosen for Juried Cotton Cancer Center Exhibition

Two images by Rumney, NH artist Wayne King have been chosen for display in the Juried exhibition "Healing with Art".

Raining Umbrellas is a mixed media montage image with elements of both photography and water color painting. It is a happy and colorful image blending an image of umbrellas flying through the air and a cloudscape painted with watercolors. The images are blended together on a single base image which is scanned for output on cotton rag fine art paper with archival inks.

Raining Umbrellas
Purchase Fine Art Print           Purchase Poster          Purchase Greeting Card

Joy in the Splash Zone shows a young child experiencing pure joy as he flees from the splash of a water attraction at Canopy Lake Amusement Park in New Hampshire.

Joy in the Splash Zone
Purchase Fine Art Print           Purchase Poster              Purchase Greeting Card

The images will be displayed at the Oncology Center Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon, NH from May to August of 2015.

Wayne Kings images are available for viewing and purchase from Red Bubble and Fine Art America as well as other art sites.

Four Chimneys in a Cuttyhunk Storm

A beautiful home with four chimneys looks out over a bay from Cuttyhunk Island in Massachusetts. This print is a montage of hand colored monochrome and color photography. It contains elements of both photography and watercolor painting.


One original print is created of this image: signed, dated and with a certificate of authenticity. An open edition of this image is created but otherwise archived and kept only for historic purposes and publications. To purchase the original contact the artist at waynedking9278@gmail.com.
The open edition, featured here is digitally stamped with a special signature stamp reserved for open edition prints only. It provides the closet approximation to an original work at a more affordable price, especially for those who love art but dont feel the need to purchase original works.

http://www.yessy.com/Mindscapes/Moods.html?i=10086

Creation of "Storm Over Sedona"

Taken in Sedona Arizona this Mindscape image is manipulated to emphasize the power of the clouds. A number of different processes were used to create this image.

Beginning with a straight shot in a day when a storm system was moving in but not threatening to the extent that the final image would have you believe. Here is the original image.

Like many images on digital or film a correct exposure gives a flat look to the image.

While the image was shot as a raw format file, I did not take multiple images with the intention of creating a HDR image. However, by using the curves feature in Photoshop I can create a similar effect, using the original to create 2 additional images, one with the equivalent of 2 stops over exposed an one 2 stops under exposed.

The three images subjected to HDR treatment with Photomatix software looked like this:

2 stops under

correct metering

Two stops overexposed

The result of this is a HDR images that captures a much broader range of light and color

There's no question that this image is superior to the others and if I were creating a straight image, or doing a documentary photographic book of Arizone, this is where I'd be stopping. However, as a work of art the image is just missing something for me.

Now I take the image above and create two copies, one a toned monochrome or a duochrome and the other an exact copy of the HDR "original". I put the finished "original aside as an archive so that I don't lose it by manipulating it accidently and hitting the save button.

Now I take the monochrome and copy it and paste it over the color image. So the file I have is now the monochrome over color. Now choosing the eraser and modifying the opacity so that the eraser does not remove the entire first layer with one stroke, I slowly bring back sections of the image toward the full color -leaving untouched the sky to emphasize the gray of the clouds. In the central part of the image I restore the full color but you'll notice that in the foreground I do not return the image to full color but rather bring it back about 30-40%. This is because I found the deep red of the foreground dirt was distracting from the mood that I was seeking to create.

Then I restore a very small amount of color to the sky,

Now, for the final touch. Sometimes I will print the image like this and handpaint the sky, sometimes I will clone watercolor skys that I have created for other images, but in this case I simply used the paintbrush to add some red into the sky. A border emphasizing one of the colors - in this case yellow - frames the image nicely and I'm ready to identify a favorite charity to benefit from sales of the image and place the image in my gallery for sale!

Purchase an open edition print or card of this image, here.

Light + Imagination = A Better Image

The difference between a snapshot and a photographic image in which you can take artistic pride often lies - not in front of you, but between your ears.

Look around; think through your image; and then, think ahead to whatever creative process you employ after the shooting is over. There are often dozens of directions for you to go that take your image from mundane to magnificent.

Today we'll take a look at using the flowers in this bud vase to create several unique images.

For some the mere sight of God's creation to the right is sufficiently beautiful that nothing more need be said. If that's the case for you, and you are satisfied with something like the snapshot at right - more power to you. You need not read on. 

However, don't expect to walk into a gallery with a framed image like this and be greeted as the next coming of Edward Weston. 

Now, don't get me wrong. There is, of course, a place for images like this. A shop that leans more to the crafts rather than the arts, may be very happy to take this image on consignment. The colors might be exactly right for a piece that a decorator is looking for to add a splash of color to the wall in that ski condo he's been hired to decorate. Pieces like these are quite marketable but they should not be seen - or priced - as art.

Art is created when you take the image to the next level. So lets look at a few ways that this bud vase of flowers can be used to create a piece that the gallery might say yes to.

On the day that I took the photo above, I was visiting a friends apartment. Light was streaming through the window of the kitchen onto the floor and the table at which I sat was shaded by the wall. With permission, I began by moving the table into the light and taking advantage of the arc of the chair's back to add an additional form element to the image.

The first creative image thus combines several new elements to make the flowers important but not singularly important. Instead we employ color, light and form within the context of the image.

Table Flowers in Window Light

After photographing the flower still in the bud vase, I then, with permission, removed the flower heads and placed them on the table - first with nothing else and then later with a glass of wine I had been sipping on. I photographed them in a number of ways but the two images below are my preferred images among many. 

Flowerheads

Fowerheads and Wine Glass

These images, in my opinion, do not cry out for further embellishment and, in fact, I offer all three for sale in select galleries. However, I did play around with them a bit to create two different Mindscape images that you will see below. The second being nothing less than an accident that I found to be interesting nonetheless. 

Flowerhead Mindscape 1

 

Floating Flowerhead Mindscape

Purchase these images 

The Magic of Light

It may seem redundant to talk about the importance of light to creating emotional appeal in a photograph. After all, photography is all about light. But how the light is used is what distinguishes between a good photo and an extraordinary one. For example any one of the three major elements in the image, below, without the others would not have the emotional impact. Add in either the stream of light or the smaller window and the image would be stonger, but the juxtaposition of the large and small light sources and the spreading light across the rich wood floor makes the sum of the whole even stronger.

The juxtaposition of the large and small light sources 

make this image more interesting than the simple - yet 

still interesting - image of the window and its spreading light.

Other Approaches Using the Same Subject
Light and form and the juxtaposition of these themes are the principle aspects of the image above; though color is also arguably an important aspect of the image from the warm browns in the floor to the cooler blues and greens of the window light.

But how else could the same subject be utilized to create a different work of art that embraced other virtues or at least emphasized other aspects? The two images below provide some insight into this. These images were created using the very same arch window - making it the singular form within the image. To capture a different vision, the subject remained essentially the same, while the composition and treatment of the image was changed.

The images below provide two different compositional view of the subject. Each was then converted to a black and white image, printed on watercolor paper and painted using watercolors to provide two unique pieces that were then scanned to created an archived image.

Arched window with pink curtain

Arched Window with blue curtain, this image places 

less emphasis on the negative space.

Each image stands alone as an individual work of art, despite the fact that the original photographs were all captured in a period of about 30 minutes.

Click here to purchase one of these images.