This impromptu personal project just mushroomed, or maybe I should say sparked (😉) the other day...It started in a kitchen, not that far away, and not that long ago...
One of my daughters planned to make a chocolate cake with a mango curd for Father's Day with a unique decoration. Her inspiration for the decoration came from the facts she and her sister have been working with their Dad on a few space themed Lego projects, and that we are Star Wars fans currently watching ObiWan Kenobi. After a brainstorming session, she decided to recreate the battle between Anakin and ObiWan on Mustafar.
A few ingredients and lots of dirty dishes later, she created a six layer masterpiece, complete with lava with Anakin and ObiWan Lego figurines. Her lava used mango curd mixed with some passionfruit puree and red food dye. Before we cut into the dessert, us being us, we took some photos to memorialize the dessert.
But while we were eating the decadent cake, I had a thought. I follow a toy photographer that takes photos of Star Wars figurines so they look like frames from the actual movies. So I wondered...What if I tried playing with one of my photos to see if I could generate a share worthy version of the cake - complete with flames. So...
I took one of my close up photos and played with the lighting a bit, then added a photo of flames, painted on some blue light for the sabers. Using some new layer mixing techniques from a recent training, I was able to make the photo look like there was actually something hot and molten in the scene. All the edits were made on my iPhone and not bad; I was mostly satisfied with the outcome, but I knew I could do better.
A few days later, I worked with the photo on my computer. Utilizing the larger screen to see the finer details, I employed other editing techniques to light up the figurines and enhance the glow from the lava. Then, to see if I could, I took that same flame photo and added flames to the edges of the "lava" so it looked more like the scene from the movie.
The "final" photo is below. The quotations recognize the fact that I would like to add other elements, like floating embers and a building in the background. Maybe some day in the near future. For now, I'll leave it and be satisfied that I stretched and grew my skill set a bit.
Now that I have created this photo, I wonder how I can use similar techniques to enhance my flower photography. Not that I would add flames to roses or lavender, but I could add subtle effects or stage the flowers a bit more. (Although, a subtle flame here or there on a rose might be an interesting look.) I have dried flowers that I have saved from past bouquets and several texture photos that would be perfect to experiment with.
While this won't stretch into a nine part saga with a slew of off-shoots, it was fun to play around in a different photo genre and to try out different editing techniques. The project was a good reminder to try new things and to mash-up ideas. That said, I can't help but close this post by indulging my Star Wars geeky self..."This is the way."
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