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Musing on Clouds
By Kevin Ames
Photography is usually hard work. Lugging cameras, lights, grip equipment and computers, collaborating with clients, models,
stylists and working within the vagaries of weather on location.
Some shoots are more strenuous than others. I sometimes find creative purpose outdoors, alone, lying on my back seeing
shapes in the clouds. Occasionally I lift the camera from my chest, frame one and make its photograph. I then enjoy a
well-deserved respite from those photographic exertions, close my eyes and briefly nap. When they open again, the
clouds have created a whole new skyscape for my enjoyment. I study it; capture more images and to avoid becoming
overtired, nap. The process is refreshing, creative and the afternoon can be noted as having been spent shooting
personal work.
Photography is my passion. I truly love photographs, making them, looking at them whether mine or some else's. I am
happy when I am involved with them. The casual shooting I do of clouds lying on my back on a beautiful day or from above
through the plane's window shows me majesty, never ending change. I wonder in the moment. My awareness is that what I am
experiencing is mundane to those who never look up. It is unique to me and the world. These formations will never happen
again. And I have a photograph!
Go shoot some clouds of your own. Don't worry about how long it takes. I'll wait.
Open the folder of your clouds by double clicking it in the folders pane in Bridge. Click the Preview tab and drag it to
the right to make it big. Press the right arrow key to select the first image. It appears in the Preview pane.
Click the "Rotate CCW 90º" icon or type Command (Control) + [.
What do you see? Get a mirror.
Hold it up to the edge of the Preview pane. What do you see? Do you love it? Rotate the image. Study the results of your
creations in the monitor and mirror.
Rotate it again. How does it look upside down? Keep going. Move the mirror under the Preview pane. Hit the right arrow to
move to the next cloud photograph. Rotate it. Go through the folder. Choose one you love.
The symmetries will never cease to astound. Look at the whimsy of clouds, their reflections in the mirror and how to make
them into tessellations in Photoshop. A tessellation is a mosaic created when a shape repeats covering its frame. Here's
how I made one that I call "The Cloud Goddess" step-by-step. This one became the background for the final image on the
portfolio page.
Canvas size
This part of the tutorial shows how to make the document exactly the right size and fill it with clouds.
Step one: The sky in this project was shot with a circular polarizer over the lens to deepen the blues.
I'll double click on sky.tif in Bridge's content pane to open it in Photoshop CS2 and then choose Image > Rotate > 90º CW
Step two: Double clicking on the Background layer makes it editable and opens the New Layer dialog box.
I'll name Layer 0 "Right Side"
and click Ok.
Step three: I'll choose Image > Canvas Size. The keyboard short cut in Photoshop CS2 is
Command + Option (PC: Control + Alt) + C. The photograph is 6 inches wide. It wants to be twice as wide -- twelve inches so
I'll enter 6 in the width window. Next I'll click the Relative checkbox on and set the Anchor position by clicking on the
box three over from the upper left and two down.
Step four: I'll duplicate Right Side by typing Command (Control) + J and rename it "Left Side."
Step five: I'll press "V" to select the Move tool and start dragging "Left Side" to the left. While
dragging, I'll press the shift key. This makes the layer only move horizontally. When the two layers are framed in pink
and a vertical pink line appears between them. They are now aligned side-by-side.
These "Smart Guides" are new in Photoshop CS2. Turn them on in the View menu > Show > Smart Guides. Smart Guides show as
pink lines when layer edges are aligned with each other. They work with type too.
Free Transform
Step six: I'll highlight "Left Side" by clicking it to select the layer. Typing Command (PC: Control) + T
to open Free
Transform. Free Transform is in the Edit menu > Free Transform. Now I'll hold down the Control Key (PC: Right Click) and
click inside the bounding box. I'll select Flip Horizontal from the contextual menu
then I'll click the
Commit checkmark in the Options bar. The Left Side layer flips and mirrors the Right Side. Flipping the layer creates the
tessellation.
Step seven: I'll change the Blending Mode of Left Side to Difference, then start dragging the layer to the right while
holding down the shift key to constrain the move horizontally. Where the two layers overlap, they appear inverted.
Continue dragging until the result looks like
The Difference blending mode inverts areas that are not the same.
Step eight: I'll type M to select the rectangular marquee tool and draw a selection around the "Left Side" layer starting in
the transparent area to the layer's left and stopping on the centerline created by the mirror images.
Step nine: Now I'll change the layer's blending mode back to Normal and click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette to make "The Cloud Goddess" appear.
Crop
Step ten: I'll click the New Layer icon to make a new layer at the top of the layer stack and name it "Cloud Goddess"
(what else?) Next, I'll hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and choose Merge Visible from the Layers palette flyout menu.
Command (Control) click the layer thumbnail of "Cloud Goddess" to load the image pixels as a selection. Choose Image > Crop.
The transparent area is cropped away. Type Command (Control) + "d" to deselect.
The Cloud Goddess
There is just one more thing… Can the be a Cloud Goddess with only half a head? Not hardly… So it's Photoshop to the rescue!
Headroom
Step eleven: I'll use Canvas Size again to add one inch to the top of the image.
Then I'll Command (PC: Control) click next to the layer's name to load the selection again. Next I'll inverse the selection
by typing Command (PC: Control) + Shift +I. The transparent area is now selected. I'll type "M" to select the marquee tool
though any of the selection tools will work, and drag the selection down adding shift key to constrain the move vertically.
I'll stop when the top of the marching ants aligns with the top of the image.
Increase the canvas size by adding one inch to the top.
Step twelve: By typing Command (PC: Control) + J I make the selection into a new layer. It appears in the layer stack named
"Layer 1". Now I'll type "V" to select the move tool and drag the new layer up while adding the shift key until its
bottom edge rests on the top of Cloud Goddess
The Smart Guide shows when the edges are aligned.
Free Transform Some More
Step thirteen: Use Free Transform to flip Top of Head vertically. Zoom into 100%. Use the Move tool (V) to make certain
Layer 1's edge meets with the top edge of the Cloud Goddess layer. Type Command (Control) + E to merge Layer 1 into Cloud
Goddess.
Step fourteen: I'll click and hold on the Spot Healing brush in the toolbox. When the healing tool menu appears I'll select
the Patch tool. Next I'll draw a selection around the line where the two images join and drag the selection into a clear
part of the sky. The original selection displays the area I am dragging. When it looks similar to the area surrounding it
I'll release the mouse. The selection is patched. I'll do the same on the other side across that joining line .
You can cycle through tools nested in the tool box by holding down the Shift key and pressing the tool's letter. If you find
holding down the Shift key cumbersome, type Command (PC: Control) + K to open Photoshop's preferences. Uncheck "Use Shift
Key for Tool Switch" in the General pane. Now repeated taps of a tool's letter cycles them. J, J, J chooses first the Spot
Healing Brush, then the Healing Brush and finally the Patch tool for example.
Step fifteen: I'll get the Elliptical Marquee tool and click in the center of the head and start dragging out a selection.
Now I'll add the Option (PC: Alt) key to make the selection start from the center instead of the side and finally add the
shift key while dragging to make it a perfect circle. Finally I'll inverse the selection (Command (PC: Control) + Shift + I.)
and feather the selection 10-pixels. (Command (PC: Control) + Option (PC: Alt) + D.)
Clone Stamp the Shoulders
Step sixteen: Typing "s" selects the Clone Stamp tool. I'll use to to copy blue sky over the upside down shoulders on both
sides. I won't worry about matching the tones at this point. The inversed selection protects the Goddess's head while the
Clone Stamp tool removes the unwanted shoulders.
Step seventeen: I'll select the Healing Brush and hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click in the sky to set the sample
point. I'll heal the cloned areas using a 125-pixel brush hard edged brush. I'll work from the edges of the selection out
into the sky.
Finally I'll Deselect (Command (PC: Control) + D) and save the file as Cloud Goddess.psd.
Use the Healing brush after the Clone Stamp tool to blend mismatched tones.
Well there you have it. The Cloud Goddess is an image that had its beginning musing and napping in the afternoon sun of a
warm Atlanta spring and came to be while musing in Bridge with a mirror. Tell me, is photography a great career or what?
Excuse me. I see a particularly coy cloud formation.
Kevin Ames Bio
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