Project 24: Extreme Distortion

I wanted to replicate the photos provided with the course materials myself, so I took a shot of an apple, and one of a tape measure wrapped around a glass. The light is awful today and the weather's miserable, so I took these in the lightest part of my house - the kitchen - and used the camera's built-in flash.

Here are my start images:

Here is my final montage:

I wanted to create a 'punchy', vibrant image, so I altered the Levels to increase the contrast.I created the backdrop using the gradient tool - I'm getting to like it very much! I added the shadow using a low opacity paint brush at various sizes and tones. I also darkened the bottom of the apple using the 'burn' tool, and reduced the brightness of the flash reflection using the 'clone' tool.


Next, I thought of a different concept image to use this technique for. The apple and tape measure represent a healthy diet, so a chocolate chip cookie would represent the opposite! I decided to warp it into the shape of a heart - i.e. the concept of loving cookies!

I photographed a cookie, and isolated it on white:

I then shaped the bottom of the heart using the Transform - Distort command:

Finally, I used the 'liquify' tool at various brush sizes to shape the top:

I found that using small, subtle strokes enabled more control over the result.

After all these food pics, I'm hungry! Time for a cookie. Er... I mean an apple. ;-)