Photoshop Elements 9 is Here!

When Adobe brought out Photoshop Elements 9 recently they added content aware to the healing brush tool.  Content Aware is a valuable feature in Photoshop CS5.   (See my post about Content Aware Fill on Photoshop CS5 from July 20, 2010)

Content aware in Photoshop Elements 9 has been added to the spot healing brush as a default setting in the upper tool bar and works somewhat differently.  Let me show you some comparisons.

In the original photo above, I will remove the dark spots on the flower.  In Photoshop CS5 I circled all the dark spots on the flower with the lasso tool at the same time by holding the shift key to add the other small circles.  Using Edit

For the spot healing tool in Photoshop Elements 9 content aware is selected in the upper tool bar, but I had to use the brush over the spots one at a time, so they can't be done all at once.  Just takes a little more time, but the results are the same.

Now here is where it changes a bit from the 2 programs.

Starting here I want to remove the feet and the piece of garbage from the grate.  First I will show you what happened with content aware fill in Photoshop CS5

Now Photoshop Elements 9

You can see that the top part isn't too different, but the grate is not as good, so I tried again.

A little different results for this correction.

Now I want to show you something that I like to do with the Content Aware Fill. Instead of taking unwanted parts of the image out, I fill what could be called the background with the main part of the image.  This gives a different affect with the 2 programs.

 

 Original Image

I selected all the parts of the ground around the image and Photoshop CS5 filled it like this.

Then I did the same thing with the spot healing brush in Photoshop Elements and here it is.

You get a different interpretation of pixels.

In Photoshop CS5 you can easily select areas, my tools of choice are the lasso tool and the pen tool.
In Elements the tool is the spot healing brush and isn't quite as easy to make a selection when you want to change such as the one with the red flower.  I will be doing some tutorials on my Inside KathyAnne Art blog on this subject in the future, so check there from time to time.  

Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum

On October 5, 2010 the American Folk Art Museum will open "Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum."  My piece Reflection will be included in this exhibition.  Reflection was added to the museum's collection in December of 2003.  

A book with the same title as the exhibition will be available from the museum store in October of 2010.

"Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum" launches the Year of the Quilt, the museum's celebration of a glorious American art form and the creative contributions of three centuries of talented women.  Highlighting textile masterpieces in the collection, the exhibitions include recent gifts, bedcovers that have rarely been on view, and important cornerstones of the museum's comprehensive quilt holdings. Given the rarity of the fabrics used in most of the museum's historic quilts, the fine workmanship, and the quilts' well preserved condition, it is clear that they are examples of "best" bedcovers, saved for use on special occasions or when company visited.  During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when quilts no longer needed to be made for mere warmth, quiltmakers used the at form to express their creativity within the confines of popular decorating trends.  Most recently, contemporary fiber artists have taken the opportunity to transcend time and place, using the historical concept of a quilt as a starting point for their artistic, and often social and political, statements.

Elizabeth V. Warren, guest curator

Assembling Digital Prints on Recycled Printers Plates

The prints from last post have been altered. The back of the prints are painted with copper and black.  After painting the panels are cut in random leaf like shapes, hole punched and threaded through black 28 gauge wire.  The wire is crocheted with the pieces separated in the crochet stitches.  I crocheted a 2 foot by 4 foot piece of black and brown hemp and am layering that on top of a piece of hardware cloth.  The print pieces are going to be attached to the surface of hemp crochet along with a base of hardware cloth.

Before the pieces are attached I will frame the hardware cloth layer to give it stability.  I still don't know exactly how I will do this, but a trip to Home Depot tomorrow should help.  The section of hardware cloth must be able to stand alone and needs to be stabilized to accomplish this. When finished this piece will be one of several pages in a book that will have a cover 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall.  The giant size book is a study of pieces to come, so right now I will be solving some construction issues.  The actual covers for the book are plywood and the digital print assemblages to cover the wood are complete, but not attached.  As pieces are finished they will be posted here.

 Crochet hemp over hardware cloth

Digital prints on recycled printers plates, cut in random shapes

Detail of cut prints

Cut prints crocheted with wire on crocheted hemp and hardware cloth.

Digital Prints on Recycled Printers Plates

These digital prints are on recycled printers plates.  Since the plates are thin metal, the process for printing would be the same as most metals.  The images are from a tree in Hawaii and have each been changed slightly.  Each print has a layer of texture that has been created by using the photobucket tool and just laying the texture in to small chosen sections of the photograph.  

These prints are going to be cut into random leaf like shapes and then riveted together so only the image shows on both sides.  Then they will be added to wire and used on one of the sections of new work I am planning.  By the end of the week, I plan on posting the results.