Picking up the pieces

© Brian D. Watters

Picking up the pieces

Uploaded: December 11, 2004 23:44:34

Description

Camera: NIKON E5200
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter speed: 64
Focal length: 7.8


Comments

S J December 12, 2004

Splendid shot, Brian! Very very creative! #195849

Rob Bishop December 12, 2004

Very creative, and excellent execution of the idea. Nice work, Brian! #966967

Tracy D. Siermachesky December 12, 2004

Amazing work, Brian. How very creative, and well done. #966974

Phil Sauvey December 12, 2004

Brian,

Excellent photograph! Very creative and original. Wonderful detail and excellent work!!! #967751

Roseann E. Dreasher December 12, 2004

Fun!! Great PS work!! #967917

Judy S. Fung December 14, 2004

Terrific image and excellent work, Brian! Very creative! #971989

Brian D. Watters December 14, 2004

Thanks! just a note on the shadows. I duplicated my cut out layers, then used the magic wand to select all the ares around one, inverted the selection and hit delete. Then I used the paint bucket to fill the void with black, reduced the opacity of the layer, then used Photo-shops Gaussian Blur filter, and finally used Photo-shops Transform > Distort utility to give a distorted perspective.
For the puzzle piece cutout, I used photo-shops Layer Style, Bevel, then created a new empty layer, linked the empty layer with the puzzle piece layer and merged linked layers to turn off or lock the layer style. Then I used the rotate and again the distort to line it up between my fingers. Applied the same shadow technique for the puzzle too.
I've included the original file below if anyone wants a peek. #972017

Kip T. Berger December 14, 2004

Nicely done Brian! Very cool idea! #972020

S J January 18, 2005

Congratulations on this one of the most outstanding finalist, Brian!! I must admit that this is one of the best and creative work I've seen!! Good luck in the next round of judging!! #1042646

Lori Ditlefsen January 18, 2005

Cool! Very creative! Congrats! #1043622

Brian D. Watters January 18, 2005

Thank you for your encouraging thoughts and words. I'm keeping my fingers crosses. :)
Brian #1044635

Wendy Stevenson January 18, 2005

GREAT to see this here Brian - best of luck to you in the next round!!! #1045447

Judy S. Fung January 18, 2005

Congrats, Brian! #1045536

Kristi A. Howson January 18, 2005

Congratulations Brian...fantastic!!!!! #1046243

S J January 20, 2005

Many CONGRATULATIONS on your second place win, Brian!!! #1049542

Judy S. Fung January 20, 2005

Congrats on your second place win, Brian! #1049604

Wendy Stevenson January 20, 2005

A big congratulations on your win Brian - I love that imagination of yours!!! #1050439

Dolores Neilson January 20, 2005

You know how I feel about this one! SUperb!! Big congrats, Brian!! What tool do you use to cut?? And do you use a 2 or 3 feather with the selection tool??? I don't cut well...not sure what I'm doing. #1050601

Cathy Stancil January 20, 2005

Congratulations Brian ! This is such an amazing shot ! #1050977

Audrea Telkamp January 20, 2005

Congratulations Brian!!!! Excellent PS work!!!! #1051102

Kip T. Berger January 20, 2005

Congrats Brian for this well thought out piece! #1052665

Leonard Pierce January 23, 2005

Congratulations on your Second Place win Brian!!! #1058940

Andrew Laverghetta February 09, 2005

Ok, this is hard to put into type, but if you're a car guy and you see a nice clean Mercedes or something that's like a glossy black and you say, "That's niiiiiiccce," that's kinda what I'm thinking right now. Great job! #1094790

Kymm C. Gardner June 16, 2005

What an amazing, creative mind you have! #1479321

Brian D. Watters June 16, 2005

It might just be the Meds...
Thank you very much, I sure don't feel creative sometimes, but usually just tinker around in photoshop to relax. Sometimes I kind of see something starting and run with it. But it always feels really good when I get nice comments like your.
Thanks Again.
Brian #1479338

Susana Ms Heide August 07, 2005

This is the first time I come across this photo and it's AWESOME! I've been staring at it for some time and everything is just perfect right down to the gap of the puzzle showing in the shadow of the subject! This is creative beyond words! Love the title also! Would be a great photo for a magazine article about relationship break-ups :o) #1688337

Brian D. Watters August 07, 2005

Grin... Thanks Susana, Funny you say that, but a Polish Digital Photo magazine contacted me about featuring it in a full page display, with write-up on how I created it and my Bio. I was hoping they might offer to pay me, but they offered 12 months free subscription and a couple copies of the one they printed. Alas, they starving artist continues to starve, but now has a new incentive to learn how to read the polish language. :) #1688542

Susana Ms Heide August 07, 2005

LOL!! Congratulations on this "sale"! It's an accomplishment even if you're not getting cash for it. Good luck with your polish :o) #1688661

To discuss, first log in or sign up (buttons are at top center of page).

Get Constructive Critiques

Sign up for an interactive online photography course to get critiques on your photos.


 

Did You Know?

Discussions by Category: You can view photo discussions on various themes in the Community > Photo Discussions section of the site.

BetterPhoto Websites: If you see an orange website link directly under the photographer's name, it's totally okay. It's not spam. The reason: BetterPhoto is the one that offers these personal photography websites. We are supporting our clients with those links.

Unavailable EXIF: If there is no other information but 'Unavailable' in the EXIF (meaning no EXIF data exists with the photo), the 'Unavailable' blurb is not displayed. If there is any info, it shows. Many photos have the EXIF stripped out when people modify the image and resave it, before uploading.


 

The following truth is one of the core philosophies of BetterPhoto:

I hear, I forget.
I see, I remember.
I do, I understand.

You learn by doing. Take your next online photography class.


BetterPhoto.com All Time Best Photo Contest Staff Favorite BetterPhoto.com Photo Contest SECOND PLACE Winner


Copyright for this photo belongs solely to Brian D. Watters.
Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Log in to follow or message this photographer or report this photo.