The Chalice of Life

This morning I was sitting in a waiting room with not much to do when I became interested in the play of light through a wall made with glass blocks. I decided to have a little fun with my iPhone and some apps.

Waiting Room

I have had requests to give examples of what I do, so I will take you step by step through the process.

Glass Blocks

My first step was to go over and photograph several glass blocks. That photo didn’t speak to me so I photographed one individual block (not shown). That photo didn’t interest me much either.

Glass Block

So I photographed the block from a slightly different angle and finally found a pattern of light that I liked.

Glass block after PS Express – 1st pass

I opened that photo with PS Express (Photoshop Express for iPhone), cropped the image, increased the saturation of the colors, and saved the image.

Glass block after Painteresque

The next step was to open the image with Painteresque and alter it with the “Rainbow” option. Then I saved the image. I liked the “painterly” look, but I lost the the colors that I liked. Painteresque has a tendency to desaturate colors. I would deal with that later.

Glass block after Snapseed

To give the image more “pop”, I opened it with Snapseed, used one of the “Drama” options, and saved the image.

Glass block after PS Express – 2nd pass

Now I had the overall look I wanted, but not the color, I went back to PS Express to give it a second pass to increase the saturation, and saved the image. Now I am getting closer.

Glass block after PS Express – 3rd pass

The final step was to use PS Express again and use the Tint & Temperature sliders to shift the colors. This gave me the image I wanted (photo immediately above and at the top of this article).

I had a little naming contest on Facebook and asked my friends what they saw. The answers included a person, a creature, a shaman with a staff, dancers, a goblet or chalice, and one person saw “swirling life”. I named this “The Chalice of Life”.

You probably noticed that I saved the image after every step. I did that so I could go back and try other options without having to start all over from the beginning. Sometimes I go back and try different options in Painteresque or Snapseed, or try different apps all together.

When I got home I downloaded the photos, resized the final image in Photoshop so it could be printed in large sizes, and put it in the “Photo Art” gallery at JimDoty.Zenfiolio.com. iPhone photos that have been turned into “photo art” can be turned into surprising large prints. I currently have several pieces in an art exhibit in sizes up to 16×24.