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Build complex toys and simple tools
by Tony Karp
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 -- Click on the image to see where I started from -- I don't shoot raw. I shoot JPEG, but I think of it as my raw. Instead of starting with an undeveloped raw file, the JPEG is the starting point for my images. I skip the messy part and go right to the fun part. My workflow is quite simple. I read the JPEGs from my camera into a cataloging program. Then I make a pass and cull out some of the obviously bad ones. If I don't see anything to work with right away, I let things sit for a while, and then take another look. You'd be amazed at the difference even a few days makes.
 This is the original image. I had to see it a few times before something clicked. There was something there, but it was buried deep. Would it be worth the effort to dig something out?Yes, but it was a long and complex trail. A couple of times, I thought I was finished, yet to find another part of the picture to work on. In the process, it passed between three domains -- bitmap, then postscript (objects), then back to bitmap.The pictures below show the process step by step.    Another crop. Notice that the leaves above the butterfly are touching its wings and antenna. They'll have to be retouched out.  Another crop. The leaf touching the antenna has been retouched out. The antenna is a little dark in that area and will have to be lightened up.   At this point the image is put through a raster-to-vector converter, converting it into shapes filled with a solid color. The picture can now be edited in Adobe Illustrator. Here, fixing the antenna was easy.  It's no longer a photograph.  Now the image is converted back into a TIFF bitmap file so that I can work on it in LightZone. The first thing was to retouch the leaf touching the butterfly's wing. Then I work on the tones of the image, brightening it up and bringing out more detail in the butterfly.  One last round of retouching to brighten things up. Notice the color in the flowers on the top left. Also, more detail in the butterfly. It's the last step, for now.Is it finished? For now, perhaps. But if you look closely, you'll see lots of little things that can still be fixed. Maybe tomorrow. But wait! There's More! What about a print?
 For a print, why not go all the way and do it in the 3rd dimension? Here, the butterfly is projected into the form of a box. Notice on the sides of the box you can see the image traveling from the front of the box the back. If you turn the box around, you will actually see the butterfly in reverse. Some technical notes: The original picture was shot with a Leica C (typ 112). The post processing was done with Adobe Streamline 4, Adobe Illustrator 10, and LightZone 3. The 3D version was designed and rendered in SketchUp 8 and printed on a Zprinter 650 full color 3D printer. Another note: The butterfly isn't really in Havana. It's in my backyard in Northern Virginia. But the colors made me think of pictures I've seen of Havana, so bright and warm. So that's where the butterfly is.
Copyright 1957-2023 Tony & Marilyn Karp
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