26 January 2009

'Photogenic drawings'

Couldn't resist having a bit more of a play with making some high-tech versions of the Fox Talbot photogenic drawings. These are made from some pictures of the few plants that are still visible above the snow: trees, grass and seedheads of asters and Queen Anne's lace.

3 comments:

VP said...

Hi Amanda - well it just goes to show what coincidences the internet brings! Lacock Abbey also had a hand in me meeting my local blogging buddy Threadspider. She posted about her visit there in December 2007 and it turns out we live on the same estate, have an allotment on the same site and also went to the same school in Birmingham over 30 years ago!

BTW how are you doing your photogenic drawings the high tech way?

Amanda said...

You just need to start with a photo with a mainly white background (snow or a grey sky in my case, but white paper would be fine too!). Then turn it into a negative (most photo-editing programs have this option). This gives a dark grey background and white subject. To get the bluey tones you just need to fiddle with the colour balance a bit (although a lot of the photogenic drawings were grey, so this isn't strictly necessary!). I think Fox Talbot would be stunned at the options available to photographers nowadays.

Unknown said...

These are just fantastic, Amanda. I think I shall try doing the same, maybe later on tonight while I'm procrastinating/watching television/reading blogs/supposed to be working on articles.