Irish Egg Technique

CabanSail

I have had quite a few people ask me how I produced this photo of the Irish Egg.

Some think it was actually cut to make the shape.

It was all done in Photoshop CS2 though I think all the stuff used has been there since Photoshop 5 or maybe earlier.

The final image has four layers, two of which were seperate photo's & there was a fifth layer which has been discarded.

First shot taken was the Frying Pan on the floor of the kitchen, taken from directly above with the flash firing backwards towards the ceiling to give diffused even light.

The egg was then fried. It is a Duck Egg as they have a much whiter White & the Yolks are larger & "pop" out at you a bit more (I also think they taste nice). This was then photographed on the cooker but with the same flash technique. I actually repeated the egg shot for a couple of reasons. One was to have a choice of shapes & Yolk positions, the other was that this was my breakfast & I wanted two eggs.

Next was to import the images into Photoshop as PSD's after Exposure & WB checks from RAW. The Frying Pan & the Egg were isolated from the rest of the images. There are hundreds of ways to do this & I cannot remember which I used.

Then a quick search on Google Images looking for a Map of Ireland. This was picked to be a jpg image and with a good solid outline. This was also isolated from it's background & imported as a layer into the Egg image. I resized & moved the egg in such a way that the Yolk was in a good place for the composition & the egg was slightly larger than the Map. I then went to the Liquify Filter & selected the Map as background. Using a Graphics Tablet I simply pushed in the white to fit the outline of the map. Close enough was good enough as I doubt anyone is going to navigate by it. There were some marks left from the Liquify process which were easily removed with cloning.

The last step was to import the Pan in as a layer, discard the Map as it was no longer required and position the Egg in the Frying pan. this done a background was selected, originally it was white but that was too jarring so went for a light grey instead to bring the attention back onto the Egg. A simple border was added in another layer. A final "retouch" was done for Sharpness etc. The PSD & Jpeg versions were then saved.

It did take longer to do than what it seems above as I was making it up as I went along & tried a few less successful ways before this one. I also had a rough idea in my head of what I wanted to achieve but that changed as I went along. So all in all it was about 4 hours to get the final result. Someone more skilled in PS would do it in a fraction of the time but I was learning as I went.

PaulieC

what was the concept?

Chorcai

Have you not crossed the line here, as in, this is no longer a photo rather a digital image/art ? I'm just throwing it out

CabanSail

cambo_gueno wrote: »

what was the concept?

The Theme was "One Egg". It could be in the shell, raw or cooked. There were some quite different interpretations, as you can imagine. So the concept for me was to make my egg to also represent something else which was easily recognised.

Chorcai wrote: »

Have you not crossed the line here, as in, this is no longer a photo rather a digital image/art ? I'm just throwing it out

If you want to draw lines then I guess it has crossed them. It would depend where you set them though. All photography is only a representation & should be shaped by our imaginations. What I have done above could easily have been done with film or by manipulating the subject.

Would it be more or less a Photograph if it looked identical but I had set up a Grey sheet in a Studio, place a pan on that & then positioned my carefully cut egg which was then photographed together? The result would have been much the same just done with a different set of equipment. As I said in the OP I have been asked by a few people as to how long it took for me to cut the egg into shape. I could "pretend" I did it that way but I prefer to be up front about it. To me it's a Photograph, to others it may be something else.

DaireQuinlan

CabanSail wrote: »

Would it be more or less a Photograph if it looked identical but I had set up a Grey sheet in a Studio, place a pan on that & then positioned my carefully cut egg which was then photographed together?

Well in that case it would actually BE a photograph, as opposed to a collage formed of disparate elements shot separately, edited, and then composited together.

CabanSail

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Well in that case it would actually BE a photograph, as opposed to a collage formed of disparate elements shot separately, edited, and then composited together.

I still consider it to be a Photograph, regardless of the fact that there are two images combined. These techniques have been used in Photography for decades it's just that with digital it has come into use by a wider gamut of people.

DaireQuinlan

CabanSail wrote: »

These techniques have been used in Photography for decades it's just that with digital it has come into use by a wider gamut of people.

I'm not disputing that at all, the last time we had this very same discussion people started trying to drag it off on a film versus digital tangent as well. I don't think its really relevant.

CabanSail

I think the last time it was in the context that these manipulations were new to the digital age, which they clearly aren't.

I also think that there are situations where photographs which include different elements are acceptable & there are others where it is not. Personally I think that it does not have any place in disciplines such as Photojournalism. I have seen very obvious manipulations done there & feel that is wrong as they should be factual.

Does the use of masks or cloning move away from it being a Photograph?

The definition of "Photography" is "The art or process of producing images of objects on photosensitive surfaces."

Effects

And I thought no trickery was involved. I presumed it was one of those novelty fried egg shapers, like the heart shaped ones commonly available. Nice work.

CabanSail

The fact that a lot of people think it was all done in the camera shows that the manipulation is believable.

There are many ways to get the same, or very similar, result. It's having the idea in the first place that can be difficult.

Mylesie

CabanSail wrote: »

The fact that a lot of people think it was all done in the camera shows that the manipulation is believable.

There are many ways to get the same, or very similar, result. It's having the idea in the first place that can be difficult.

Wish they'd all cut the cackle - it's a great pic- wish I had thought of it!

DaireQuinlan

CabanSail wrote: »

The fact that a lot of people think it was all done in the camera shows that the manipulation is believable.

I didn't say it wasn't believable either, I thought initially that it might have been some ireland shaped egg form aswell. But process -IS- important. Think for a moment, if I were to construct this scene in 3DSMax or SoftImage or some other 3D modeller , and render it out using some photorealistic renderer. Maybe use real textures of frying pans and fried eggs or something to make it look even more realistic. If I was sufficiently skilled I could make something that looks absolutely real, as real as your manipulations of that egg look. No-one would regard that as a photograph (despite the fact that it uses real photographic elements). I would argue that your image has more in common with that constructed 3D scene than it has with an original photograph.

There are many ways to get the same, or very similar, result. It's having the idea in the first place that can be difficult.

Hey, I think the idea and its execution are great ! No arguments there at all. I'm just presenting a point of view here, I'm certainly not attacking the image.

CabanSail

@Daire - I know you are not attacking the image or me (or anyone for that matter) In case anyone has misinterpreted any comments so far I would like to make it clear that I enjoy the discussion and your points are valid and well put. I think that these issues need to be debated & that is a large part of why this forum exists. I appreciate the points raised and the manner they are raised whether I fully agree with them or not.

Another point is that if you have a thin skin & cannot take critisism then you should not put your images out there to be viewed. I am happy to receive comments back as this is a process which helps improvement. It can open up other ways to see what you are doing and affect how you can do things differently in the future. By the discussion being open at all it can also benefit others who read these threads.

CabanSail

Well the judge liked that image the other night & that capped off the Winter League Competition. He did not like the normal camera club images, so this did well.

Bosshogg

CabanSail wrote: »

Another point is that if you have a thin skin & cannot take critisism then you should not put your images out there to be viewed.

Please let this be in the rules.

The last thing we need is another mutual admiration society forming.

Oh,.. and on Topic - fekin cool egg! Can you do one of Bono?