zips 1 and 2 workflows

I like a challenge and I like photography. Consequently, I totally get into photographic challenges. The ones set for the abstract photographers at my photo club are particularly fun, as they often involve me going places I've never been before, without having to step outside.
"An image in the style of Barnett Newman" was the instruction. I'd never heard of him before, but I know of his work now and I really like it. I haven't achieved an image in his style yet, but I do rather like what I produced here. Both the final colour image ("Zip 1") and the Oggl afterthought image ("Zip 2").

Zips 1

I started with a blank canvas and painted onto it with colours that were reasonably close to what I wanted for the background. I used Photo Viva for this.

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Waterlogue is an app I've never used before. I ran the previous image through the "travelogue" preset.

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Now, I am messing around with the 'artist' tab in the Brushes section in iColorama. I think I also blurred the image just slightly in BlurFX, as I wanted the iColorama paint "strokes" to be just a little less distinct.

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I had taken a number of photos of just about every zip I could find in the house. The plastic ones abounded, but they're no good. Only the metal ones stand out. I used Superimpose to lay one zip onto the previous image. I masked out the material from alongside the zip and also used the blur function to sink the zip into the background. I knew I wanted subsequent zips to stand out progressively more, in order to create an illusion of depth, which is a hallmark of some of Barnett Newman's impressionist paintings. I've also taken it back into iColorama to add some more 'brushwork', to further place the zip into the background.

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Now, I've superimposed another zip. Well, actually it's the same zip, turned upside down. I want this zip to look a little closer to the viewer, so there's very little blur added to it. I have added a little more brushwork in iColorama too, as this zip is not going to be in the foreground. Why did I place the zips where I did? They looked better against the blue than against the green.

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I have added a splash over the second zip with iColorama, just to keep it in the middle ground; closer than the first zip, but further away than the next one.

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Another (different) zip goes in, using Superimpose. I am thinking about balance in the image now, which is why it felt like it had to go where I put it. Now, I'm thinking I need a fourth zip though.

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There's no image 8. I just can't count. The last zip is in. I don't think the vertical lines are very well balanced, but I do like the depth that the zips are bringing to the image.

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Next, I have very painstakingly masked out the bits inbetween the teeth of the zip, so the background colour can be seen. Definitely worth the effort. I am basically finished with composing the image, now it just needs finishingoff, which I usually do in Snapseed.

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Zips 1

But I didn't use Snapseed this time. I played around with Pixlromatic, using one of the colour filters ('Hagrid') and one of the masks ('Above'), which seemed to add some further depth to the image. And that was it. This is "Zips 1".

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Something told me to try a square crop, and try it in Oggl. This is that crop, which uses theLowy lens and BlacKeys Supergrain film.

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Zips 2

I just can't help myself now. "Wonder what it looks like turned sideways?". Did that in Snapseed and also turned the temperature right up, to get the sepia look. It now looks like some kind of weird desert scene with....er....zips. I think it looks really cool.

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