Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Text Overlay



I like to make my text part of the picture whenever possible. With the tools available in GIMP and other image editing software, it is easy to bend and adjust text to make it look (almost) like you captured the words in the photograph.

I took these photos at the Lion Country Safari in Florida. They have an area where you can feed the giraffes, and I was able to get several close-ups of these amazing creatures.

I wanted this layout to feature a head-on shot of this handsome fellow. Because he took up the whole length of the page, the title had to go right over his face.

I did my best to shape the title to the contours of his nose. I did a simple Iwarp (Filters > Distorts > Iwarp). It took me several tries, as I played with the deform radius and amount to get it as realistic-looking as possible. I adjusted the opacity down to about 50%, and did a Gaussian Blur at a redius of 5 to soften it.

If you look at the hat in the lower left photograph, you can see that I used a similar effect for the label.

All-in-all, I think this creates a more interesting effect than simply typing the title over his face. I am always looking for ways to turn words into art, and this is one more way to accomplish that.

No comments:

Post a Comment