Primary Colors with 50 Flickr Images

Red

yellow

blue

First off thanks Timmmmyboy for creating this assignment and the tutorial to go with it. It was great to be walked through a tool I had  never used before in Photoshop. And second thanks to ds106 for always finding ways to exercise your creative side!

I deviated a little from Tim’s assignment by selecting 30-50 photos from the top 100 when searching for the terms: red, yellow, and blue. I also spent a little time resizing photos in each layer so that they filled the entire layer as well as allowing me to make a some choice about which part of the image I wanted to use. Finally I played around with the various Stack Modes. In the end I chose to use the “Median” for each smart object.

It’s kind of humorous to me how Photoshop basically has created an “Abstract Expressionist” filter for a bunch of images. I wonder what Mark Rothko would have thought about this process. His “multiforms” feel eerily similar – here are a red, yellow and blue.

My deliberation was a mixture of search, selection, and reframing combined with an algorithm. Actually sounds quite “Modernist.”


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Comments

5 responses to “Primary Colors with 50 Flickr Images”

  1. martha Avatar

    Love these — I actually have a couple of ways I want to experiment with this assignment. You’ve inspired me to get on it.

    1. [Not]Trivial Avatar

      It’s definitely worth experimenting with. A “work the tool” assignment for sure.

  2. Cheryl Colan Avatar

    So cool! I am totally doing this again with more color! You inspire.

  3. Kathleen Johnson Avatar

    Those are simply gorgeous. I think they might make good backgrounds for a blog or twitter. Have you posted them somewhere? And, better yet as cc? I covet them.

    1. [Not]Trivial Avatar

      I’m glad you like them Kathleen! They’re actually hosted on Flickr and are CC licensed so feel free to use and reuse. Just click on anyone of them and it will take you to the Flickr page.