Adobe Photoshop . Industry standard application for all photographic work on the computer. In Photoshop your photographs can be Scanned, Sized, Cropped .Sharpened , Darkened, Brightened, Stretched or Pinched. Everything that at one time was done in the Photographic darkroom- and much more. As in my picture of Ellen with the wolves, a figure can be isolated and placed in an entirely different environment. If you would like a photograph of yourself with a world leader, such as the Pope, there is no longer the need to go to Rome. All may be arranged in Photoshop. As in the photograph of Elizabeth, taken over a hundred years ago much detail can be restored. Detail that appeared to have been lost forever was rediscovered. In the original photograph of the hut by the river in Bangkok there were some very ugly overhead wires-easily removed in Photoshop. It can be seen., as in the Photo at Notre Dame in Paris , that even if the original is poor, all is not lost. Photos can be sharpened and brightened- and a new sky put in. The finished picture is,I think,much improved. The Thai temple picture is a montage of two pictures, actually taken at midday, but is more dramatic as a night scene. The two Buddist monks were added from another photograph.

Fractal Design Painter A 'Natural Media ' paint program with an extraordinary ability to mimic various painting and drawing materials. The Dromoland Castle picture was painted in 'Watercolor' and overworked in black ink line- all in 'Painter' . However the Old Books picture was first painted in watercolor{real) on white paper, scanned and a new background inserted in Photoshop. Final touching up was done in 'Painter'. The Neuschwanstein Castle painting was done in 'Painter' and the effective gold background added by a 'cloning' technique which covers the entire picture in gold. The castle was then revealed piece by piece, and carefully, from under the gold layer. Some paintings , like StStephens Green and the Casino Malahide are done in painter ,using a pure watercolor technique, but on the computer screen.Terra Cotta pot was painted entirely in 'Painter' using oil painting technique

All pictures are of course first painted in a large size, at least 1024x768 pixels and are reduced in size and quality to aid ease of download on the web. For this they are about 550x350 pixels.and compressed in JPEG format at level 1 in Photoshop. From the original size they print well at A4 size using a HP850c Deskjet Printer.

3D Renders: I have only very recently begun to learn a little about these fascinating programs.

Terragen : Produces very realistic scenery. Everything can be varied, Mountains, lakes, Sea, Mist, Position and Color of the Sun. It's really superb to work with and I am looking forward to more fully mastering it's intricascies. Terragen was used to render Mountain Scene and Island. I find that adding a bird or other animal - (using Photoshop) adds further realism to Terragen renders. This idea was carried a step further in Wolf on Snow Hill where the Animal picture inserted became the focal point. I'm still trying to develop my knowledge of this application. Comments or advice would be very welcome to-
mailto:lucius@indigo.ie

Bryce: Less realistic than Terragen for scenery but can render very exciting pictures. Can import DXF wireframes and from these can be produced an amazing variety of subjects. Hundreds of various wireframes are available online. I used Bryce for the Cow at Lakeside and Dolphin pictures. As you can see Bryce is fantastic for skies I got the Bryce Program free with that excellent magazine COMPUTER ARTS. Rendering times vary but can take fom minutes to hours on my computer- not the fastest- but adequate