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Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 6, 2025
Question

Something for the Weekend - Part 242 - Smörgåsbord

  • June 6, 2025
  • 39 replies
  • 8105 views

Hi,

Thanks to all who took part in our last, 'Time and Tide', challenge.  We had lots of imaginative ideas and fun interpretations of Dave's photo of a North Yorkshire coastal town.

 

This week I'm helping Dave out, and I'm going to do something a bit different — mainly because I can't do the amazing photorealistic renders that Dave has started so many SFTW threads with.  This Smörgåsbord is an image buffet, many of which I have collected in my travels, and others that I have found online. 

 

The Rules:

  • Use as many of my image elements as makes sense for your upload.  You can choose your own backgrounds.
  • Anything goes, as long as it meets the forum rules on decency, copyright, etc.
  • Anyone, and everyone, is welcome to have a go, whether you are a complete beginner or a Photoshop expert. This is not just for our forum “regulars”.
  • There are no prizes apart from the chance to practice, show off your skills, or bring a bit of humor and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go!  Bonus points if you create something quirky (like my pen/rubber).  Minus points if you resort to a Mr Potato Head 😉
  • We usually provide starter images to use only for the challenges — they do have a habbit of reappearing in later challenges.  As this is a different kind of starter, you are welcome to keep and use my images as you like.  Just note that they are not all my images.

 

To download the starter image, hover over the image and click on the circle with the arrows at the top right. Then, when the image opens in its own window, right click and choose “Save Image As/Save Target As” (or similar depending on your browser).  It is important to save the image to a local drive (rather than right click and copy) in order to retain transparency.

39 replies

Participant
June 7, 2025

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

Oh I love this one.  Am I allowed to have favourites Dave?  Beautiful lighting and shading, which makes all the difference.   You get extra points for the glasses. I have to admit that when something in one of Dave's starter images isn't working for me, I sometimes go find a similar object with better shape or perspective.  I am imagining Harry Potter, with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, with the back of their heads in the foreground, 'spellbound', enjoying their favourite class at Hogwarts.

 
AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

"Eye eye eye," part 2. (In which a flipped AI image gives a convincing illusion of a London street.)

It turns out that Firefly is so convinced about how traffic goes that it will take a London street scene as a composition reference and flip all the traffic so that it's driving on the right-hand side of the road. So I flipped the image. ¯\(°_o)/¯

J E L
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 9, 2025

Haha - I like the way he looks slightly off balance! 🙂
Dave

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

 

Click to get closer, Click again to get closer still

fbeaume
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 11, 2025

We need to understand french to catch the pun... I love this idea!
Bien vu Jacob!

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 11, 2025

Thank you very much, Franck.

 

Once I spotted the two, I hurried, lest one of yous with real knowledge came up with it sooner.

 

It was my hope that at least some (other) English speakers would have seen the longer name in connexion with cuisine, but just now I realized that the short name might be even less known; and without it, no pun. A DuckDuckGo search seems to support that, although both turn up convincingly when searching for Images.

 

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

"Eye eye eye... What have we here?" (In which a photograph of London public transport gives a convincing illusion of AI.)

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

This is when Big Brother gets creepy.  A lovely job of the lighting giving your image a moody atmosphere.  It's just the sort of place where a T800 Terminator might suddenly materialise.  Arnie would look pretty strange wearing that red-headed lady's clothes.

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 9, 2025

I have all sorts of old stock photos on one of my drives. Every so often, like in this case, I find a use for one! London is famously awash in surveillance cameras, so this seemed like a natural combination.

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

Rubber feet for extra purchase Greg.  Mr Potatoe's equivalent of Nike Shox (I Googled that — I am too old to know cool stuff).   Imaginative use of the image elements.  I especially like the spiral doing duty as a mouth and moustache.  I'm guessing he's had a bit of an acident to have his 'orbs' recess so far. 

 

 

Participating Frequently
June 7, 2025

 

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

If you zoom way way in, you can see a pot of gold at both ends of the rainbow.  Thanks, for having a go Leigh.  Nice one.

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 7, 2025

Looks like I need to kick off my own starter. 🙂  

Community Expert
June 8, 2025

Nice work @Trevor.Dennis 

I tried to do mine without looking at others that had been posted. So wasn't ripping your one off 😉

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 6, 2025

Trevor, thanks for posting our challenge this week. I can see some great opportunities there and I'll enjoy taking part this week.
Dave