Something for the Weekend - Part 191 - Golden age of windmills

[davescm]

We see a lot of modern wind turbines these days but this windmill, in York, dates back to 1770 and was milling flour long before the houses appeared around it in the 1900's. Now restored, by volunteers in the Holgate Mill Preservation Society, it is open to visitors and does grind flour on open days.

The restorers have done an excellent job on the mill, but can you show what the scene might have looked like in its golden years of the 18th century?

The “rules”:

* Use one of the starter images as at least part of your own image entry.

* 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, or bring a bit of humour and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go!

* The starter images are made available for you to use in this forum challenge only. Sorry to emphasise this, but the images are not for use elsewhere.

To download the image below, 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).

When posting back your image – please use the blue reply button in this first post. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry then please use the grey reply button next to their image post.

Have fun.

Dave

[Bob_Hallam]

Well done Trevor. A romantic tale for sure!

[Trevor.Dennis]

Can you spot the odd one out? 😉

[davescm]

I would never have thought of that 🙂

Dave

[Trevor.Dennis]

These are cooling towers from a power station according to Google.  I can't remember where the towers I had in my had are.  I used to bike up to the Lakes, and Chris' family lived on the Wirral.  I had a feeling it was the ICI plant at Runcorn, off the M56, but I just checked and they only have chimneys (and a nasty pong) there.  Where ever it was, they made an impression.

Hey, I bet there's a video, or two, of towers like this being demolished?

Yep, of course there is!

[jane-e]

I can't remember where the towers I had in my h[e]ad are.

By @Trevor.Dennis

This is brilliant Trevor!

Any chance the cooling towers you were thinking of were the ones from SFTW 72?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/something-for-the-weekend-part-72-sta...

Jane

[Trevor.Dennis]

My goodness.  I didn't even remember those Jane.

[davescm]

It turns out that the miller's wife had drawn up the original plans with her needle and thread 🙂

Dave

[jane-e]

Dave, this is clever indeed, but can we let you post without asking for details on how you did the crossstitch? 😊

Jane

[davescm]

Hi Jane, I made the stitching procedurally, playing around with Substance Designer's new spline functions. I created the splines then distributed the 'stitches' along those splines.

Dave

[jane-e]

That's amazing Dave, and I hope it was a fun and challenging way to play with the new spline functions in Substance Designer!

Jane

[davescm]

It was fun Jane, something like this is a good way to discover how the new features work

Dave

[AlanGilbertson]

18th Century, maybe like this?

[davescm]

Perfect Alan! If Constable had a 24mm lens ............. 🙂

Dave

[AlanGilbertson]

I used the opportunity to play around with gen fill. Ended up with about a dozen layers of generated content that worked very well. This will be a very useful tool when the whole Firefly thing is out of beta, but I was most interested in what didn't work (turns out you can't ask for "weeds and grass" in a prompt!) and where gen fill overstepped its mark by pushing content too far outside the selection area. Soft-edge selections work very well, so Quick Mask is a great companion tool for generative fill.

[Rick Spaulding -]

Tilting at windmills

[davescm]

Welcome Rick! Another take on teh Don Qixote theme, or it could be that we have a highwayman to contend with. No wonder the mill doors are shut 🙂

Dave

[Pete.Green]

Great opportunity to spend some time in Ps and have a play with Gen Fill -- Thanks for keeping at this Dave!

[EuanWilliamson]

Nice one @Pete.Green 

Not sure I understand the symbolism.

Anyhoo, have a great 4th whatever you do 

[Pete.Green]

Thanks Euan -- No symbolism intended, and I probably didn't follow the SFTW prompt well enough, except for the "Anything goes" part. 

[jane-e]

I probably didn't follow the SFTW prompt well enough, except for the "Anything goes" part. 

By @Pete.Green

Only a handful of these posts followed Dave's prompt to "show what the scene might have looked like in its golden years of the 18th century". The rest of us went with "anything goes"!

Jane

[Trevor.Dennis]

It puts me in mind of one of those drive through Redwood trees.  There's a lot going on in your interpretation Pete.  It seems that even Adobe employees are finding Gen Fill addictive. Something that has come out of left field for me, is using Firefly and Gen Fill as an alternative for stock images.  They are proving to be better than Google at understanding my search criteria, and saving a lot of time.  The new Ai based tools have also boosted my already high enthusiasm for using Photoshop, and it has been a lot of fun.   

[davescm]

Hi Pete , nice to see you here 🙂 There is a strange phenomenom going on there. Reflectionless lightning - scary stuff!

Dave

[Trevor.Dennis]

Dave, I suspect Pete created the lightning _after_ the water in the foreground.  Selecting thos pools at the end of of the project gives Gen Fill a chance to do its thing.  Note: I took two cracks at this.  'Water with reflections' was OK but not great. 'Water reflecting sky and lightning' worked much better.

[Eid Medhat]

Big white feathers

[Eid Medhat]