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.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Question

Something for the Weekend - Part 242 - Smörgåsbord

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
June 6, 2025
39 replies
8055 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.

Michelle Chocolita

Community Expert

This was fun! Here's what I made of it, heavily inspired by Dalí 😉 I only used the elements from the starter file (plus gradients for the background and a lot of other filters in Photoshop)

AlanGilbertson

Community Expert

That's great, Michelle! Besides the Dali, it also has a charming Magic Roundabout vibe.

Michelle Chocolita

Community Expert

Thanks Alan! I had never heard of Magic Roundabout but I see what you mean 😀

N

Nikki Kuhn

Participating Frequently

Smörgåsbord Potato

derekwatson

Community Expert

Lovely apartment but not sure about the decor...

Derek Watson

davescm

Community Expert

Haha - the couch potato made me laugh!

Dave

M

mark@headTrix

Community Expert

Good old Mr. potato head

headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting

Trevor.Dennis

Author

Community Expert

Oh, very good. You are excused for making a potato man when it is this good. I love how he stands out from the darker background> I was not sure if the nose is an organ, but Google tells me that it is, so extra marks for whistling postman's organ nose.

M

mark@headTrix

Community Expert

Thanks, Trevor! Yeah, the nose is
whatever that shape was in your first image 🙂
yeah, and I tried to make him look like he was under the light in the park. I also used one of your lamp posts on the right, but now that I look at it it should've been a little bit more to the right and raised a little bit. ha. It was fun

headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting

Valdair Leonardo

Community Expert

Well, I created/made/put together something....

Jill_C

Community Expert

The base image is from Rio ! The statue was completely shrouded in fog, and our alloted time there was getting shorter and shorter. As we were starting to head back toward the escalators to go back to the bus, the fog and mist suddenly lifted for a short while! But then he really entertained us while I snapped as many images as possible 🙂

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

Trevor.Dennis

Author

Community Expert

When I took my picture I was in the early stages of COVID after a waiter sneezed and coughed all over us while leaning over our table in Buenos Aires two days earlier. It was shoulder to shoulder beneath the statue, and our guide showed us a cool trick putting the camera on the ground tilting up with us in the foreground. The angle took out all the other people. I spent the rest of our time in Rio in our hotel room. 😞

Jill_C

Community Expert

"I spent the rest of our time in Rio in our hotel room." We had a similar experience in Barcelona in April 2022. We had been on a Douro River cruise. The river ships are small and crowded, and many people didn't feel motivated to wear their masks. By the time the cruise ended and we traveled to Madrid and on to Barcelona, nearly 20% of the guests had been left behind in quarantine in various hotels in Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona. My husband tested positive on the last day of the trip. (Tests were still required prior to boarding a plane back then). So we had an extra week in Barcelona, courtesy of the trip insurance company, Allianz! Barcelona is not a bad place to be quarantined - they didn't require us to stay in our hotel room so we went out for lots of walks and to outdoor cafes.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

RosaPerry

Inspiring

The Watcher.

I used five elements. See if you can spot them? Thanks @Trevor.Dennis for the Smörgåsbord!

Rosa

davescm

Community Expert

I love the style and mood in this one, Rosa. 🙂

Dave

RosaPerry

Inspiring

That means a lot, Dave — I really enjoyed building the atmosphere in this one. So glad it came across! 🙂

Rosa

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Tribute to Léonardo Sens

(zoom in to see the glasses)

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

AlanGilbertson

Community Expert

Nice tribute, indeed. I empathize with Léonardo, having had my own adventures chasing the moment when the moon would line up perfectly, only to have rain or clouds or an error in timing screw it up!