Something for the Weekend - Part 245 - Hiding in Plain Sight!

[davescm]

Hi,

Thanks to everyone who took the time to put forward an image in our previous 'Electric Avenue' challenge. The imagination in this group is excellent.

This week we have different challenge. Cellphone masts appear everywhere these days and sometimes they are bare masts but occasionally the cellphone companies disguise them with a few tree tree branches or similar. I got to thinking that the collective imagination around here could do better than that. So I bring you a undisguised mast, actually it is an an Adobe 3D asset that I textured, rendered, and added to a photograph of some trees near Loch Morlich in Scotland. How will you cunningly disguise it?

For this week can I add an additional request, when you post your response can you add just a few words on how you went about it. It may help others see the potential of different approaches, software, and tools to such a challenge.

The “rules”:

• Use the starter image 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”.
• The challenge is not limited to Photoshop. Any Adobe software can be used. 
• 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!
• The starter image is made available for you to use in this forum challenge only.

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).

When posting back your image — please use the blue reply button in this first post and use the 'Insert Photos' icon at the top of the reply box. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry, then please use the grey reply button next to their image post.

Have fun!

Dave

[jane-e]

Nice photo and nice render, Dave! I have lots of ideas and hope to get to one this weekend.

Jane

[davescm]

Thanks Jane - hopefully it will spark some great ideas!
Dave

[fbeaume]

100% agree! That'S a terrific render @davescm !

[EuanWilliamson]

Fixed it for you, now nobody will notice it 🙂

[davescm]

Haha, brilliant. Thanks for getting us started this week Euan. 🙂
Dave

[fbeaume]

Love that Euan! 

[EuanWilliamson]

Thank you

[Jacob Bugge]

Click to get closer, Click again to get closer still

[davescm]

That would do it, Jacob. They could then run a competition called 'What's in the bag'. I reckon it's a giant lollipop. 🙂
Dave

[Jacob Bugge]

You are really kind, Dave. I have thought that among the first three, this must be the ugly.

How I went about it? I just pulled a bag over the bloody thing. But first I had to steal it from the garbage man in orange overalls holding it, with a magic wand, and a few other tools, one elliptical and one rectangular.

[PaintedKitty]

I wonder how many licks does it take to get to the center of that giant thing? 🙀😃

[Jacob Bugge]

You have really made me wonder too, Kitty. Mayby the basis of a new competition.

It is definately blue raspberry.

[Jacob Bugge]

                    SKYNET WEATHER MODIFICATION DEVELOPMENT SITE

Click to get closer, Click again to get closer still

[davescm]

The famous Scottish mist to the rescue. Nothing to see here 🙂
Dave

[Turtle.PSD]

Fun challenge. I definitely notice those antennae trees that stick out like a sore thumb but are meant to "blend in." The cellphone companies just need to figure out how to lower the opacity irl.

I Generated the martini with umbrella in Firefly. Then I prepped the umbrella by spot healing the handle out and creating multiple layers so it would be easy to put the isolated antennae (remove background) inbetween them. Made multiple copies of the antennae to both extend it and illustrate it being in different places such as the part in liquid layer has the color burn blending mode that’s mask was brushed with a low flow brush to reduce opacity in places. Then I sandwiched the martini between background and foreground layers. And then manipulated the colors in Camera Raw and got some use out of the new Point Color menu (PS Beta) specifically using the Variance parameter so the green hues would become more similar.

[Turtle.PSD]

[davescm]

Well a large drink like that would certainly attract attention and divert from the mast. I think the vivid green trees are what I would see if I tried some of that cocktail ! 🙂
Dave

[Turtle.PSD]

Had to make this too:



For the glass bowl part I used a mix of Luminosity/Linear Light/Normal blending modes in several masks with varying opacity along with a mask for it in Camera Raw where the Dehaze slider specifically really helped.

[Leslie Moak Murray]

A woodpecker at my backyard suet feeder could fool anyone.   --- edit typo

[Jacob Bugge]

Leslie, I wonder whether your woodpecker can also fool the mobile phone users into believing they hear chisel hammer (road or house) work, when it starts drumming on the (hardwood) feeder or the (metal) mast.

[Jacob Bugge]

I also wonder how quietly yours can feed.

Over here we have two families of spotted woodpeckers (great and lesser), and a few years ago both became aware of the fat ball feeder sets hanging against two living room windows. At first they really hammered them so it could be heard in the whole house, with a lot of waste eagerly picked up by blackbirds in the grass below, every small bird gone in a twinkle when they started.

By and by they are learning from the smaller birds, now only with a distinct thump for each deep peck, and the smaller ones stay on the other fat balls.

[davescm]

Nice woodpecker and a whole new meaning to tapping the phone system. Nice one Leslie 🙂

Dave

[Greg_S.]

Cellphones - the death of the phone box.

• Very basic edit performed in Elements 2025
• Added the arrow and phone box from Adobe Stock
• Free Transform and Liquify to move and size the objects and spread the feathers to cover the mast
• Mask the phone booth for the arrow to enter the roof and the background to show through the windows
• Healing brush to remove the wires and a little cloning to clean up.

[davescm]

Haha, death of the phone box indeed!  It's amazing what some have been turned into. We've seen mini libraries, greenhouses, cake sales and even a tiny cafe.

Dave