Something for the Weekend - Part 248 - What goes up...

[davescm]

Hi,

A big thank you to all who took part in our previous 'Finest Cut' challenge. Who would have thought that so many ideas could start with a pizza cutter.

This week we start outdoors. This is the Saltburn Cliff Lift which is a funicular railway on leading down to the promenade and pier, in Saltburn on the north east coast of England. Constructed in the 1880s, it has been updated several times, but is still powered by water. The tank underneath the upper car is filled with water and when it is heavier than the car at the bottom it descends and pulls the lower car up, all controlled by the brakeman in the wheelhouse. At the bottom the tank empties and the upper car is filled. The water is pumped back to the top.

So that is the scene - what can you do to bring it to life?

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

[Turtle.PSD]

Very limitedly portable steampunk tiny homes are the future. They offer all the excitement of moving with the stability of keeping the same neighbors and mailbox.

I turned them into Steampunk tiny homes in Firefly using Gemini and prompted it to do things like add the lightning, make it look more distopian and increase the highlights. Then I ran it through CR and painted with some Curves adjustment layers near the lights.
Then I animated it in "Create Video Timeline" in PS's Timeline Window by staggering/fading the layers to make it a little more interesting/show the difference.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Very impressive.  I was obsessing with Gemini 2.5 Flash, Nano Banana, KlingAi etc. most of yesterday, and it leaves the Firefly engine for dead.  Did you do this directly in https://gemini.google.com/app or another site that uses the G2.5 model?

I found a hack opening LMArena.ai in an Incognito browser window.  It gives you a bunch of generations, and when it stops working, open a new Incognito window.  The UI has already changed from the six day old video that I found the hack on, so that might not last.  Things are moving so quickly right now, and with Firefly offering the G2.5 model, and others, as an option, I feel sure we are soon going to see some changes to the Adobe and Photoshop tools.

One of the big advantages with G2.5 and Nano Banana is that we don't need to make a selection.  Just describe what you want to edit with the text prompt. for instance:

I opened LMArina.ai.

Wait for it to check you are human and not a bot.

Click on the image tab, and I pasted this complex shape directly into the text prompt window.

I told it to: 'Apply realistic shading to this shape, and colour it red. The light is coming from the top right corner.'

The image I started with was about 500 pixels wide, so I upsized it just using Photoshop Image Size, so the result is pretty rough.  It sharpened it up and did a decent job of the shading.  Imagine how long it would take to select every fasset doing this manually in Photoshop?

@Turtle.PSD  How did you animate this and output as a GIF?  Or did you create a video and change it to a gif in Photoshop?

[Trevor.Dennis]

Just to show that Photoshop isa not dead, Camera RAW and our Noel's Starfilter Pro 4

Although I could have asked the Ai to 'Increase contrast and color saturation, and add some highlights to the tip of the brighter points'  I think I like the Photoshop version better.   (In case I have confused anyone, the image below is the Ai edit. ) My LMArena window had timed out (about ten minutes) and I had to open a new one.

[Turtle.PSD]

That image is a solid example of utilizing image generation.

I animated it inside PS by using "Creating Video Timeline" in the Timeline Window by fading/staggering the layers. And for using Gemini 2.5, I used the model inside Firefly.

I'm definitely crossing my fingers that these models become accessable inside PS. 

[davescm]

It certainly meets the steam-punk brief, Turtle.PSD,  and I do like what you did with the lighting.
Dave

[davescm]

On a serious note, given the subject of this challenge, my thoughts go to those in Lisbon involved in yesterday's funicular crash, along with their families. Very sad.

Dave

[Trevor.Dennis]

We had eight hours in Lisbon on our way home from Spain (Santiago de Compostela) two weeks ago.  We planed to go into the city but the luggage lockers were all taken, so we had a boring wait at the airport. The friends we were with had already spent a few days in Lisbon, on their way to Porto (where we met them) and had been on the funicular.  As you can imagine, we talked about it on the phone last night, and they said they'd been crammed packed in, and that there were way more than forty people in it.   We now know that the cable linking the two cars snapped, and that the Gloria car was very near the top of the 265M slope, so had all that distance to pick up speed.

It is sad that this weeks SFTW subject happened to be a funicula, and I feel sure people will now be thinking twice before using the Saltburn lift.  As Dave has said, we will be thinking of the people who died, and those who were seriously injured.  I am not sure that I can add more images to this thread. 

[jane-e]

The funicula tragedy in Lisbon is very sad, Dave and Trevor. I had an idea, but no longer have the inclination to work on it.

Jane

[War Unicorn]

16 people.  😞

Looks like a cable snapped, sending the funicula careening down into a building? Horrific.

[Nick Gioia]

[davescm]

They'll have to fill the water tanks with tea, Nick. 🙂
Dave

[@mj]

Tx as always Dave. Great fun!

[davescm]

They'll be off to wax their moustaches soon. 🙂
Dave

[Christelle RD]

I experimented something here ...

[davescm]

It could be a bad dream with those carriages stretching out toward you! 🙂 You've done a great job with the seamless stretches.
Dave

[daniellei4510]

In operation 24/7, 356 days a year.

[DeanUtian]

Nice work 🙂

[davescm]

Here's me enjoying the late summer and you've reminded me that winter will be along shortly! A very nice job with the change of season. 🙂
Dave

[Michele Weisbart]

Reminds me of the old silent movies with our poor heroine tied to the tracks, waiting to be saved.

[davescm]

We just need the silent movie piano, or cinema organ, to add to the suspense. 🙂
Dave

[DeanUtian]

[davescm]

That old blast furnace has gone, but now you've shown us just where it went! 🙂
Dave

[didiermazier]

Sorry if it ain't fun… In memoriam of Lisboa victims.

May they rest in peace and their families find relieve of their pain

[davescm]

A very tragic accident, Didier.
Dave

[lambiloon]