صباحية قاهرتي Vs. طعم بلدي

Well i have to say That these two series are the closest work i have done to my heart... and i am glad that they got nice feedback and brought some arguments on how i have edited them...

let me tell u why i have taken these shots at the first place....

i was chatting with a friend of mine ( a non Egyptian dude )... his sister has came to Egypt recently and got back to her country telling him about how her visit was... so i asked him "what did she say about Egypt?".. he said " she said that she saw in Egypt poverty and beggars more than monuments and touristic places to visit"... may be his words wasn't the exact words as the ones i wrote up there... but they r close enough...

here i have thought i can take nice photos of Egypt and show it to the world.... and that was the plan.... i have set the date and time... went to take these photos on a Saturday all by myself around 5 am.... the goal was to take pretty and nice photos of Egypt.. the thing is i wanted to show Egypt when it's Empty and not crowded... and that's it...

so the tour was "El Hussein" then "Down town"....

got back home... at once i have eliminated the photos that has too much noise and not so well structured building and streets.. i have chosen the fine clean and neat ones.... applied a nice, new to the eye edit... something new to see when u show an ancient place like "El Hussein & Down tow"... and it was fine.... and the result was صباحية قاهرتي






after that i have gone through the photos again... and i liked some other photos... but the buildings and the streets were full of rusty sidewalks and some papers on the ground... something close to the image that i didn't want to show in صباحية قاهرتي but yet the photos themselves are yet appealing to the eye... and here the idea of a new series came up to my mind... so i decided to do an edit that serves the photos that i have chosen and liked.. an edit that adds more grunges and textures to the photo at the same time makes the photos still appealing.... so it was like stressing on the idea of how the place looks like... not making it prettier... so when people come to visit these places later... they could see what i have shown them before in a pretty way.. so they don't feel they have been deceived... and here طعم بلدي came to life... :) i like the two titles of the the series btw :)






it was my first time doing something related to my country... that shows how i am proud of being an Egyptian no matter how hard the times Egypt goes through... and that was my first time i do the thing i wanted to do for long.. which is Photography with a cause...

i have i have succeed.. or at least done well in my first trial... :) thank u guys again...

"Disco Light" glow effect

Hello Guys... i am back with a simple thing in here.. one of my friends asked me to show him how did i work on a simple blurry glowing effect.. so here i am doing so...



here i have just choose the font on Adobe Illustrator.. removed the fill color and added a stroke... after that i converted the text to an outline..... type > create outlines... and started manipulating the text a bit





here i have placed the text and changed the stroke color...




using the elliptical marquee selection tool, i draw on a layer behind the text and filled it with the same color as the text.... then used Gaussian blur with a big radius number




here i have duplicated the text layer many times... and started to blur ithem.. the closest layer to the text.. has a big gaussian blur radius... as i go up.. away from the text... the radius number goes down...








at the first image in here... i have made a selection using the keyboard that selects every used pixel on the layer i am working on... so i chose the layer... the last layer on top of all layers.. then held Ctrl + click on the layer thumbnail.... u will see the selection area shown... sometimes it won't display accurately... but that doesn't mean there is no pixels on that layer u r working on.. it just can't show u where are these pixels coz these pixels are very separated, far from each other and tiny... don't worry. it's selected anyway

then i used a normal coloring brush... to color the selected area with any color...





finally i added the texture... behind all these layers...

that's it...

Biohazard | Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind...

let me show you something new i did recently.. and i finished in 5 hours actually... not much to mention about the concept actually, but that i was on a daily quote website and i was checking quotes and enjoying the good ones.. i saw this quote ( love looks not with the eye, but with the mind ) and it clicked... actually it was said by William Shakespeare... so i thought i would do a visual that translates that quote :) so i started searching for photos and i was lucky to find these photos that i have worked with....







and then i started working on the blue color and made the plastic recycle tray a yellow bihohazard one...





in here i started creating glass that surrounds the model....
i added steam to the glass... biohazard logo... and then i increased the opacity of the steam....





here i started working on back/above light to add more theme to the image.. then added some shades of white around the model to blend him with the background light... then i started adding rayes of yellow color...




then in here i have added the final touches ( smoke, finger prints and the text... )





and here it is the final image

Clown

Hey Guys!! :) how r u all doing ?! :)

i am here to show u something new i have just finished.. i was in the photo shoot as a model to take the role of a clown :) so this time.. is not about my photo.. it's all about the post processing that i have applied to that image that was taken by my dear friend, Miriam Benyamin....

so let me start :)



as u can see in here.. the raw photo.. with the black background.... i started masking it and did some retouch work to the face and make-up to make the lines of the make-up clear and sharp... :) also changed the color of the background to a dark red... u will know why it was a dark red in a bit :)





here i have added the magic wand and it's smoke :) dropped a shadow of the whole figure and then i added an overlay light that changed the dark red to an appealing one....





started working on the background to add more circus look to the photo.. :) and i have to thank Britney Spears for helping me out with this part :D if u r a Britney fan u will know what i mean :D




here i got these curtains and masked it and placed it in the places u can see... i edited the colors of these curtains a bit to match the atmosphere of the photo :) and dropped a shadow to add more realistic effect :) to the theme...





finally i wanted to add a text to the image... tried to get a decent font to type a clown... but actually it was very artificial with all the textures and stuff to use a clean text.... i know i could have manipulated the text and put some textures on it a bit to match the theme and atmosphere of the image... but actually at that time.. the psd file reached more than 800 MB :D so i said a raster image would be fine and enough to add the effect.. so i started searching for a photo that has the text circus or a clown in it.. and i was lucky enough to find this image... :)





here is the final image
hope u like it...
and i promise u... next time... i will add more details in my posts so it could help u out to edit ur photos in a little bit better way.... :)

:) Salam :D

Red

Well, it's nice to be back and talk about photos :) i thought of this post to show u how i usually work on my photos and how i try to make the result as good as i can..

this photo was taken in Lebanon... in an old house as u can see... and i usually use this effect.. it adds more rich colors to the image... just make a new layer of the photo change it to "B/W".. and change it's blending mode to "overlay" and u will get a result so close to this one... and u could control the opacity.... this B/W Overlay layer.. adds depth to ur image in a very strong way..





here i started controlling light and the color of the final image i want to see....






i got that girl's photo and started masking it.. then moved it to the image i am originally working on.... as u can see.. i have changed the color of dress to match the color of the theme of the whole image....



then the final touches that adds somehow better look to the image... and this is final image u have seen :)



hope u liked the image at the first place or u won't care about what i did aslan :D

Me..

Before i get into action using this blog, i thought i would give an introduction about myself...

i have started to do some wallpapers designs using celebrities photos for fun waaay back when i was 17 years old...it was all for fun, didn't know it would turn to be my life career... it wasn't long till i started wondering why am i using photos that are not MINE..!! and then i got to spend some time at one of my father's friends studio for a period of time... and there i met that awesome girl who i consider till now my Godmother in the graphic design field.... Thanx Lina :D



i started taking photos and here i have attached the very first photos i have taken "the world is too big" and "can i do it"... these simple photos and some other ones got me the ticket to be part of a good talented community.. i met so many good photographers back then and in these photos u could see me HOLDING THE VERY FIRST DSLR IN MY LIFE... which was Nermeen Youssef's one :D thanx Nermz :D u r in the heart dear... :D and here i knew for sure this is where i want to go.. and i wanted to go very far in that field... and that monkey photo is one of the very first photos that i was satisfied with..



i took a 9 months scholarship in graphics and multimedia after i finished college.. wasn't really related to art as it was related to using the programs that i can apply art with... yea i lack the academic part when it comes to art.. it's sad... but some how it makes me proud of who i am.. coz i am what i am according to a self study basis...

after i have finished the whole course i got trained at "BBDO Impact - Cairo's office" for a while - can't remember how long it was but it was kinda more than 4 monthes - it was that hectic time of my life.... though that i have never failed to enjoy my time and have some good close friends :D MAGDY THE DUDE, u made it easy for me :D





then i got that job offer in Brainstorm for Media Services.. i was a creative designer and i enjoyed it... i met some talented raising stars in the world of media and arts and they trusted me when it came to leadership... loved that period of my life :D and i got to create the most of the IN PACKAGE of a tv channel called "A3mal" and the identity of securities brokerage place which was very new to me, to think of every little detail creating a whole identity of something.... Alaa Kishk, Mo'taz.. U R AWESOME :D




and here i am working for MBC GROUP - New Media... for it's web applications and pages.. working with that amazing team in Cairo office... and i am enjoying it.. LOVE U ALL GUYS....




and just for the record :D i am an Adobe Certified Expert "Photoshop"




not that very glowing story of success... but i am proud of it....



the next posts are going to be completely different... i will tell u guys how did i work on my photos in an organized way.. so if u want me to show u how did i work on an exact photo, don't hesitate and tell me which one it is... and i will work on it for u....



This post is dedicated to... Seif

A Simple Start

This is a simple start to show you my work. Soon i will be posting images regularly and showing you more of my art...