Rangefinder Magazine
September 2005

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Rf Cookbookby Gigi Clark
Remains of the Day: A Tapestry

I was recently in Canberra, Australia, shooting a wedding. On a walkabout with the couple, the bride kept commenting on the beauty of the city of her youth. I thought the fall colors reflected the color scheme usually found in medieval tapestries created to commemorate special occasions. Historically, tapestries reveal details surrounding an event, along with creatures found nearby. I decided to include the textures and techniques of the 15th century French tapestries, complete with rough sections that would show wear and tear. I spent the better part of the two weeks in Australia, documenting native animals such as kangaroos and koalas, and kept on the lookout for “special events,” such as the crimson rosellas—birds who mate for life—which showed up every time the couple appeared.

First, I scanned a kitchen towel that had a weave much like that of the tapestries, and I did a bit of “stitching” in Photoshop to create a larger area. For the outer border, I used the sculpted white marble twisting columns from the front of the Duomo in Florence, Italy, and filled the empty spaces between the spirals with red Japanese maple leaves that were photographed in Canberra, near the bridal site.

The centerpiece image was cleaned up of its “skeleton branches” and the bride’s dress was reworked to enhance the folds in the fabric by using adjustment layers. The entire scene of the couple and arbor was manipulated lightly using Photoshop filters, including Fresco, Poster Edges, and Rough Pastels, to give the subjects definition. A displacement map was then applied to the couple, creating the appropriate edges to the figures so they would seem woven, rather than photographic in nature. A blue sky with clouds was created, since the main image was photographed after sunset, yielding a blank sky. The inner frame is a composite of balls and gold border, created using the Spherize tool and Lighting Effects. The national flower, details from the coat of arms, koalas, kangaroos, and birds were cut out and placed on top of the burgundy border, using the blending layers in Multiply mode. The center scene was given a once over using adjustment layers to correct the color balance, as well as to enhance the hues of the blue arbor and surrounding yellow and green leaves, which are part of the national colors of Australia, found in the coat of arms.

Lastly, the towel scans were added, with opacity adjustment, as well as blending. The animals literally became “tapestry,” joining the other ornamental details, as well as the scene of the couple kissing. As the towel was medium beige, tending to dampen the color saturation of the images, final adjustments to brightness and contrast (using adjustment layers) overall allowed the tapestry to be seen in all its splendor.