There are several ways to add the t and perhaps create a somewhat abstract image out of your photos. Whatever way you do it, choose subjects that are fairly simple, because detail will be lost when the subject undergoes the t treatment. Generally, favor strong colors and place them against a contrasting background.
Pane in the glass
If you have a shower with a t door, you have the first essential accessory. If not, you can buy sheets of t glass or plastic at practically any hardware store. You can also find a wide selection of t both coarse and fine, at glass suppliers and home-improvement centers. The coarseness and size of the piece to get will depend on the subject you’ll be photographing and the t technique you use.
Another option is to add t to a sheet of plain glass yourself. One method worth trying is to spray the glass with a fine mist of water. Or you could randomly dab small blobs of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) or clear, dimensional glue (such as E6000, hot glue, or Diamond Glaze) over the glass. You might even want to scratch the surface of a sheet of clear plastic.
Oh yes, there’s one important point about the camera when shooting t pictures: Set the focus to manual so you can focus on the subject, not the glass in front of it, as automatic focusing systems are apt to do.
Large Objects
Placing objects behind a t glass shower door is a good setup for fairly large objects, such as a bowl of fruit. The rest of the family will think you’re a bit crazy, but ignore them.
Place a stool or small table inside the shower area (make sure it’s dry!). Your camera goes on the other side of the shower door. Use a tripod because you probably won’t have a lot of light. You don’t want to use flash unless you can put it on the subject-side of the door; otherwise the light will be unpleasantly reflected off the glass. Play around with the setup. You’ll see that the closer the object is to the glass, the more realistic it will be; the farther away it is, the more impressionistically abstract it will be. The choice is yours.
In the picture on the left, the fruit was almost touching the shower door; on the right, it was a few inches farther back. If the subject is more than several inches away, it will be rendered as little more than a colorful blur.
No shower door? Okay. Use a sheet of t glass or plastic. You may be able to make it stand upright between a few books or bricks, giving you the same type of setup as with the shower door. Or you could place two piles of books on a table, several inches apart, and rest the glass on them, then put flowers, fruit, or other objects underneath the glass. Either way, provide light from a window or lamps to light your subject, making sure the light does not strike the glass directly, which will cause reflections.
T the great outdoors
In the previous examples you saw that objects must be fairly close to the t glass in order to get recognizable images, so that would rule out t a scenic vista or, for that matter, anything larger than the sheet of glass.
Obviously, the above picture shows it can be done. But it has to be done in two steps.
First, you take a conventional photograph of the scene. Then you place a print of this scene on a table with the t glass over it. The setup is similar to placing actual objects on a table with the glass above them. You’ll get the best results with this kind of setup if the t of the glass is finer than the one you’d use for shooting actual objects. The smaller the print– or the smaller the objects in the print–the finer the t you’ll want to use. But you may want to see what happens with a coarse-t glass. And you certainly should vary the distance of between the glass and the print to get different effects.
Whatever kind of glass you use, photograph the setup from above with a macro lens or other close-up optic that will enable you to fill the frame with the image.
Working with slides
You don’t have to restrict yourself to re-photographing prints; you can create the t look with slides, too. For instance, you can put your slide on a light box, place a finely t piece of glass above the slide, and photograph it from above. Put the bumpy side of the glass away from the slide so there’s no danger of the protrusions scratching it.
Project on t material. Slides are made to be projected, but no one said you have to use a conventional screen. A cleverer idea is to project the slides on a piece of t material, then re-photograph the projected image. Your screen can be a piece of white or neutral-colored burlap, tweed, denim, canvas, or other t fabric. Or use bricks, stone, wood, sandpaper, or carpeting—the possibilities are limitless.
When you’re ready to take the picture, turn off the room lights and put your camera lens as close as you can to the projector lens to avoid distorting the picture.
Rear projection. Another good method is to project your slide onto a rear-projection screen. Rear-projection material is translucent, and the projected image will be visible on the side opposite the projector. The setup is to put your projector on one side of the screen and your camera on the other side, facing it. Stand a sheet of t glass or plastic on the camera side of the screen, placing it as close as possible to the screen. The images on the slide should be large and simple, since this method distorts the images more than the previous ones.
Slide Sandwich. Remove a slide from its mount. Instead of glass or plastic, take a piece of tissue paper, lens-cleaning tissue, tulle, one ply of toilet paper, or other very thin paper or fabric, and cut it so it’s the same size as the slide. Remount the paper together with the slide in a fresh mount. You can use this slide sandwich in a slide show or have a unique print made from it.
…or, you can click a button in Photoshop: You can add t to an image in about 15 seconds in Photoshop! Open your image, go to Filter> T > T and chose one of the t offered; then play with adjusting the scale, amount of relief, and direction of lighting.
However, while t is certainly fast and flexible in Photoshop, some of the more traditional methods described above give really beautiful effects, as you can see.
Besides, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as doing it in the camera.
