The Process
- Russel Bash
- Mar 11, 2018
- 3 min read
The thought occurred to me that a brief journey into the process of making these might be something some of you would find interesting. So I've put together a visual illustration of how these kaleidoscope images are generated step by step. Here is a finished piece that I consider one of my absolute favorites, "Nesting Hens". The original image was taken at Noble Park, next to the duck pond, when the tree was in full fall coloring. It's finished with a hand-made frame of solid walnut, (of course) which really ties the piece together.
This is the original image. Step one. I have found that trees are great subjects for these because the branches offer a linear element that gives an interesting geometry to the piece. In fact, photographing something with linear elements has become practically a necessity in making a successful kaleidoscope. Without it, there is really not much to look at. One of the first times I realized this was when I tried to kaleidoscope a cloud, expecting something amazing to be revealed, only to find that it looked nearly the same as the original. Another key ingredient is some variation in tone within the image. You want something that is going to be a highlight in the center. This is another instance where trees really stand out the perfect model. Sunlight always peeks through some of the branches a little brighter in places, and I like to work that into the middle of the piece. It ends up looking almost like a stained glass window.
So now comes the interesting part. You have an image that you're fairly certain is going to give you something amazing. Enter Photoshop. The steps are fairly simple, and I have them laid out below. It's just a series of mirroring triangles. First you clip your original image into a right triangle. As you can see, only a portion of the image is visible. That triangle is then mirrored horizontally, and those two triangles are mirrored vertically. That gets us to the third image below. That last step is to make a copy of that third image, and rotate it 90 degrees, and that will give a completed kaleidoscope effect. But that's just the beginning. . .
The final step is where it really gets magical. Remember how I said that when you clip your original image into a triangle, only a small portion will be showing? What about the rest of it you ask? Well, if you make a "smart image" out of the first triangle you create, Photoshop can do something amazing with it. You can rotate the image within the first triangle, and Photoshop will update the rest of the triangles automatically to match, giving you a completely different kaleidoscope from the same original. It basically operates the same as rotating the end of your toy kaleidoscope to change the image. I go through dozens of possibilities with each image I work with before I call it a day. Sometimes choosing a favorite at the end can be the hardest part. Here are just a few I generated from this image as a demonstration of what is possible.
So that's it in a nut shell. A fairly simple procedure that yields endless possibility. An architecture professor of mine once said, there is a difference between 'complex' and 'complicated'. I like to think of my kaleidoscopes as complex, but not too complicated. I hope you'll agree.
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