This week, Patti Moed asks us to share images from a theme she calls “Just For Fun”. With Halloween coming tomorrow, it’s a fitting topic for people in costume. Or maybe the challenge could take a humorous look at life or art. You can view some examples and Patti’s challenge post here. However, I decided to take my challenge response in a different direction. The story of this image collection goes back a few years when I discovered an unusual image on Facebook. The image I saw appeared to draw the subject out of the frame of the image creating an effect I call a “3D Popout. I decided I needed to try this technique for no other reason than just for fun.

For a time starting in 2014, I would create a composite image using a focal point in the photo to place the subject outside of it’s own background. A little bit of research on YouTube showed me many videos on how to do the technique using Photoshop. Being on the frugal side, I don’t use Photoshop, preferring instead to use Photoshop Elements (PSE) for any “serious” photo manipulation. Though PSE has much of the capability of Photoshop, it’s organized differently so I had to convert the video instructions to find the equivalent tools, sometimes even named differently, in PSE.

The first image I tried, the grave of Ira Hayes, came from Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC. I picked it because of the subject’s simplicity making it much easier to learn the technique. The small collection of images below features a few of my favorite 3D Popouts. In most browsers, you can click on an image in the gallery to enlarge it and to scroll through the collection.

John Steiner