I’ve already created two vector snowflake images, trying to make them very similar to original photos. This time i tried different approach: my goal is creating simplified image in just two colors, which represent only most significant details of real snow crystal, traced to smooth curves.
As source images i’ve picked again large and complex crystal Gardener’s dream and small Forget-me-not.
Vector files: EPS and SVG formats, pre-rendered PNG: 8000 x 8000
Prints available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
Licenses for commercial use – at Shutterstock.com.
This version shows only highlights of snow crystal’s glossy surface on black background:
Prints available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
Licenses for commercial use – at Shutterstock.com.
Processing workflow for these pictures is simple: i enlarged each snowflake about 4x times and applied Photoshop filter Image -> Adjustments -> Threshold – it allow to choose level of brightness, which divide picture to black and white pixels: any pixel that darker-than-selected level become black, and any that brighter-than-selected level become white. Resulting picture may look quite nice, but contain very jagged and unpleasant lines and edges, if we look closely. This is not problem, however, because vector tracer will convert every pixelated line to nice smooth curve. Also, i applied second filter: Artistic -> Cutout, which does exactly what i need: it simplifies picture and get rid of all small and insignificant image details. After adjusting filter sliders, picture are ready to vectorize.
This time i used nice, fast and free online service Autotracer.org. I applied these settings: number of colors = 2 and in advanced settings, smoothing=”smoother”. Resulting curves looks good in high resolutions.
Similar vector version for this small and simple crystal:
Licenses for commercial use – at Shutterstock.com.
Licenses for commercial use – at Shutterstock.com.
If you want to see more snowflakes, you can browse through all snowflake pictures.
Here you’ll find snowflake photo wallpapers in numerous resolutions and screen proportions, up to Ultra HD 4K.
And here is article about snowflake macro photography.