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Meeting a Belarusian Horse!


This beautiful horse was in a field outside an old wooden windmill in Belarus. I had forgotten I had taken his pix. Since I did a blog called Can You Get a Painting Look With a Photoshop Action? Jack Davis Can!, this image was processed in Lightroom using his Wow! Antique 03 preset, which included the framing. Check out my other blog for downloading info of his Lightroom presets. The image was taken into Photoshop and the Burn and Dodge Tools were used directly on a duplicate copy of the background. I would never have tried this if I had not watched a short video on Lynda.com called Black and White with Lightroom and Photoshop by Bryan Hughes O’Neill, Adobe Photoshop Senior Product Manager who really knows what all the sliders do in these programs. It was very interesting and I learned to use these tools. The main thing to remember is to keep Protect Tones checked. With the Dodge Tool set to Shadows at 50% Exposure, the horses eyes were painted over to make them pop. Burning Tool was used to separate his face from the field using Midtones and Highlights selected. A New Layer was created for the Sharpen Tool – therefore be sure to check Sample All Layers and Protect Detail in Options Bar. The Strength was set to 12% and the effect was built up slowly where sharpening needed to be added. It does not introduce a lot of artifacts this way. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added on top and dragged down in image to get a little more contrast. That was all that was done to get this lovely effect. What a beautiful creature!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Using Old Wallpaper for a Vintage Look
My Favorite Adobe Lightroom 5 Features

06/18/2013 | Categories: Lightroom, Photoshop Tools | Tags: , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Clarity with Texture!


I love how this image turned out – totally me! This is a beautiful pink variety of a Day Lily – huge beautiful blooms that I bought at WalMart! Nothing was done in Lightroom other than the checking Enable Lens Profile and Remove Chromatic Aberration, and adjusting the Crop. In Photoshop the layer was duplicated and the new Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Clarity plug-in was applied using the settings shown below. Note that the Red Hue slider was set to -0.59 along with the other settings in the screenshot.


These settings bring out the pink a little more in the flower. A burn layer was created using my The Best Dodging and Burning Technique! blog, and a paint clean up layer to make the stamen stand out more. Now what really made this image pop was using the beautiful Texture 86 by Lenabem-Anna – check out all her fabulous textures on Flickr that can be downloaded for personal use. It was duplicated and on the bottom layer a layer mask was added where the pink flower was lightly painted out. I did not want to completely cover up the background purple flowers in the image so the opacity was set to only 61%. Since I wanted the flower to have some texture but not pick up the color from the it, two steps were performed: 1) the texture layer was duplicated and a black layer mask was added where the flower was lightly painted back. This time the layer as set to Hard Light and the layer opacity was only 35%;  and 2) a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer was clipped to the texture (ALT+click between the layers) and the Saturation slider in Master was set to -100 and Lightness +13. Now the texture color only appears in the background. Totally loved the final result! …..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Getting a Nice Painterly Landscape Effect with Topaz Simplify and Texture
Where Am I?
Digital Lady Syd Reviews Topaz Clarity

06/13/2013 | Categories: Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

Pretty in Pink! with Topaz Clarity


I do love to photograph my gerberas – they are always so pretty. This time I really changed them up. I think they are as pretty in pink as they were in yellow! So I was really just playing around in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) photoFXlab just to see if the new Topaz Clarity plug-in would work nicely with it. I didn’t even keep track of the changes I made exactly in Clarity, but I did use the Hue/Sat/Lum section to turn the flowers pink. I just kept fooling around with the sliders until I got a color I liked – used the Overall sliders on each of these sections and also adjusted the Clarity section too. Back in photoFXlab, adjusted the Dynamics slider a little to the right. Created a +From Stack Layer and opened up Topaz Simplify 5 where the Paint 5 preset was applied. Back in photoFXlab, the Mask tab was selected and the centers of the flowers were painted back so the detail from the Clarity layer remained. Exited the plug-in and did some basic flower clean up. Created a couple New Layers and used two of my free Cloud Brushes (Brush 6 and 9) to add some interest to the background. Added a Curves Adjustment Layer and evened out some of the petal color. Then added 2 Lil’ Owls Color Bokeh Grunge Set-2 overlay to the image (set to Normal at 100% opacity). Next the text was added using the free font Ruthie. Kim Klassen‘s Square 3 border was added last and set to 52%. The last step added another Curves Adjustment Layer to enhance overall contrast. That was it. I just love playing with my flowers in Photoshop!…..Digital Lady Syd

PS: Check out my Fun Photoshop How to Create an Overlay Out of a Texture blog to see the frame it was put in.

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Digital Lady Syd Reviews Topaz Clarity
Topaz Simplify Artistic Workflow
Digital Lady Syd’s Review of Topaz photoFXlab v1.1

06/11/2013 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Filters | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Using Old Wallpaper for a Vintage Look


Just another pretty image of my zinnias growing in my front yard. In Lightroom a preset I created from Jack Davis’ video (see my Can You Get a Painting Look With a Photoshop Action? Jack Davis Can! blog for link) – this was another part of the video where he shows you how to make an Antique Looking preset in ACR, but it can be done as easily in Lightroom. (It is also in his Facebook link for Lightroom presets download.) Once brought into Photoshop, a New Layer was created and the Mixer Brush was pulled out to define the leaves more, especially the ones in front. Fay Sirkis Four Season Classic FX Highlilghts #1 was used along with her 03 Palette Knife Blender brush, downloaded from her webinars on the NAPP website. She just completed a series of four videos where she goes over each season – wonderful videos if you want to learn to paint! Eventually this layer was set to 82%. On top of the Mixer Brush layer, Caleb Kimbrough vintage wallpaper2 was added (he has several free wallpapers to download) and set to Darker Color blend mode at 39% opacity. A layer mask was added and the flowers painted back into the image. Next an Overlay created from Kim Klassen’s Cloth & Paper texture Touch was applied and set to Multiply blend mode. A medium green Color Fill Layer was added, clipped to the overlay, and set to 70% opacity to add a little green tint to the edges. A Selective Color Adjustment Layer was added to get just the right color of red/magenta in the image. Then a Vibrance Adjustment Layer was added and set to +100 to add back a little color. The last step involved sharpening using a High Pass Filter, setting the mask to black, and painting back just the center of the flower and little bit of the wallpaper. Really loved the final vintage feel to the image……Digital Lady Syd

06/06/2013 | Categories: Lightroom, Photoshop Tools, Textures | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Digital Lady Syd’s Rule No. 10: Use What You Know!


Just thought I would remind everyone that you do not have to keep changing every workflow to incorporate that new technique into it. Sometimes it is better and faster to use what you know, especially if you are just doing a little processing of an image. That is exactly what I did on this image. I like this image of the Tower of London because you can a little boy peaking out at the sidewalk and the Thames River. There is also part of another little boy in the guard house. So much going on in London!

I really wanted to do a black and white, and it looked good with a slight sepia tone on it, but when I took this image into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Black & White Effects 2, my Sunny preset brought out the colors the way I liked them. In Lightroom there was just the regular slider adjustments going on (see my How to Use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or Lightroom 4 Quickly blog) and the Upright Adjustment was also used to straighten the image out (see my Lightroom 5′s New Upright Adjustments Section blog). Once in Photoshop, I went into Black & White Effects and just applied my preset, that’s all – for all the settings for this preset, see my Sunny Preset for Topaz Black and White Effects blog. (This is one of my favorite presets for the program.) Did some clean up on a New Layer. Then created two New Layers, a Darken and a Lighten layer, set to Overlay for dodging and burning (see my The Best Dodging and Burning Technique! blog link). That was it.

As you can see, I really do use the techniques I present. Everything in this blog is what I normally look at when post-processing an image. Hope it gives you ideas on how to do your images too!…..Digital Lady Syd

06/04/2013 | Categories: Digital Lady Syd's Photoshop Rules, Photoshop Filters | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Bleach Bypass Look on a Landscape Image


This may be the most beautiful and interesting library ever made. I posted a couple times on Flickr with other images (see Minsk Library, Inside Minsk Library, and Minsk Library at Night) but this time I decided to process the inside ceiling which is all glass – totally breathtaking! As you can see, I caught the eye of the guard down below, but he lends a wonderful scale to the image. I had a hard time deciding what to do with the image as the original was not that bad but I wanted to enhance the light and airy feel in the image. So I tried everything I could think of and this is what I got!

First applied Topaz (see sidebar for website link) DeNoise 5 – the image was shot at ISO 1600 so it had some issues. Used the Overall Strength set to .17 and set the Shadows to .82. The layer was copied and Topaz Detail 3 was applied using the Architectural Detail II preset – this image was perfect for this preset. Next Black & White Effects was applied where I mainly applied a regular black and white preset and started moving sliders. What I think really made the image pop was the application of the Creative Effects Diffusion effect where the Softness was set to 0.10, but the Diffusion slider was set high at .91 and Diffusion Transition set to 0.61. This really made the roof lines pop without being too sketchy looking. Then Kim Klassen’s Cloth & Paper Reign texture was applied and set to Soft Light blend mode to lighten the image and add some blue tones back into the image. It was duplicated and this time set to Multiply at 24% layer opacity. Next a Levels Adjustment Layer was added to lighten the image more by moving the Output Levels to 23/255 and the midtone slider to 1.39. Next a Curves Adjustment Layer was added to lighten it even, and a bit of a vignette was painted around the edges of the layer mask. It still did not look quite right – almost blown out. That is when I tried a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer and clipped (ALT+click between the layers) it to the top texture layer. The 3DLUT File was set to Bleach Bypass.look in the drop-down, although several look rather nice. The last step involved creating a composite (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) on top and adding my SJ B&W Border Frame. I really like how the diffused settings made the ceiling lines look. Anyway, it was once again a lot of fun to experiment!…..Digital Lady Syd

05/30/2013 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Some Vintage Zinnias


Just playing with my Zinnias. I was trying to a vintage, wallpaper feel behind them. I actually opened Topaz (see sidebar for website link) photoFXlab from Lightroom. Here are the steps completed: Applied Topaz Clarity – SJ Illustrative Look – with a few adjustments, duplicated layer, set Dynamics slider to 9 and Saturation -17, duplicated layer, enter Topaz Adjust and apply my Rick Sammon Spicify Soft Artsy, back in photoFXlab the Adjustments settings stayed on this layer, duplicated layer, duplicate layer, in B&W Effects applied SJ_Quad_DkB_GR_Yel_Wh preset, an exited the plug-in to Photoshop. Just a few steps here. Guess what I am trying to show is that there is a lot of versatility here with photoFXlab. Once in Photoshop some clean up was done and French Kiss Studio Selections 3 White Wash texture was applied (I use this texture a lot and it is in a very reasonably priced set). On the white was I used Brush Lovers Art Flowers 2000 (liked the brush best when applied directly to the French Kiss WhiteWash texture – just looked better). This brush was set up as a preset – had to select the dark red color 4e322e and dark green color 3c3e38. In the Brush Panel I turned on Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Smoothing, Size  394 px, Spacing 434% and then Color Dynamics was added and size changed to 201 px. A layer mask was added to the layer to lightly brush out texture from the flower, but leaving a little to keep the grain intact. A Curves Adjustment Layer was clipped to the texture to bring out the cool texture a little bit more. 2 Lil’ Owls Studio Color Bokeh Grunge Set 4 was applied at 50% opacity and in the layer style, the Blend If This Layer’s white tab was set to 164. The last step involved adding two New Layers where just a couple strokes were applied, one layer using green and one the dark red color to add a little grunge feel to the image. The brush used was Nakatoni Custom Brushes texture brush (does not appear to be available anymore but any soft grunge brush would do). The preset settings are listed below. ….Digital Lady Syd

Here are the plug-in preset settings used if you are interested:

Topaz Clarity SJ Illustrative Look settings: If you would like the illustrative look, here are settings: in Clarity Section – Dynamics: Micro Contrast 1.00, Low Contrast 0.28, Medium Contrast -0.50, and High Contrast 0.06; Tone Level: Black Level 0.61, Midtones 0.14, and White Level 0.72; and in Hue/Sat/Lum Section – Hue: Only Red 0.16, Yellow -0.05, and Green -0.17 were adjusted; Sat: only Green -0.22 and Overall -0.45 were adjusted; and Lum: Only Orange 0.36, Yellow 0.89, Green -0.91, Aqua 0.30, and Blue -0.09 were adjusted.

Topaz Adjust Rick Sammon Spicify Soft Artsy settings: Adaptive Exposure section: Adaptive Exposure 0.50, Regions 25, Contrast -0.56, Brightness -0.13, Protect Highlights 0.03, and Protect Shadows 0.03; Details section: Strength 0.87, Detail Boost 1.15, Threshold 0.12, Radius 25.00, and Sharpen 1.01; Color section: Adaptive Saturation 0.33, Color Regions 10, Saturation 1.00, Saturation Boost 1.00, and Hue 0.00; and Noise section: Suppression 3.24, Amount 0.51, and check Use Topaz DeNoise.

Topaz B&W Effects SJ Quad DkB_Gr_Yel_Wh settings: Quad Tone: Color 1 Region: Color (R1/G1/B12) and set to 15.08, Color Region 2: Color (R63/G78/B85) and set to 143.9, Color Region 3: Color (R216/G211/B129) and set to 227.5, and Color Region 4: Color (R255/G254/B237) and set to 255.0: and Transparency: Overall Transparency 1.00.

05/28/2013 | Categories: Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

I Must Have Flowers!


Here is another example of some of the beautiful flowers that people grow around their dacha’s outside of Minsk in Belarus. I saw so many unusual and gorgeous flowers when visiting there a few years ago. In Photoshop, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 and Simplify (Watercolor II preset) were applied first. Kim Klassen‘s 1612 texture was added on top at the Normal blend mode. A layer mask was added and the flowers were painted back in with a soft edged, low opacity black brush. A pink to white to pink diagonal Gradient Fill Adjustment Layer came next and set to 40% opacity. Kim Klassen’s Cloth & Paper texture Touch (one of my very favorite textures) was set to Soft Light at 64% opacity. The last major step included adding 2 Lil’ Owls Studio Dream Freebie 1 texture set to Soft Light at 100% opacity, where the layer mask from the first texture was copied and added to this texture (ALT+drag the mask to new layer to copy). A Levels Adjustment Layer’s Midtone slider was adjusted to bring back some contrast to the image. Text was added using the free fonts Ruthie and Batik Regular. That was it. I love the soft feel to the image and the little bug in the flower…..Digital Lady Syd

05/23/2013 | Categories: Textures | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

Where Am I?


This is a tough one since this image is not of the main attraction in the area. This is the Burgh Hall Tourist Information Center (check out link for live webcams of area) that resides in the center of the town of Linlithgow, Scotland, just outside of Edinburgh. Linlithgow Palace (the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots) ruins are just behind this building along with a beautiful old church, St. Michael’s Parish Church, next to it. If you are in Edinburgh, it is a wonderful day trip as it is only a half-hour train ride to get there.

The image was processed using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Black and White Effects 2 three times! The first application used just the Traditional Collection Warm Tone preset set to an Overall Transparency of .90. Next, the same preset was selected, but the Diffusion Section with Softness slider set to .85, Diffusion to .65, and Diffusion Transition to .50, and the Overall Transparency set to 1.00 was applied. The the windows, steps and clock face were painted out using the Localized Adjustments section. The third time a Quad Tone preset I made was applied using Navy Blue, Green, Yellow and White tones . (Quad Tone settings are: Color 1 Region set to Red 1/Green 1/Blue 12 and slider set to 15.08, Color 2 Region Red 63/Green 78/Blue 84 and slider set to 143.9, Color 3 Region set to Red 216/Green 211/Blue 129 and slider set to 227.5, and Color 4 Region was set to white with slider set to 255.0.) Some Border Edging in white was added. French Kiss L’Artiste Dove Wings texture was added and the center of the image was lightly painted back in a white layer mask using a soft low opacity black brush. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added for contrast. Puppet Warp was used to slightly straighten out the buildings – this old building just did not have any straight lines! I totally love the slight diffused look on this image – definitely getting to be a favorite effect for me and I am seeing it a lot more in images now……Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Straightening with Puppet Warp!

05/21/2013 | Categories: Historical Info, Photoshop Filters, Where Am I? | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Zinnias Ready for Springtime!


Love my Zinnias! This image was first processed in Lightroom before going to Photoshop for an overhaul. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3′s Overall Detail Med II preset was applied. A black mask was added and just the flowers were painted back to be nice and sharp. Lightened the image with a Levels Adjustment Layer. Used Kim Klassen‘s Sunkissed texture set to Soft Light blend mode at 100% layer opacity, and then Julytrio ToBe texture set to Soft Light at 47% opacity. For the wallpaper effect, a New Layer was created and Brush Lovers Art Flowers brush 2000 (these used to be posted at BrushLovers.com but they do not appear to be available anymore-they have a lot of other nice little flowers brushes that would work) was selected – in Brush panel the Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Smoothing sections were turned on at default settings, and the Brush Tip Shape settings were Size 394 pixels and Spacing 434% before painting in light brown background effect. The layer opacity was then set to 41%. The font is a really old one from Cosmi named 31. A Curves Adjustment Layer was applied to add a little contrast back in the image after adding all the texture. Last a little brownish tinge of grunge was brushed in using Kim Klassen cloth and paper extras brush 2188 on the upper corners…..Digital Lady Syd

05/16/2013 | Categories: Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

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