Just a Little Hibiscus

Image of my pink Painted Lady Hibiscus on my porch – they are such beautiful blooms! Thought I better practice painting a little in Photoshop as I had not done anything recently so here it is. In Lightroom and Dave Delnea’s Backlight 002 vertical preset was applied, and the middles of the flower was sharpened. The image was brought into Photoshop and Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Clarity using John Barclay’s Basic settings (Micro Contrast 0.36, Low Contrast 0.20, Medium Contrast -0.11, and High Contrast -0.23 – then my settings of Red Sat 0.22; and Lum Red -0.17 and Green 0.72). Next Topaz Black & White Effects plug-in was applied using a plug-in I call SJ Church (Conversion Basic Exposure Contrast 0.06 and Brightness 0.05; Quad Tone Color 1 Region Color (R7/G0/B7) and slider 9.95, Color 2 Region Color (R59/G51/B53) and slider 69.66), Color 3 Region Color (R158/G143/B146) and slider 150.6, and Color 4 Region Color (R255/G253/B216) and slider 255.0: and Transparency 0.58 – in the Mask, painted detail on stem and pistal using Brush Opacity 0.25/Hardness 0/Edge Aware 0.50 brush. Using same brush set to a small size 73, selected Burn and painted in the pistil shadow and some detail in the flower top. Used Color adjustment and painted in a little on flower tips. Dodges the left side of pistil and stem.) On a layer above, Jai Johnson’s beautiful free Spring Blush Canvas texture was added and a layer mask was added. Used my SJ Pastel 11 brush (I used Pastel 11 in SDW Pastel Brushes-this comes in as a huge 2130 px brush! I made it a 70 px brush – added Shape Dynamics and Texture to make a nice painting brush) set to 29% or less brush opacity, the flower was gently painted back in the layer mask. Text was added and a Levels Adjustment Layer was used to add back some contrast. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd