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Posts tagged “Corel ParticleShop

The Wildfire

Image of Spanish Moss forest in yellow and oranges

This image is actually of trees covered with Spanish Moss, but apparently I got carried away thinking about all the fires in the West and ended up with a very scary image. Some think it actually looks like a really sunny day in Autumn. I actually turned this image into a black and white with Nik Silver Efex Pro. The birds were created in Corel Particle Shop. Then a Gradient Map was applied to add this brilliant orange and yellow effect using a gradient made up of reds and oranges and yellows and set to Color Burn blend mode. On separate layers painted in clouds that looked like smoke in brown, beige, yellow and orange. Then back into Particle Shop to add some more smoke effects. Used Viveza to add the final border vignette and that was about it. It was fun to just take an image and see what can be done with it!…..Digital Lady Syd


A Wintry Florida Holiday

Image of the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida, with a wintry feel
Having some Holiday fun here – spent a long time getting this beautiful entrance to the Henry P. Leu Gardens image to look like it was under the snowy spell of the Northern US.  I would go over all the steps in detail, but it would end up pretty long. Just say that lots of layers were used which included: the Liquify Tool, the Clone Stamp Tool, Content-Aware Move, a couple Dodge Curve Adjustment Layers, Corel’s ParticalShop filter, Magic Dust Pretty Actions Brush layer, 100 Silver Lights Photo Overlays 16 and 17, Stroke and Spatter Dual Brush by John Derry layers, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Impression 2 Chalk Smudge I preset, Alex Ducal’s Sketch Splatter brush layer, Pretty Actions Merry Christmas overlay, Grut’s FX Cloud Gumbo 01a brush layer, Topaz Lens Effect Reflector filter, and Nik Viveza 2 filter. Lots of fun! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!…..Digital Lady Syd


A Bird Christmas Tree

Image of a Masked Lapwing
This bird is a Masked Lapwing that was photographed at the Palm Beach Zoo. I decided I needed to practice some painting so I picked this funny guy who sort of waltzed into my shot. Since the background was not too exciting, I decided to give him a little more holiday spirit by both painting and adding several filters. This image uses a lot of different filters and textures. The background texture is from Kim Klassen called Papertrio Paper and Paste (not sure it is still available but she has some beautiful textures) – applied twice, the second time set to Hard Light at 49% layer opacity. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReMask was used to select the bird and put him on his own layer – then used the Mixers to paint him. Used Grut’s MI Sues Hedge brush to soften and get the pretty edging between the brown and white feathers and am finding this to be a very useful mixer! Also used one of Fay Sirkis’s hair blenders. Have to find the right brushes to paint these guys! French Kiss (see sidebar for website link) Myrica Gale png was used for the plant – color was painted on a layer underneath it to add some colors. On a stamped layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) Topaz Impression 2 was opened and Cezanne 2 preset was applied but masked out the bird to retain my painting strokes. On another stamped layer Topaz ReStyle’s Emerald preset was applied. Set the opacity to 69%. Corel’s Partical Shop was opened and used the Flame brush to paint a little color in the tree leaf and used Cluster brush to add some lights to the plant. Then used the Star brush to create the bright star on top and added a little color in by turning off the Glow and painting a little on the branches. Its Eraser brush was used to soften the effect a little. (See my Intro to Corel ParticleShop Brushes for Photoshop blog.) Back in PS, this layer looked pretty bright so lowered the opacity. Magic Dust Pretty Actions Brush was used to add a little white snow effect on tree and underneath text. Added some texture and clean up was done to finish up……Digital Lady Syd


Bird of Paradise

Image of a Bird of Paradise plant with white bloom
This beautiful white flowers in a Bird of Paradise in my front yard was fun to post-process. Used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Clarity to sharpen overall, and Topaz Simplify with the Simplify Size slider set to 0.17 which removed some of the bad spots on the leaves. Painted on the flower stems and stalks to further remove bad areas and add a little texture to them. Used the Corel ParticleShop plug-in to remove the background area using Blend brush and the Blender Tool. This plug-in can be very handy! On a stamped layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) Topaz Texture Effects 2 was used – used Fall Foliage Foggy Morning (downloaded from the Topaz Community) with a few adjustments to the Basic Adjustments section. In the Texture section, masked the texture off the focal point with the Brush tab set to a Strength of 0.66. Did some clean up and added the free Nik Viveza 2 to enhance the focal point. Added Sarah Gardner’s Frame Collection Paper Frame 05 on top that is a free download. That is all that was done for this nice vintage effect!…..Digital Lady Syd

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Feeling Fancy

Image of Gray Heron with fancy painted plummage
Thought I would do another image to show what the Corel ParticleShop brushes can do for an image. Here is a little gray heron recently taken sitting on my porch screen (see link to original image).  The Exclusive Pack of brushes was used to create this image – these come with the plug-in when it is purchased. Here are the brushes that were used in this image:  used the Fabric brush and painted out the fancy wings – Size 73/Opa 52; used Hair to add in more bluish lines in the wings – Size 120/Opa 100/Value Variability 5/Min Length 25; used the Wild Grain to some texture to sky used bluish tones – Size 75/Opa7/Count 15/Grain 55; used Cluster to add some little flecks in the head feathers Size 73/Opa 67 with yellow/white flecks and no Glow; used Fur to add some yellow cast on the light side of the bird; used Lightwaver to add the feathers on his breast; and used Fur to adjust the yellow over the breast areas. On a layer above Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Texture Effects 2 was applied with a few adjustments. That was about it! Love this regal bird!…..Digital Lady Syd