My Scottish “Secret Garden”
This was a pretty ugly image to start with – very light green and hardly any contrast – it was a good challenge to get something I liked from it! It was taken in some little town in Scotland that was on the way to the highlands. I actually used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Infocus to sharpen it up a little and it did a pretty good job. This plug-in seems to be a lot like the Sharpen Shake Reduction filter in Photoshop CC. Did some clean up. Created a stamped layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) and applied Nik Viveza 2 to the image Helped me direct the attention to the center flowers. Next Topaz ReStyle was applied TRS-Tangerine Gauze preset. (Settings were: no changes to ReStyle section; Basic Temperature 0.13, Tint -0.14, and Saturation 0.06; Tone Black Level -0.59, Midtones -0.12, and White Level 0.34; and Detail Structure -1.00. Masks paintd back the center flowers using Color Aware brush and sampling the green leaves in middle – paint with 1.00 strength and Hardness 0.62 just the center flowers, little pink flowers, and purple thistles.) On a new stamped layer Nik Color Efex Pro plug-in was opened and several filters were stacked. (The filters were: Detail Extractor with Detail set to 69%, Contrast 68% and Saturation 26% and a control point was set on just the center yellow plant; Darken/Lighten Center using Shape 1, Center Lum 39%, Border Lum -57%, and Center Size 44%; Midnight Color Set Neutral, Blur 35%, Contrast 36%, Brightness 65% and Color 77% and overall Opacity 81%; Film Efex Vintage using Film Type 16 and overall Opacity set to 31%; and Vignette Filter Shape 1, Adapt Edges 19%, Transition 38%, Size 27%, and Opacity 43% and the overall Opacity 67%.) On a New Layer did a little edge clean up using my Chalk 60 brush, a Curves Adjustment Layer to add some contrast back into the image, and the Sharpen Tool on the middle plant thistles to emphasize them a little more. This seemed to take a long time. Wanted to show you that with the Color Efex Pro filters, there is usually an overall Opacity slider after the control points section that can really help adjust the filter look the way you want it. Anyway, it was a little “Secret Garden” that I saw!…..Digital Lady Syd
Scottish Waterway
I so love the images I got from Scotland several years ago and I just felt like doing a regular post-processing on an image. This image is probably not the best, but I actually like the total feel of the image so I decided to work on it anyway. The sky in this image is just awesome! So what did I do, well just the basic changes in Lightroom – no presets. In Photoshop the Blur Filter Shake Reduction was used and help a little bit. Also Nik Viveza 2 was used to tone up the foreground rocks. A stamped version (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) was created on top. Next Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 was opened and Flypaper Textures Fly Shell Collection preset was applied (it contains the Cross Processing and High Key filters) – I am enjoying these presets as Flypaper Textures has created some very nice filter combinations in this set. A couple layers of clean up were done to add some contrast in the background mountains. Then my biggest problem in this image was a little bit of chromatic aberration with red edges around the rocks. I could not get Lightroom to remove them so I still had this issue. This time I added a Black and White Adjustment Layer, filled the mask with black, zoomed way in, and with a small 4 pixel white brush set to 70% brush opacity, painted out the red so it became desaturated. It took a bit of time but it did the trick and now there is no more edge color issues. The last step was to add in a slight pinkish Color Fill Adjustment Layer set to Color blend mode at 20% layer opacity to the whole image – just wanted a little warmer feel to the image. Now I have the view I want to remember!…..Digital Lady Syd
Mossy Turtle
This turtle is carrying a lot of moss on his shell – didn’t realize this until I downloaded the image. Really funny looking but he does not seem to mind and the little fish seem to think it is cool! This image was taken during the brightest part of the day in a pond at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens in Ormond Beach, FL. Used a little split toning in Lightroom on this image, then in Photoshop added some sharpening using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3. Filled a layer mask with black and painted the sharpening back in the mask just were I wanted it. Added a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer with no changes but set to Soft Light at 45% layer opacity to brighten the image a little. (See my How to Use an Adjustment Layer to Localize Light and/or Dark in Image blog for more info on this.) I actually revised this image as I downloaded some really nice Nik Color Efex Pro presets from Flypaper Textures – ended using one of my own recipes but I really liked some of the results with the other presets. My preset used the Pro Contrast filter and Balance/Warmth filter to warm of the image just a little more. The last step was to add my SJ Thin Double Edge Frame to the image.
Turtle Talk
We appear to have a group of large turtles that like to meet on the fountain structure before it turns on every day. Sometimes there are five and sometimes there is one that is larger than all the others. It appears to me that they are gossiping in the sunshine before the day begins. All have their heads stretched way up.
Not much in the way of processing. First cropped in Lightroom and did a few color and tone adjustments. Added just a little sharpening and exposure to make the turtles pop out from the dark background using the Adjustment Brush. In Photoshop added Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail and then filled a layer mask with black and just painted back the turtles. Applied Nik Color Efex Pro filters: Darken/Lighten Center centering on the turtles, and then Monday Morning in the Neutral color set. Control Points were placed on the turtles and the opacity set to 41%. Back in Photoshop the brown text was added using the Regular Batik font. A Stroke layer style was added to a composite layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) on top and instead of a color, a pattern was added to the at a Scale of 13% and a Size of 21 pixels. I used a pattern that had some of the natural brown tones for the frame. That was it. Totally easy. I hope to be able to get some more images of my new turtle friends. Seems like we have a whole group in our little lake…..Digital Lady Syd
Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly
Just had to display this beautiful butterfly that appeared on my Bottle Brush bush recently. This is a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and had at least a 4-inch wide wing span. I did basic processing in Lightroom and then opened it in Photoshop. Just did a clean up layer and a Topaz (see website link in sidebar) Detail filter using the Overall Medium Detail II preset. I tried several different textures and nothing seemed to look right. So the layer was duplicated and the image was opened in Nik Color Efex Pro 4. These filters were stacked: Detail Extractor, Monday Morning using the Neutral color set and an opacity of 58%, Film Efex Vintage set to Film Type 13, and Vignette using a white color. These are all favorite filters of mine in this plug-in. Next OnOne’s (see website link in sidebar) old PhotoFrame 4.6 filter was applied using Kevin Kubota’s preset Kinky set to 63% opacity and a size increase of 7% and using a creamy color sampled from the image. Back in Photoshop a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was added and the Reds Saturation was set to -58 to tone down the bottle brush color. I love the vintage feel of this image. I am sorry that OnOne is not longer releasing PhotoFrames – I am having trouble duplicating these effects in their new suite……Digital Lady Syd
Fake Panoramic Effect
Taken the morning after Hurricane Sandy went past Ormond Beach in Florida, this image showed how strong the surf was and how gray the sky appeared even though the ferocious hurricane was not a direct hit. We were so fortunate that the storm did not hit Florida directly.
What I really like about the shot is how sharp the texture in the waves and beach surf is. To get this effect, the image was first processed in Lightroom where just basic slider corrections were made and a custom crop was created. I usually do not do this, but this image seemed to scream panorama to me as the sky was so plain and the main subject is the large expanse of water. Since everything was moving, a several shot panorama was out of the question, so it had to be faked. Click on image to see Lightroom version – it is very flat, not at all how I remember it. In Nik Color Efex Pro 4, a Cross Processing filter using Method C04 at 27% strength, Detail Extractor filter set to Normal (Detail Extractor at 64%, Contrast at 31%, and Saturation at16%) with 6 Control Points to restrict the filter effect to the sky area, and a Lens Vignette filter (Amount -9, toward Rectangle,Size 57% and Brightness -16%). In Nik Viveza 2 the Center was brightened. The Spot Healing Brush was used on a clean up layer, and Contrast was boosted with a Curves Adjustment Layer. The default preset in Imagenomics Noiseware was applied. When noiseware is applied, the image detail will usually get softer – therefore, in a white layer mask, I painted with a soft black brush the waves back so you can see the water mist detail. The last step was to apply my free SJ Thin Double Edge Frame layer style sampling colors from the image. Now I get the result I remember!…..Digital Lady Syd
Yellow Dogface Butterfly in her Glory!
This Southern Dogface Butterflies (named for their heads that look like French poodles) visited my purple pentas this fall. They are very skiddish butterflies and are hard to photograph. I used my 60 mm Nikon Macro Lens to catch the shot at F/3.2, 1/2000, and ISO 200. The image was processed first in Lightroom 4 using the workflow from my How to Use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or Lightroom 4 Quickly blog. To create the soft effect, Nik Color Efex Pro 4 was applied with several filters stacked: Midnight using Neutral Color Set, Glamour Glow with Glow set to 90%, Vignette, and Film Efex Vintage set to Film Type 2 and an Overall Opacity of 40%. The Sharpen Tool was applied to the face. Nik Viveza 2 was applied to soften the bright tones in the background and to sharpen the head a little more. My Mid Size Double Edged Frame was added to the image to finish up. I really enjoyed working on this image – it has a different feel to what I normally do……Digital Lady Syd
Loving SeaWorld!
Just a great start to a fun day at SeaWorld-Orlando. This is what you see right after entering the theme park. The lovely red flowers are red Bougainvilleas. In Lightroom three images were used in PhotoMatix’s Merge to 32-bit HDR program. Then the resulting TIFF image also was processed in Lightroom 4.2 before it was opened up in Photoshop CS6. Nik Color Efex Pro 4 plug-in was applied stacking these filters: Film Efex: Vintage using Film Type 4, Glamour Glow, Midnight using an overall Opacity of 40%, and Image Border Type 4. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added to adjust contrast and the Sharpen Tool was used on the blooms. I really love the lighthouse with the whale image……Digital Lady Syd
Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Digital Lady Syd Reviews Topaz DeNoise 5
Young Golfer of Long Ago
Since I am a golf fan and this weekend is the Ryder Cup, I thought I would post a golf picture I just found in my Scotland pictures. The image is of the monument at St. Andrews Cathedral of Young Tom (Tommy) Morris, who won four Open Championships (now called the British Open) in 1868-72, all before he was 22 years old. He also has the first recorded tournament “hole-in-one” and scored a course low of 77 on the Old Course at St. Andrews in 1868. Check out the link above for more interesting notes on his life. This image was processed in Photoshop using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 filters stacking: Detail Extractor at 88% opacity (otherwise it looked too grainy), Darken/Lighten Center, Brilliance/Warmth, Vignette, and Image Borders – simple black using Type 13. I love the way the Darken/Lighten Center can be used to direct the eye in an image. A Curves Adjustment Layer and some noise removal was applied – pretty much my basic workflow!…..Digital Lady Syd
Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Where Am I?
The Old Course at St. Andrews
Same Image – Different Look!
Digital Lady Syd’s Free Layer Style Frames
To download the free layer style frame above, a thinner version of it, and a nice black and white double edged frame, go to my Deviant Art site and click on the SJ Double Edge Frame Styles Download File button in upper right corner. To load into Photoshop, the Style Panel needs to be open (Windows -> Styles) – click on the upper right corner icon on panel to open pop-out menu and select Load Styles – navigate to folder where the file was downloaded and click Load. (To add them to listed styles in pop-out, load the style manually. If using Windows 7, go to Local C Drive/Users/user name/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Presets/Styles and move downloaded .asl file here – this adds file to Photoshop internal settings.) When using these styles, be sure the top layer is a complete layer (see Step 1 below) or it will not apply correctly.
TIP: If you want to use the colors from your image, just double click on the effect in the Layers Panel which brings up the dialog box for that effect. Click on the color swatch in the effect and when the Color Picker opens, sample image using the eyedropper that appears when hovering in your image – click to add that color into the frame. For the Inner Shadow effect, if you are not seeing any color update when sampling, change the Blend Mode to Normal from Multiply. Note that the next time you use the Layer Style, it will return to whatever colors you set originally, so save it as a New Layer Style if you want to keep the new color settings (see Step 5 below). Sampling colors from the image can often frame it beautifully!
Below are the steps on how to create my layer styles. I am using the frame colors seen above as they seem to look nice on many of my images.
1. Need to have an image layer on top for the layer style to work correctly. To do this, highlight the top layer in the Layers Panel and press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E to create a layer that combines all the active layers (eyeballs showing on left edge) in the image. Need to remember this shortcut as it is very useful when doing a lot of things in Photoshop!
2. Double-click on the top layer and the Blending Options dialog box appears. Be sure Blending Options: Default is highlighted on left side.
3. Check and click on Inner Shadow effect and change just these settings: Blend Mode to Multiply, Color Swatch set to brownish color (R165/G120/B0), Opacity 100, Distance 0, Choke 83, and Size 15 pixels.
4. Check and click on Inner Glow effect and change just these settings: Blend Mode Normal, Opacity 100, Color Swatch to greenish color (R115/G121/B42), Technique Softer, Source Edge, Choke 90%, and Size 19 pixels.
5. To save these settings as a Layer Style preset for using on other images, click the New Style button and name it and leave checked Include Layer Effects. Now click on Styles at top left in dialog box or open the Style Panel (Window -> Styles), and it will appear at bottom of the listed styles.
To create the little thinner frame around your image, in Step 3 set Size to 21 and in Step 4 set Size to 29. (For example, see my blog 32-Bit HDR Using Lightroom and CS6.) To create a nice Black and White framing, set Inner Shadow to Normal Blend Mode and Color Swatch to Black – still using Size 51 pixels, and Inner Glow to a White Color Swatch and Size 62 pixels. Of course you can adjust the sizes to look good on your image if they need it. If you do not like the way the style looks after applying, just CTRL+Z to delete and try another one. Try adjusting all the sliders and seeing if you can get an even nicer look.
This image of my pretty little purple Agapanthus bloom was processed using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 – BiColor User Defined filter set to white and light pink colors, Darken/Lighten Center centered on the flower center, and Glamour Glow filters. Two textures were added using Dr. Brown’s Paper Texture Panel (see my blog Russell Brown’s Paper Texture Panel Updated!) and Flypaper’s Apple Blush taster texture using Linear Light at 39% opacity and Creme Anglaise taster texture set to Overlay at 100 opacity. The last step was clicking on my SJ Double Edge Frame layer style in Styles Panel to apply.
Try using these layer styles – I think you will like them. The framing gives a clean sharp edge to an image, especially for posting on the internet……Digital Lady Syd
Unknown Little Girl Statue
Here is another beautiful little girl statue from an unknown sculptor at the Lightner Museum (old Hotel Alcazar) in St. Augustine, Florida. I decided to use several of my own textures on this image. First it was cropped, processed a little in Lightroom, brought into Photoshop CS6 where Nik Viveza 2 was used to sharpen only the statue. Nik Color Efex Pro was opened and Dark Contrast Filter and Glamour Glow filters were stacked. I then used four layers of my own textures that I created (two were made by painting on a white background with soft colors using a large Mixer Brush and one is of my lace curtains) and finally finished off with ShadowHouse Creations Old Photo 6 texture used twice – once as a Color Dodge layer at 43% and one as a Linear Burn at 88% on the background only. I loved the way it has an old Western look – she reminds me of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Textures are so much fun!…..Digital Lady Syd
Big Sky Preset for Lightroom 4.1
This is my “big sky” view above my little lake and what I have been seeing every afternoon this summer in Florida. Beautiful but very scarey! I wanted to try out Matt Kloskowski‘s (one of the Photoshop Guys from NAPP) new free Lightroom presets called Big Sky as a starting point – Strong in this case. After making adjustments in Lightroom, the image was taken into Photoshop and first Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 was applied stacking these filters: Brilliance/Warmth with Sat at 32%, Warmth 49%, and Perceptual Sat 40%; High Key With Dynamic High Key set to 61%; and Pastel Using Method 2. Next two Selective Color Adjustment Layers were created with black filled into their layer masks. One Adjustment layer was for the green grass so in the layer mask I painted back just the green area for that layer and the other targeted for the slight reddish color in the roofs. Next the new Color Lookup Adjustment Layer set to 3DLUT DropBlues.3DL was added – the sky was then painted over with a light gray to soften the change. (To learn more about Color Lookup, see TipsSquirrel’s Richard Hoffman’s short video here.) Next Nik Viveza 2 was used to smooth out the clouds and sharpen the house lines. Finally Imagenomics Noiseware was set to Full Stronger Noise preset. The last steps created a Curves Adjustment Layer for a little more blue using just the Blue Channel to increase the color and set to 70% opacity. Finally my Layer Style frame was used sampling the colors from the image (see DLS Free Layer Style Frames). I liked the way the preset worked – it looks very similar to how it appeared originally in Lightroom without all the adjustments and blue cast. The final result looks a bit like an architectural rendering seen in house brochures. And you got to love the clouds!…..Digital Lady Syd
Soft and Sharp Image at the Same Time!
Holoholkai Beach, a lava filled beach, on the Big Island in Hawaii. I just really like this image. It was a 3-shot HDR image processed in Photoshop CS6 Merge to HDR. This was done before the Lightroom upgrade to allow 32-bit processed Tiff images for processing. This image actually has 13 control points in my favorite plug-in ever, Nik’s Viveza 2, that sharpened some of the Lava rock and smoothed out the rough water to lead the eye through the image. Next Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 was used stacking Film Efex: Nostalgic filter using Film Type 4, Brilliance and Warmth using 34% warmth to warm up the image, and Glamour Glow which gives the image that soft look – a control point was placed at the focus point of the image to keep it sharp in that area. A Curves Adjustment Layer was used to for contrast and my Thin Layer Frame was applied (see DLS Free Layer Style Frames). Love the final result!…..Digital Lady Syd
Lightner Museum’s Unusual Chandelier
Sometimes you just like an image and that is what this is. The shot was taken at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida and I am having trouble finding any information about the chandelier. Very simple processing using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 filters stacking Tonal Contrast, Darken/Lighten Center, Detail Extractor, and Vignette. Next Nik Viveza 2 was applied to bring out the color a little more on the green grapes and a couple of the glass flowers. Imagenomics Noiseware was applied at Full Noise Reduction preset as the image was quite noisy due to the high 1250 ISO value needed to shoot in the museum. The last step added the OnOne PhotoFrame Vincent Versace photo wide frame (see sidebar for website link). I got a chance to play around with some of my favorite plug-ins!…..Digital Lady Syd
Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Little Girl Statue at Lightner Museum – contains all my other Lightner links at bottom of blog
32-Bit HDR Using Lightroom and CS6
This is a beautiful little town called Honomu is on the road to Akaka Falls on the Hilo side of the Big Island. I love how this image turned out – the original tonemapped file was totally flat. This image was processed as a 32-bit HDR image in Photoshop CS6’s Merge to HDR program, then brought back into Lightroom 4.1 as a TIFF file where it was adjusted using mainly the Basic sliders, then edited back in Photoshop CS6 as a 16-bit PSD file. From there, Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4‘s was opened and these filters stacked: Detail Extractor at 68%, Graduated Filters using Blue No.1 as the sky was an ugly gray color, and finally the Film Efex Vintage set to Film Type 21. Next Nik’s Viveza 2 was added and that is what really made the difference in this image – the detail was popped in the signage areas but smoothed in the sky. Imagenomics Noiseware was added to smooth out the roughness of the whole image. The frame I used is called SJ Thin Double Edge Frame and can be downloaded at my Tidbits Blog DLS Free Layer Style Frames. The colors for frame were sampled from the image. Once again an image that did not have too much going for it turned out really nice……Digital Lady Syd
Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
New Lightroom and Photoshop 32-bit Processing Capability
Enhancing Works of Art with Nik Color Efex Pro 4
I really loved how this image captured the Buddha statue through the window with the musical sculpture and bell that is protected in the the 1-mile walkway that goes between the hotel buildings at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island in Hawaii. I do not have any information on these pieces of art, but they are very interesting. Nik Color Efex Pro basically brought this image to life with four filters stacked: Film Efex Nostalgic using Film Type 4; Pro Contrast to brighten it up a little; Darken/Lighten Center placing the center towards the window; and Image Borders Type 12. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added back in Photoshop and that was it. The texture in the girl’s skirt is beautiful and the wall art was nice too!…..Digital Lady Syd
Hawaiian Bliss!
Every now and then I have to post another image from this wonderful resort! I know, a lot of people may consider it a little touristy, but I guess I am just a big tourist at heart and totally loved it!. This of course is the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island in Hawaii. A three shot HDR image was taken, processed in Photoshop’s Merge to HDR with no changes – just Remove Ghosting checked, then Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 (stacked these filters: Film Efex Vintage – Film Type 11, Detail Extractor using overall strength of filter to 86%, and Image Border – Type 11), and Nik’s Viveza to darken the corners a little and bring out the detail in the center of the image. Not very difficult but then when it is as beautiful as Hawaii, it is pretty easy to get great pictures!…..Digital Lady Syd
Digital Lady Syd’s Related Blogs:
Nik’s Viveza 2 Plug-In – A Hidden Gem!
Whale Watching with Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 & Viveza 2
Using NIK’s Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza Together