Texturizing at The Lost Continent
This is an eatery sign at The Lost Continent in Universal Studios-Orlando. Since there was building scaffolding in the background, it looked like a great choice to try out my new textures from Denise Love at 2 Lil’ Owls Studio (see sidebar for website link). This one used is called Sublime 11, which I consider is one of her best textures and I have most of them, and The Grey Collection 11 set to Overlay at 11% opacity. Layer masks were added to both textures to bring back the detail I wanted to use and my Chalk Brush (Adobe Chalk Brush 60 with a Shape Dynamics Angle Jitter set to 19% in Brush Panel) was used to do this. I like the way it gives a more painterly edge to the strokes. Next her Delicate Paints 10 texture was added to warm up the image and was set to Vivid Light blend mode at 65% layer opacity. A Curves Adjustment Layer was used to add a little contrast back into the image since textures tend to remove contrast. On a stamped layer above (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle was used – not sure how I got the effect but just went through several of their presets until I found one that I liked – then I adjust the sliders to make it work. On a New Layer on top, the focal area was sharpened up by adding a little white paint and painting in darker paint for distracting areas. Really loved the final result – this is so much fun and thank you 2 Lil’ Owls for these wonderful texture you have been selling!…..Digital Lady Syd
Where Am I?
This beautiful skyline image was taken from the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine, Florida. This is a spire from Flagler College (the old Ponce de Leon Hotel) and the cupola on the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church. In Lightroom did just basic changes and sharpened up the spire and cupola slightly. In Photoshop the first thing I did, and do a lot, is go into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3- this time applied the Soft and Dreamy III preset to smooth out the leaves that were overly sharp and to reduce the detail in the close up roof. I changed the Cyan-Red, Magenta-Green and Yellow-Blue sliders (similar to the Color Balance Adjustment Layer) to get better colors. Some of my clouds (see my free Cloud Brushes) were added softly in the sky at 69% layer opacity. Kim Klassen Cloth & Paper Reign texture was used to add interest in the sky. Next Topaz ReStyle’s Warm Sand Dune Wash preset was applied to pop the colors a little. On a stamped layer (CTLR+ALT+SHIFT+E) the Camera Raw filter ‘s Radial Filter was applied to focus in on the spire and cupola. On another stamped layer OnOne (see sidebar for website link) Perfect Effects 8 was opened and a Blue-Yellow Split Tone set to a Balance of 81 was added, some detail painted back on the spire and cupola, and the Martha Border was the last step before saving back in Photoshop. I love beautiful St. Augustine!…..Digital Lady Syd
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Dahlia Flowers Chatting with the New BLooms
Just a couple of pretty dahlias growing in my front yard. I really loved the nice spring colors. This time I created a selection of the flowers and added French Kiss Tableaux Madeleine texture behind them. French Kiss Tableaux Halcyon was added on top and the flowers painted back with a large soft brush so most of the image was revealed – just the edges and some of the stems were not completely revealed. A new layer was placed on top and the Mixer Brush was used to blend the flower petals to give a slightly painterly feel to them. French Kiss Studio 3 White Wash texture was added on top and set to 13% opacity. A layer mask was added and the darker flower was painted back very softly to help draw the eye there subtly. On a composite layer on top (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle’s Cream and Plum preset (one of my favorites in the filter) was applied to give a little more purple color to the image. This filter can really give a better color palette and there are so many choices it was heard to choose one. A frame I had created in Corel Painter was placed on top as a last step. Lots of fun to created!…..Digital Lady Syd
Soft Pink Calla Lilies!
Just wanted to play with this beautiful image of soft pink calla lilies – love their color! Took them with my Android phone in the grocery and loved the result. Did nothing special to them in Lightroom – just the basics, then did a little clean up on the image in Photoshop before adding 2 Lil’ Owls (see sidebar for website link) Carnavale texture. Painted back the flowers in a layers mask attached to the texture and topped it off with Kim Klassen‘s Cloth & Paper Collection’s Magicfilm set to Soft Light blend mode at 45% layer opacity. This completed the vintage feel. The colors just did not look quite right to me and I had a hard time figuring out what to do to get the final look I liked. Then it hit me – go to my favorite plug-in – Nik’s Viveza 2 – and sure enough, with just two control points on the flower petals, I got just the color effect I wanted. Once again, lots of fun to do on boring Monday!…..Digital Lady Syd
Lantern at Stetson
This beautiful large lantern was sitting on top of a large brick wall introducing Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where my son goes to school. This was an easy image to post-process – just a little detail sharpening using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 so the glass etching could be seen better. Used a black layer mask and just painted back the glass areas. Next I used Mellisa Gallo (one of my favorite texture people) of Painted Textures November Twilight texture set to Linear Light blend mode at 100% layer opacity and April Impasto texture set to Multiply at 52% layer opacity – these were both from great deals she runs on her website each month. The lantern was painted back softly in a layer mask on each texture so the etchings still show up nicely. Now to get the lantern to light up just a little, I tried several different things and it just did not look right. My last attempt was using Nik’s Viveza 2 and setting a Control Point in the lantern. Then the Warmth was set to 44%, Brightness 36%, Contrast -32%, Saturation 52%, and Shadow Adjustments 100% to get the soft glow in the lantern. This filter never lets me down! Anyway, this image is just the way I wanted it!…..Digital Lady Syd
A Splash of Color
Love the texture on this flower. Lightroom basic changes, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 for sharpening the focal point, Mixer Brush painting on flower – Fays Signature Pastel Blender 02 on image above, Curves Adjust Layer for contrast, Painted Texture‘s Dark Naples Yellow texture twice using Linear Light and Multiply blend modes. A composite layer (CTRL+SHIFTS+ALT+E) was created and turned into a Smart Object. In the Smart Object the blend if This Layer dark tab was adjusted so I could let a little color through. A turquoise blue Color Fill Layer was added underneath the Smart Object so the color shows through. High Pass Sharpening was the last step. I love the colors in this texture!….Digital Lady Syd
Swan Fountain
Loved the Forsyth Fountain in Forsyth Park in historic Savannah, Georgia. The whole fountain is rather magnificent! This image is just of one of the little swans spewing water around the main fountain. Just the basic slider changes were done in Lightroom. Once brought into Photoshop, the image was processed using the modified Factory Setting from Snap Art 3 – for Snap Art 4 I created a matching preset so I could continue using it. There were three layers selecting different parts of the image in Snap Art. Some clean up and sharpening was done and a Curves Adjustment Layer was added for contrast. Kim Klassen’s Cloth & Paper Reign texture was set to Multiply blend mode at 100% and the old OnOne PhotoFrame grunge 13 was added as a last step. Very easy to do and very pretty result!…..Digital Lady Syd
A Little Painting Action
Here is another example of Jack Davis’s Mixer Painting SetUp-BETA action. Just a lot of fun to do. It is not as clear a result as with Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3, but there is more individual interpretation when creating the painterly look. Check out my Can You Get a Painting Look With a Photoshop Action? Jack Davis Can! blog to learn how to do each of the steps and for info on how to download the action. What made this image look nice was adding Painted Textures Parisian Pool to the image just above Pattern Fill 1. In the Layer Style dialog, the This Layer black tab was split and set to 108/155 (ALT+click on tab and drag to split) and the white tab set to 139/209. I would encourage to download this action and give it a go!…..Digital Lady Syd
Discumbuberated!
This little pink gerbera flower that is trying desperately to get herself straightened out was taken on my back porch. Very little processing on this image in Lightroom – just some cropping, basic slider adjustments, and Dave Delnea’s custom tone 002 preset. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) DeNoise 5 – the best noise reduction plug-in around – was applied (Overall at 0.19 and Shadows at 0.39). Painted Textures new October Sky texture was applied at Normal blend mode at 64% layer opacity. In a Layer Mask, the flower was gently painted black with a soft low opacity black brush. The font is Marcelle Script from DaFont. The border is one I created in my More Border Fun! blog with a cream Color Fill Layer clipped to the frame (ALT+click between the layer to clip). That was all. I love Melissa Gallo’s new texture effect on this image!…..Digital Lady Syd
Zebra Butterfly Showing Off
I found this beautiful Zebra Longwing Butterfly on my Lantana flowers in my front yard. She did not like having her picture taken – was very skiddish! Still got a couple nice ones of her. Apparently this is the Florida State Butterfly – who knew we had a State Butterfly? There is a very nice short video at the Florida State site showing the butterfly in action. I think my butterfly looks nicer than the ones in the video. In Lightroom a preset I created using Allen Mowery’s free preset was applied (see my Fun Photoshop Blog How to Add a Little Retro to Your Shot – 2nd paragraph has the settings used in my preset.) In Photoshop first Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3’s Overall Detail II preset was applied. On a duplicated layer Nik’s Viveza 2 was applied and 12 control points were added to make the butterfly and flower she was standing on pop forward. A little vignetting was added and a free texture from Wustenhagen Imagery Texture Green Pastel Brush was added twice, once set to Color Burn blend mode at 47% layer opacity and then Vivid Light blend mode at 17% layer opacity. This great texture really gives the painterly look to the image. He has some really nice textures for sale also. Really liked the final result!…..Digital Lady Syd
Flower with a Shadow
This beautiful hibiscus bloom was sitting just right to throw a shadow on a textured wall behind it. I bought some really beautiful Lightroom presets at Craft and Vision by Dave Delnea and applied his Washed Tropics Look 3 to this image. I have used it on a couple other images and really like the effect. The flower and stem were sharpened using an Adjustment Brush. Once opened in Photoshop Kim Klassen’s January Set 0801 texture was applied to add a little more texture to the image – it was set to Soft Light blend mode at 63% layer opacity. A Levels Adjustment Layer was added and the Midtone slider was set to 1.11 and the black tab moved to the edge of the histogram. The Output Levels slider was set to 19. A line grunge border was added to the edge. The image is now beige and light pink with a greenish shadow. It was taken into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle and the Tiara Frost Preset was applied. A few changes were made to the Luminosity and Saturation of the colors and some Structure and Sharpness was added. These settings were applied and back in Photoshop the layer was set to 64% layer opacity. That is all that was done. I think the shadow looks fabulous in the background!…..Digital Lady Syd
Just a Simple Picture?????
This image definitely uses the colors I just love! Took a red spica and turned it into this gorgeous pink and turquoise rendition. What I did! Just regular Lightroom slider tone work before going into Photoshop. The image needed to be widened so the Canvas was extended on the left side to make room for the objects and text. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 was added using little medium detail and large detail settings and the Dark Foliage tone preset from drop-down in that section. I decided to select the spica using a layer mask and then applied it to make it an object. It needed Topaz DeNoise 5, so it was applied with just an Overall Strength setting set to 0.29. Topaz Simplify was added using the Oil Paint II preset. Then French Kiss Collections Tableaux Mirage texture was placed underneath the single spica object as a background texture and left at Normal at 100% opacity. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was placed above the texture and set Master to Hue -14, Saturation +48 and Lightness -22. At this point I did not realize I was going with the bluish color palette – I thought I was using the orange and yellow colors. I did a little clean up on the spica and then added a New Layer and added Diamond Head volcano as an object. Added some reddish clouds on a New Layer using my Clouds 5 brush at 54% and added an Inner Shadow, Color Overlay and Drop Shadow to them in brown and pink colors. Next French Kiss Collections Studio 3 White Wash texture (probably my most used texture) was set to Overlay blend mode at 100% opacity. Still had a brilliant yellow background so a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was added on top. The Master was chosen and set to Hue +100, Saturation -35, and Lightness +22. Now I had this beautiful blue and turquoise color that really calmed the image down. On top of that a Photo Filter Adjustment Layer was added and set to Warming Filter 81 and Density 25%. Text was added using the Angelic War font and two layer styles added to it – Outer Glow and Drop Shadow. Next an overlay was added using 2 Lil’ Owls The Artisan Collection Big Set (see sidebar for website link) 2-2 texture. To turn textures into overlays check out my How to Create an Overlay Out of a Texture blog. Added a Layer Style by clicking on the FX at the bottom and moved the Underlying Layer black tab to 117/200 (this gives priority to the shadows of the underlying layer instead of the top one). See my How to Use Those Handy Blend-If Sliders! blog for more on this. Finally a Color Fill Adjustment Layer was clipped to the texture-overlay (ALT+click between the layers) and changed to a sampled color from the spica. Now I am done. Whew! Unfortunately this is how my brain works sometimes, but I really love the final result. I think it looks very Hawaiian and I could see this image on my wall!…..Digital Lady Syd
Using a Natural Texture for an Image
This little Hognose Snake fell out of a Palm Tree frond after my tree was trimmed recently and ended up on my porch. I love the natural texture of the stucco of the wall – this is the easiest way to apply a texture! This little guy was first processed in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Clarity using the Natural Boost III preset. Then on a duplicate image, Nik Viveza 2 was used to sharpen his body and accentuate his face. There also is a rather ugly looking spider near the bend of his body that was also sharpened. The last step applied Kim Klassen’s Cloth & Paper Touch Texture that was turned into an overlay frame and set to Linear Dodge blend Mode at 61% layer opacity. (See my How to Create an Overlay Out of a Texture blog link.) A Layer Mask was added to paint out areas over the snake to make sure he was clear of texture from the overlay framing. Loved how this image turned out!…..Digital Lady Syd
Boring Image to Fabulous Image!
As you can see, this little pink flowers pix taken at the ICW (Halifax River) in Ormond Beach, Florida, was not that great to begin with, but by adding this gorgeous texture from Painted Textures, the image was totally turned around. In Lightroom 5, the image was desaturated using an Adjustment Brush and just leaving the flowers pink. Two Radial Gradients were applied – one for the outside where the Exposure slider was further darkened, and one for the inside area where the Clarity and Sharpness sliders were reduced to make the flowers appear softer and Shadows increased to 20 to give just a glimpse of the background details. Screenshot shows how image looked as a RAW file, and then after Lightroom adjustments right before taking it into Photoshop.
The image was taken into Photoshop CC where a clean up layer was added to get rid of the spots on the flower petals. Next Painted Texture’s beautiful August Sand Texture was added and set to Linear Light at 77% layer opacity. A Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer was clipped (ALT+Click between the layers) and the Hue was set to -4 and Saturation -23. Then a Curves Adjustment Layer was added to increase contrast, which adding textures often requires, by dragging in the image with the little hand icon tool from the top of the panel and pulling down. A New Layer was added on top and set to Overlay – a burn layer was created using a black brush at 12% and following down the stems. (See my The Best Dodging and Burning Technique! blog ). It was also set to 44% layer opacity to keep it from being overdone. No layer masks or fancy selections or filters were used on this one – the texture totally made this image!……Digital Lady Syd
Flower Power!
This image was created from a single white daisy shot taken in my front yard. The flower was cut out of this image by selecting the flower using a layer mask and then applying the layer mask. The flower color was changed using a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer clipped to the flower layer (CTRL+ALT between the layers to clip). French Kiss Bohemian texture was placed underneath the flower and the color changed to the violet colors. Distressed Textures HR Strawberry Juice On My Finger was added on top and set to 52% opacity. Only the center of the flower was painted out using a layer mask. The flower was duplicated two more times and Free Transformed (CTRL+T) and rotated – different colors were chosen for the other flowers using Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layers clipped to the flowers. Kim Klassen‘s Unleashed texture was added as an overlay (see my How to Create an Overlay Out of a Texture blog.) A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was clipped to the texture and set to a violet color. Some text was added using Rough Typewriter font. A New Layer was added on top and a grunge brush I had created a long time ago was added in pinks and violets and set to 66% layer opacity. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added as a last step. I just love to play with textures and make textures…..Digital Lady Syd
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Who’s Hiding in the Cabbage Patch?
Just a quick blog on this little guy who looks so much like a wonderful cat I had many years ago named Bobbin. He lives in Belarus, apparently at a cabbage patch. Very simple processing here. Initial processing was done in Lightroom. Some spot removal and clean up on a little bit of the image was done next in Photoshop. Then Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 was used just to sharpen the cat’s face. To really enhance the eyes, a New Layer was added and the Sharpen Tool was used – 20% Strength and Sample All Layers checked. The last step involved adding a lovely Isabelle Lafrance Diaphanous Overlay called Ethereal. A Color Fill Adjustment was clipped (ALT+Click between the layers) to change to color to a dark blue. The Overlay layer was set to Multiply blend mode at 79% opacity. Another New Layer was added and the dark color was sampled – then the edges were painted darker to draw more focus on the cat and to get rid of a few extraneous items. I loved the way it turned out – wish I could have brought the cat home with me!…..Digital Lady Syd
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Textured Sky Adds Vintage Feel
This is another tower image from London. Once again, I have no idea what it is connected to, but it is a beautiful cupola. I really liked the final cloth feel on the texture. This image was straightened and just the Basic Sliders were used in Lightroom. Once in Photoshop, I selected the tower, deleted the background, and tried several different texture backgrounds. I ended up with one of my very favorite Flickr Texture people, Lenabem-Anna Textures, Texture 278 – her textures are incredible! This one gives the cloth appearance with just a touch of clouds – perfect for an original image that had no clouds. For this image a Gaussian Blur was added using a Radius of 5.9 just to smooth out the texture in the background but leave the color in the texture. A Levels Adjustment Layer was added and the Midtones slider adjusted a little for more contrast to the whole image. To add the texture back into the whole image, the same texture was applied again on top. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was clipped (ALT+click between the layers to clip) to the texture and the Saturation slider was set to -100. The texture layer was set to Overlay blend mode at 67% layer opacity. A Color Balance Adjustment Layer was added on top to bring out the gold tones more in the tower. That was it. …..Digital Lady Syd
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Recently purchased some textures from Distressed Textures so I decided to show them off using a Zinnias image. In Lightroom the basic sliders were adjusted and the David duChemin Milford Greens preset. (See my How to Use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or Lightroom 4 Quickly blog.) Then the image was brought into Photoshop where for a very simple workflow. Just some flower clean up. A new darken layer was created above to burn in the edges of the flower petals (see my The Best Dodging and Burning Technique! blog). Then three Distressed Textures were applied: 1) The Artists Palette Lost Canvas set to Darken at 97% layer opacity; 2) The Spring Inspired Cherry Cotton Candy (love the name of this texture!) set to Multiply blend mode at 100% opacity; and 3) The Artist’s Palette I Dream set to Overlay at 70% layer opacity. The first two textures had layers masks applied and the flowers were painted back softly with a largish black brush. The last step was a Curves Adjustment Layer to add contrast back into the photo that the textures tend to remove. That was it – I love the vibrant colors in this combination of textures……Digital Lady Syd
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Vintage Roman Bath
Since I have been revisiting my old images from England and Scotland recently, here is one of my latest concoctions! Love how this image turned out very vintage and I can actually visualize being in the water per the Jane Austin book Persuasion description. I have to chuckle as there are at least 5 people in this image talking on their cell phones. Such for the real vintage effect! Anyway, The Roman Baths at Bath, England, are quite interesting to visit and definitely have a real vintage feel to them.
So the steps to getting this effect are pretty easy. First the Basic sliders in Lightroom along with some building straightening using the new Lens Correction Upright feature was applied. In Photoshop, the Background layer was duplicated and added a black layer mask added. Then just the water was painted back – the layer was set to 76% opacity and that was all – just softened the color a little. Next a Curves Adjustment Layer was added and the mask filled with black. This time the heavy building shadow in the water was painted back in white. The Curve was used to lighten the shadow to match the rest of the water’s color. (See my Using Curves Adjustment Layers to Get Rid of Shadows and Highlights blog for info on doing this or could use the How to Use a Selection to Draw Focus in an Image blog using Levels Adjustment Layers.) A stamped composite layer was created (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) on top and duplicated. Next Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Black & White Effects was applied twice. First a Quad Tone preset I had created (see settings below) was applied, and then Topaz’s Classic preset. 2 Lil’s Owls (see sidebar for website link) Enchanted4-3 overlay (from the Texture Workshop Ebook Bundle) was added to give the beautiful linen-like texture to the image, and a Curves Adjustment Layer was used to add back a little contrast. That was it. Black & White Effects really gave this image the vintage feel – it is a great plug-in for this type of effect……Digital Lady Syd
SJ Quad DkB_Gr_Yel_Wh preset 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.
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Love how this image turned out with a beautiful texture added to it. This is a very sentimental favorite plant for me since it came from my parents home in Indiana many years ago – it loves Florida. It is a Dieffenbachia, which is a poisonous plant around animals and kids so not the plant for everybody, but is very pretty in your home.
This image was processed using my basic Lightroom workflow. (See my How to Use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or Lightroom 4 Quickly blog.) Once in Photoshop, Karen Burn’s Day’s End texture was added on top (check out her Flickr account – great textures and images here), flipped (CTRL+T), and set to Normal blend mode at 58% layer opacity. A white layer mask was added and using the Photoshop Charcoal brush set to 250 pixels and a low opacity 12% brush, the leaves were lightly painted back in the mask – this brush gives a bit of a gray rough edge result that blends with the background nicely. I use it a lot for this effect. Just keep painting over the area you want the focus of the image to be. I was not really happy with the overall pastel feel of the image, so a Curves Adjustment Layer was added and the Blue channel and Red channel curves were adjusted to get a better colors. I still was not happy with the color so a Selective Color Adjustment Layer was added on top and in the Reds selected – Cyan was set to -48 and Yellows +46, in the Cyans – Cyan was set to +60, in the Blues – Yellow was set to -46, and in the Neutrals – Black was set to +19. That really made the color sing – sometimes it takes several different methods to get the look you are after. Overall, with just a little effort, this rather average image was turned into something quite stunning!…..Digital Lady Syd
I Didn’t Know That! Use A Pattern Fill Layer to Add a Painted Texture
Love my Day Lilies! This was a yellow lily but using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Clarity, I was able to turn it to this pretty pink color. (My preset I call Crazy Color Palette settings are: Clarity Section – Dynamics: Micro Contrast -0.36, Low Contrast 0.39, Medium Contrast -0.36, and High Contrast -0.39; no Tone Level settings; HSL Filter Section settings: Hue – Red -1.00, Yellow -1.00, Green +1.00, Blue +1.00, and Magenta -0,52; Sat – Red -.50, Yellow 0.27, Green -0.09, Blue -0.03, and Magenta +0.59; and Lum – Red -0.03, Yellow 0.41, Green -0.23, Blue -0.20. All not mentioned are set to 0. Then I changed to Micro Contrast slider to 0.55.) Apply and then go back to Photoshop and opened Topaz Simplify and apply Oil Paint preset. A layer was added on top and Fay Sirkis’s 03 Palette Brush Blender was used to smooth out the flower rough edges from the Simplify. A old Florabella Action (that is no longer for sale) was run on the flower and and Kim Klassen’s Cloth & Paper Prague texture was also applied at 15% opacity. The flower was painted out so the texture did not affect it, only the background. Created a New Layer using the Sponge Tool to saturate more in the flower itself. A little burning and clean up was done on the flower. A Curves Adjustment layer was added to add back a little contrast. Then a Pattern Fill Layer was added with one of the patterns in Jack Davis’s Wow Patterns (see my blog Can You Get a Painting Look With a Photoshop Action? Jack Davis Can! for download link) and set to Soft Light blend mode at 59% opacity. I have never used the Pattern Fill Layer to add a painterly texture to an image, but it turned out really nice……Digital Lady Syd
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:
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Where Am I?
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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
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
