Monarch Butterfly’s Magical Dust
This was one of many lovely Monarch and other types of butterflies that were very busy spreading the magic dust to the beautiful flowers that were in bloom at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. This image took me forever to decide what to do with it! It had a really distracting background with all the crazy leaves going all over the place – it was a hard image to capture as the butterflies were going crazy on the hot day I visited. In Photoshop Luminar’s (see sidebar for website link) Flex was used to calm it down some and add some structure to the butterfly, then Viveza 2 twice to try and soften the background, before using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle to get the final color palette. That’s along with some painting, spotlight effect, and Red Channel Curves Adjustment Layer. I think I finally got the mystical magical effect I was trying to create……Digital Lady Syd
Splendiferous Bougainvillea
The beautiful blooms above are growing in my front yard right now – they are quite pretty and textured. Shot manually My 60 mm Nikkor macro lens was used with a Bower 0.5 x High Resolution Digital Lens with Macro added to the lens. I always love the results of this lens. Luminar 3 (see sidebar for website link) was used to bring out the detail (used Structure, Details Enhance, Image Radiance, and Top and Bottom filters). A mixer brush was used to smooth out the background. The font is called Beauty Angelique. Nik Viveza 2 was used to further highlight the focal area. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd
The Lioness – Need I Say More?
This beautiful lioness named Taum (I think) lives at the Jacksonville Zoo and looks totally regal while she watches over her domain. She was originally post-processed in Lightroom using Serge Ramelli’s Safari Animal Vignette Cold Medium (click for video to download link) and then made changes to fit this image. Overall it just gave a nice cool feel to the background. In Photoshop Topaz (see sidebar for website link) DeNoise AI was used and it just gave a very subtle effect. So the image was taken into Topaz Studio using the AI Clear Adjustment (Remove Noise Low, Enhance Sharpness High, Recover Details 0.33, Exposure -0.13, and Clarity 0.35), and the Precision Detail Adjustment (Subtle Sharp preset and in layer mask, inverted it and then painted back the lion face and end of foreground paw – middle paws were set to 0.50 and painted back just a little). This creates a very good combination for sharpness. Then just added in some contrast and a Lookup Table (Fuji Reala 500D Kodak 2393 preset) to give a moody feel to the image. That was it……Digital Lady Syd
Just Catching a Few Rays
I loved this beautiful red Sunflower taken at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. The color is so striking. I put the flower in a warm background since it was so busy – used a soft mixer brush by David Belliveau (his brushes are really good) to smooth out any unusual lines or blobs. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpen AI set to Stabilize and both sliders to 50 to get a super sharp image. Nik Viveza 2 was used to sharpen the little buds individually and the center of the main flower. Text was one of my favorites fonts called Style Casual. An Inner Glow and Outer Glow layer style was added to the type. A Spotlight Effect using a white color to emphasize the center of the flower to draw the eye a little more. A slight vignette was created using Unmesh Dinda’s Levels Adjustment Layer technique. The last step was to create a Stamped Layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) on top and a Gaussian Blur set to a Radius of 4.3. Then in a layer mask, the Gradient Tool set black to white and a Linear Gradient was used on just the bottom so only the very bottom buds were blurred out a little. The main stems were painted back at 50% brush opacity. That was it. I love the yellow and red color palette. ….. Digital Lady Syd
Another “Uptown Girl”
Enjoyed creating this double exposure in Photoshop – had not done a lot of this so it was fun to try out a new tutorial to see how it went. This time a video called How to Combine Double Exposure and Selective Color Design in Photoshop by Ahmad Salahuddin was followed. (No voice so you have to watch carefully, but he has provided resources to download to follow along – very helpful.) To get the effect, the text (the font is called Adrenaline Brush) has to be set to white and clipped to the selected portrait layer (Unsplash-Portrait of a Young Woman, Florina, Greece by Pete Bellis) and then duplicated, set to black, and moved under the image. Then the image to fill up the portrait is placed on top and set to Lighten blend mode – duplicated and flipped so the words all fill up with the image. Finally the NYC image (from 20 Free New York Photos Deeezy image 05) was placed underneath – it was reduced to a sketch by using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s Black Only II preset set to 48%. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was clipped to the NYC image and the lines were set to brownish color. The last step involved taking a Composite (stamped) layer into Topaz ReStyle and applying the Surf and Tallow preset. I was surprised how nice the final image came out. Lots of fun!…..Digital Lady Syd
Pink in Its Full Glory
This image of the beautiful pink Azaleas in bloom at the Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, Florida, was pretty difficult to post-process. It was taken around 9 AM in the morning, which was still enough sun to cause shadow problems on a sunny day. Listened to Matt Kloskowsky’s video called Channel Masks and Spring Color where he adjusted a similar type image. It really helped cut down on the overall sharp shadow effect and brought in the colors nicely. I can also say I used several of my own tricks and tips from my recent blogs on Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpen AI, dodging and burning, spotlight effects, and vignetting. This actually looks pretty close to what I was seeing. Amazing!…..Digital Lady Syd
Hanging in There!
This Coquerel’s Sifaka monkey was having so much fun when I was at the Jacksonville Zoo recently – couldn’t help but smile and watch him. This image was done in blue tones first, and Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s Basic Adjustment and AI Clear were applied. Then the Impression Adjustment was added using the default settings and a mask to bring back the monkey and the netting above. An Image Adjustment was added and the original image was placed in the Background. A layer mask was used to paint the monkey back and the overall adjustment was set to 0.54. At this point the image was saved as a tiff and opened in Topaz AI Gigapixel as the size of the monkey was very small in the image – it was enlarged by 2 times. The Tiff file was then opened in PS and Topaz ReStyle plugin’s Grass Swing preset was selected to bring out all these beautiful fun colors. Quite a bit of clean up and painting was needed to get the final effect. Just had a lot of fun doing this image. …… Digital Lady Syd
Lunch at Its Best
I think this place is perfect for having a nice lunch on a warm sunny day. Scotland does not get days like this very often so these locals were enjoying themselves. I see the tourists coming up the block though. I have to be honest I am not totally sure what I did to create the look in this image. I like the final effect though. Topaz (see sidebar for website info) Studio’s AI Clear was applied. Then back in Photoshop Topaz Simplify was applied using the BuzSim preset. Then Topaz Sharpening AI set to Focus was used. A High Pass Filter was used to sharpen up some of the details. Then back into Topaz Studio where an Abstract Adjustment was applied and an AI ReMix Adjustment. In PS the Rough Pastels filter and the Dry Brush filter was applied. A Darken and Lighten Curves Adjustment Layers were applied. A Noise Gradient Map Adjustment Layer was applied and a Foggy Night preset in the Color Lookup was added. There were some painting layers and other things, and I think I was going nuts by the time I finished this. Anyway, I like the overall look but I don’t think I could reproduce the effect. ….. Digital Lady Syd
How Did This Happen?
I had initially post-processed the Lemur as its own image. Then I ran across a nice video by Jesus Ramirez called The Best Way to Select and Mask Glass (or Transparent Objects in Photoshop. I had to try it and that is how my Lemur buddy ended up in a bottle. The original Ring-Tailed Lemur image was taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida. This image used a Noise Gradient Map Adjustment Layer (see my How to Randomize Some Color with the Gradient Map Adjustment Layer blog). The Lemur was selected out of my original image that I may post sometime and was run through the Select and Mask command before moving him into a glass bottle from Pixel Squid. The flying Canadian Geese are also from Pixel Squid. The background is one I painted in Corel Painter and the wood is a texture from Kelby One. Just a lot of fun to put together!…..Digital Lady Syd
My Magical Garden
This Spanish Moss image was photographed at Ravine Gardens in Palatka, Florida. Since the trees do not have their leaves yet, the Moss is just hanging off the bare branches and with the sun was just rising, it gave a sort of magical feel. This image took a lot of post processing. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear was applied and this time the Exposure was set up to 0.53 and Clarity to 0.36 to lighten up the whole image. And a little bit of Topaz Detail was used to really sharpen up the moss effect. Some lighten and darken Curves Adjustment Layers were used to add some contrast. On a stamped layer Topaz ReStyle”s Polo Blue and Pink Lace preset was applied at 62% opacity using the Color blend mode. Another stamped layer was created and Luminar’s (see sidebar for website link) Image Radiance (this creates a really nice effect) and Cross Processing using the Auckland preset at Amount of 20 finally gave me the result I liked when set to 53% opacity. Nik Viveza 2 was used to even out all the coloring and adjust the focal point. Who knew all these filters would be needed to get this magical effect???……Digital Lady Syd
Best Friends
Just went a little crazy here and had a bunch of fun in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio! My recent trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm was a lot of fun but my pix of these two characters did not come out well. (They reminded me of Heckle & Jeckle from cartoon days past.) So I decided to improvise using a lot of adjustments to get this colorful Toucan image. Used AI Clear, Ai ReMix twice, Edge and HSL Color Tuning – threw them all into a preset and put it up in the Community called SJ AI ReMix Cartoon Look if you want to give it a try. Back in PS just cleaned up the image a little, and added an Exposure Adjustment Layer on the eyes (yep, use it even on cartoon looks). This was a lot of fun to create. …..Digital Lady Syd
Twirling Out of Control
Just had some fun trying out a technique shared by one of my Photo Club friend Joe. Apparently this twirling technique was quite popular several years ago and it creates some really interesting results. This image started out as a macro image of purple and white pentas growing in my front yard. By adding several Radial Blur, Twirl, and Mezzotint filters, this interesting combination of lines and swirls is created. Here are links to two short and interesting videos on how to create this effect if you would like to try it yourself: The first by Steve Patterson is very well done and is called How to Create Abstract Twirl Effects in Photoshop, and the next one by Jay adds some more ideas to enhance the effect and is called The Twirl Effect Using Photoshop. I found several color schemes that worked really good with this result and finally ended up with a light more muted effect. Try Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle for some interesting results. Guess I had better get back to really post-processing some of my images. …..Digital Lady Syd
Happy Valentines Day
These beautiful birds, the Greater Flamingos which are not real bright pink like the American Flamingos, are enjoying the holiday – here they are observing some rather tree-like hearts in the pen. Since it is a holiday, I will not go into major detail on how I created this effect – it was a major trial-and-error in this case. The hearts are all from Julia Mead, a really great scrapbook object creator. The texture is called Imperfect Heart Soft Pink by Evelyn Flint (can’t find a link but it was in her Flickr feed at one time), and the font is Antalia Script. The rest is my own doing. Used so many different filters: Topaz AI Clear and AI ReMix, Luminar, and Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4. Lots of clean up layers and adjustment layers. Lots of fun to do. Everyone have a very Happy Valentine’s Day…..Digital Lady Syd
Please Return Me to the Jacksonville Zoo!
This Coquerel’s Sifaka is actually a native of Madagascar and would never be caught in a snowstorm, much less at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. But with a great image and crazy imagination, I felt he just looked like he was in a winter coat. I spent a long time taking pictures of this guy and his buddies – they were very entertaining and those eyes! In Lightroom used one of my camera profiles that created an HDR desaturated look – then just some Basic panel adjustments. The original image was post-processed using the correct coloring of the Lemur with the green background. In PS had to remove some background items with Edit -> Content Aware Fill command. On a stamped layer Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI Clear, Precision Detail, and HSL Color Tuning adjustments were applied. Then a Darken Curves Adjustment Layer, Nik Viveza 2, Exposure Adjustment Layer for the eyes, and PS’s Charcoal Filter setting the foreground and background colors to light green and yellow. So where did the blue color come from??? The Fuji Eterna 250D Kodak preset was applied and set to Divide at 47% layer opacity – there is the blue. Serge Ramelli’s snow brushes were used on a separate layers to add the snow effect – love these brushes! (The free Snow Brushes can be downloaded under his video called How to Create Snow in Photoshop CC.) Then just another Darken Curves Adjustment Layer to darken his coat in places and a vignette. Lots of fun here!…..Digital Lady Syd
Miss February
This big African Spoonbill just appeared to look like a calendar girl to me so I had to create an image for this. She was really huge! In Lightroom used Serge Ramelli’s Safari Warm Dramatic Light preset as a starting point – then adjusted a few sliders before coming into PS. On a duplicate layer used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear with Auto for Noise and High for sharpening. Used Detail on just the bird to enhance some of the feathering. Also worked on bird in Nik Viveza 2 to adjust the tones on the bird. This was a difficult image since the background was so busy. Luminar (see sidebar for website link) was used to help darken it down by using Joel Grime’s Portrait Pop the Blue preset and adjusting the vignette. A few text layers were added and that was about it. She/he is definitely intimidating!…..Digital Lady Syd
Tomorrowland Comic Book Drawing
Just had some fun creating a bit of a drawing look by following Jesus Remirez’s video called Smart Way to Quickly Make Comic Book Drawings from Your Photos. For my image the Texturizer Filter was also added – it gave it a little different look. Topaz Studio was used to add the border and – used a Texture Effect called Dahlia Dreams preset. Topaz ReStyle’s Tradewind and Tana preset gives it the metallic effect which I thought looked appropriate for this image. That was about it……Digital Lady Syd
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone – thanks for visiting my blog when you get a chance. This image is of my Christmas Cactus that was in full bloom for my holiday this year. To get the soft background, used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI Remix (A Neon Rose preset with the leaves brushed out at 50%). Painted some texture and snow on the image. Last step was to add Nik Viveza 2 to sharpen up the petals a little. The font is called Buffalo Inline 2 Grunge. Looking forward to have a wonderful 2019!…..Digital Lady Syd
Posing for the Family Christmas Picture
Merry Christmas to everyone! Enjoyed making my annual Christmas images – this one was particularly fun since I really like the free funny vector characters in the image from Spoon Graphics. The really cool spiral was created using the Hibiscus flower in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio using the Motion Blurs Swirl set to an angle of -1.00. Back in Photoshop, the Hibiscus flower was selected and taken back into Studio where the Impression Adjustment was using Jai Johnson Oil Glaze Light preset (see her In the Digital Studio January 6 2017 video for the settings). Then some snow was added on the ground and a white texture added and set to Multiply blend mode. My free SJ Snow 2 Overlay slight blur PNG was placed on top at 54% (I still think mine is the best out there since it is a png – no blend modes needed to use it). The font is Honey Script. Maybe you can download or use some of these resources. Anyway, have a very Happy Holiday!…..Digital Lady Syd
Happy Place for a Hornbill
Love this guy! This Hornbill is definitely in charge of his domain and seems to blend right into it. This image is exactly why I love Topaz (for website link see sidebar) – this Studio Adjustment called AI ReMix never ceases to amaze me. The original image was not good and I had basically decided this Hornbill would never be used. But I am finding AI ReMix is a game-changer for me – this guy turned out pretty nice! (The Studio settings were: AI Clear – Remove Noise Medium and Sharpen High; and AI ReMix: Desert Prism at 65% opacity, Low Style Strength and Brightness -0.35, Contrast 1.04 and Sat 0.75.) Back in Photoshop, a little spotlight effect with a white brush was used to brighten up the tree fronds to get a bit of a translucent effect. It took a little clean up to get the final, but overall, this plugin saved an image…..Digital Lady Syd
Mockupped Sailboats
I have never used a Mockup File before to show off my images, but this one sort of seemed to fit this image since there is a strong triangle effect. First a free Abstract Mockup file by Best Pixels was opened up in Photoshop. The top layer is a Smart Object layer which must be opened by double-clicking on the thumbnail icon and then your own image can be placed in and aligned with a Free Transform (CTRL+T) if needed to fit the frame opening – must Save this image when warning comes up (the file does not appear anywhere in your folders but you still have to save to add in your image). This is where my Sailboat image from Camachee Cove was added into the image. On top of the bottom layer a Solid Color Fill Adjustment Layer was added using a light blue sky color. Next one of several free beautiful Watercolor Clouds Textures by Presets Galore was placed under the Smart Object ans set to 45% layer opacity. In a layer mask, the picture frame areas and few other places were masked out with a black brush. On top a Curves Adjustment Layer was added. Nik Viveza 2 was added on top where a little warmth was added into parts of the mockup. That was it. I love the dreamy feel this created…..Digital Lady Syd
Joyous Ornaments Lining Up for the Tree
This is just one of those crazy photos that make me laugh. It is not all that sharp but sort of exemplifies the total chaos it is for me to get all the ornaments up and hanging right! Biggest issue I had was to get this image sharper without deteriorating the quality. In Lightroom’s Develop module, used my SJ Sharply Dark LUT (created in my blog and video called How to Create Profiles in ACR from LR Presets and Some PS LUT Files) and set it to Amount 81. Then did just the normal adjustments. Radial Filters were used to help sharpen up some of the ornaments I wanted particularly in focus. Went into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio from LR and used AI Clear (applied it twice to get some additional sharpness and it worked!), the Precision Contrast adjustment, Topaz Lens Effects Diffusion Adjustment to soften overall just a little and Topaz Studio Focal Blur Adjustment, placing it over the main ornaments to keep sharp. Then back to LR where it was opened up in Photoshop. Did a little clean up of some edges and used Nik Viveza 2 to emphasize the focal point on a few ornaments. That was it. I find this a really soft sort of happy image – not one that goes up on the wall but one that reminds me of Christmas!…..Digital Lady Syd
View from The London Eye
Just thought this image from the London Eye looked nice with a black and white treatment. This time in Lightroom used one of Sergei Ramelli‘s preset called AA Drama Gradient Filter (subscribe to Serge’s newsletter to get the preset and lots of others) and then went in and tweaked the settings – added some Radial Filters also to emphasize the setting sun on the buildings. Did a crop of the image before taking into Photoshop. On a duplicate layer used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI Clear Adjustment, applied it, and opened up Topaz Black and White Effects plug-in from the top drop-down. This time selected from the Traditional Collection the Classic with Grain preset – but turned off the Basic section and used mainly the Adaptive Exposure, Regions, Detail, and Detail boost sliders. In the Finishing Touches selected the Silver and Paper Tone and adjusted to get a nice off-black, almost purple color. Back in Photoshop added a Curves Adjustment Layer. Not much too it…..Digital Lady Syd
Fishing the Osprey Way
Here’s an image of a beautiful Osprey checking out the swampy area he apparently lives above. I don’t know how he balances on that tiny branch, but you can see how big his talons are so that explains it. Initially I did not think the image was sharp enough to use this cropped in. After adding Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear adjustment and following Unmesh Dinda’s video called The Hidden 3D “Contrast” in Photoshop, the bird just sort of popped. Used a rather washed out texture I created behind him and added a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer on top for the blue tones. Then added a Curves Adjustment Layer to brighten the image back up. The free font is called Old Originals……Digital Lady Syd
Mickey Shopping on Main Street USA
Had some fun working on this image. This image is of a shop on Main Street USA, Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida (click on link to see more info and other interesting buildings). I really love the color yellow so this shop always catches my attention. There was a lot of manipulation done to get rid of the people in front of parts of the image, straightening the building, and adding the Mickey Mouse cloud. Note that the top floors are not as high as the bottom floor – Disney does that on all the buildings to make them look bigger than they are. Just a few Basic panel changes done in LR before going into PS. Next the people were removed in front using the new Content Aware-Fill command and little more clean up. Next the Adaptive Wide Angle filter was used to straighten up the columns and the image was cropped (see my How to Use the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter blog). Next on a Composite layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) , Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear Adjustment and HSL Color Tuning Adjustment were used. Back in PS on a New Layer on top, Grut’s FX Cloud Kernel Hi brush (these Cloud Brushes are the best around) was used to paint in the Mickey Mouse cloud face. Then Grut’s Cloud Lumens Hi and Sparco HI brushes were used on other sky areas. Another composite layer was created and taken into Skylum’s Luminar 2018 (see sidebar for website link). This used their wonderful new AI Sky Enhancer which really popped the sky. (Settings: On bottom layer used Accent AI Filter Boost 67; AI Sky Enhancer Amount 38; Tone: Exposure 0, Contrast 4, Smart Tone 66, Highlights 31, Shadows -6, Whites 92, and Blacks -80; and Golden Hour Amount 17 and Sat -62. On top layer used my SJ Matt Look preset – Sun Rays which contains Matt Look (Amount 47, Fade 20, Contrast 20, Vividness -44, Toning 7, Hue 256, and Sat 46; and Sunrays – placed the sun down halfway on right side of house (X104/&55) with center off the side of the image, and the rest of the settings: Amount 30, Look 31, Number 23, Length 65, Warmth 67, Radius 63, Glow Radius 69, Glow Amount 66, Warmth 72, Penetration 78, and Randomize 8.) The last step involved adding a Mickey Mouse vector object from Shutter Stock (noted that an .eps file from Illustrator can be opened in PS – to see it first, find file in Adobe Bridge and place into your image) and created shadow for him. I love the color and how sharp the image is!…..Digital Lady Syd
