Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas here at Digital Lady Syd’s Tidbits Blog! This lovely horse image was taken in Belarus a while ago – for some reason I felt like adding some painterly Christmas effects to him. He definitely was checking me and my camera out. Normal LR changes and then in PS, Lucis Pro was used to sharpen the image. On a duplicate layer above, Topaz Studio was opened and a Topaz Impression preset called Chalk Smudge was applied. Next I did a selection of the horse. Underneath one of Jai Johnson’s Unpredictable PNG’s was added. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was used to create the Christmas colors. And under that, a solid blue-filled New Layer was added above the the background from keep white from showing through. On top a New Layer using Kyle’s Spatter Brush Beautiful Mess (comes with PS CC) was used in darkish red to create a subtle vignette. The eyes were sharpened with a Curves Adjustment Layer. A Black and White Adjustment Layer was set to Luminosity at 82% layer opacity. Texture Mate’s original starfield texture was added for the snow effect – set to Screen blend mode at 68%layer opacity. The Font is called Winter Holidays with a Bevel & Emboss, Outer Glow, and Drop Shadow Layer Styles added. That is about it. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!…..Digital Lady Syd
Latest
Visiting My Castle
This image was totally painted in Photoshop CC using several elements created originally using different brushes in both Corel Painter and PS, then saving the results down as a PNG objects. Several bird, cloud, plant and grit brushes were used. Different adjustment layers clipped the elements to adjust the colors and tones. The person was just painted in. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle’s Silver and Ivory Cloak preset was used to add the colors into the overall image. It was just a lot of fun to put everything together into something creative…..Digital Lady Syd
Five Flowers and Plants
Had a lot of fun putting this template together with some of my favorite flowers and plants from this year. If you would like the full instructions on how to do this, check KelbyOne Insider’s blog called Down & Dirty Tricks: Five-Up Photo Layout by Scott Kelby (I am hoping you can access this link). This is not a video so just follow the steps as they appear to make the template and then it can be used over with different images. Once I created and filled the template, just added a Curves Adjustment Layer to give more of a vintage feel. Very simple but fun to do…..Digital Lady Syd
Posing!
In honor of a sweet little brown bird that was caught in my screened-in porch since Wednesday (he actually trotted out the door once we calmed him down), I decided work on a bird image just to see what a colorful would look like in a basic brown bird look. This image was first processed in On1 Photo Raw 2018 (see sidebar for website link) and then finished up in Photoshop. Followed Steven Dempsey’s short video called Using Color Temperature with B/W Images in On1 Photo Raw 2018. Followed most of the steps using my own settings of course. Then in Photoshop’s Camera Raw filter, applied one of my favorite Split Toning presets, Nick Brandt’s Animal Sepia (Highlights Hue 23 and Saturation 6 and Shadows 41 and Saturation 6). Several Curves Adjustment Layers were used on the eye and beak. Lightened the background slightly with another Curves Adjustment Layer and painted the bird back in the layer mask. I think the On1 workflow for this type of image was very good……Digital Lady Syd
Just Saying Hi!
This beautiful big yellow-billed crane lives at the Jacksonville Zoo and I believe he is in charge of the aviary as he greets every person who walks through the door. I have never seen such a tame big bird and he will give you quite a show. This guy did a complete 360 wing spread for me while I was about 6 feet from him. Just a few basic adjustments were done in Lightroom. Once in Photoshop, Lucis Pro (no longer available) was used to slightly sharpen the bird’s face and beak and to define a few feathers (used a black layer mask and just painted back those areas). On a New Layer painted in a little white spotlight at very low opacity to lighten up lower wing area. Used a Selective Color Adjustment Layer to brighten the beak yellow just a little. Used a Curves Adjustment Layer to lighten his eye. Added the Foggy Night Color Lookup Adjustment Layer preset set to 57% layer opacity. Not much to this image as it was pretty nice as shot…..Digital Lady Syd
Sunny Florida
Image taken at City Block in West Palm Beach, Florida using 3 bracketed images and post-processed in Skylum’s Aurora HDR 2018 for Windows (see sidebar for website link). I really like the results I am getting with this program. I did a recent blog on this software (see my Checking Out Aurora HDR 2018 for Windows blog) where I got some similar great results. This image got really good results with the HDR Denoise filter, and a little of the Image Radiance filter which gave it a nice feel. In PS the Adaptive Wide Angle filter was used as the arch was off just a little (see my How to Use the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter blog). A Black and White Adjustment Layer was used set to Luminosity blend mode to adjust the colors (see my How to Use a Black and White Adjustment Layer to See Contrast in an Image blog). On a stamped layer Nik Viveza 2 was used to sharpen the bikes in the background. A Gradient Fill Adjustment Layer was used to create a slight vignette effect (see my Yet Another Great Way to Create a Vignette! blog) That was it……Digital Lady Syd
Turn Around
Good example of the image that is behind you – was actually going into the Tower of London tour and this was behind me. I love all the people doing all kinds of things and the buildings look so modern compared to where I was going! I am so glad I turned around – need to remember to do this more often. Not much was done with image – it is not an HDR – pretty much out of camera. A little was done in Camera Raw using a couple graduated filters and radial filters and the image was cropped more to a panorama size. That was about it……Digital Lady Syd
St. Giles Cathedral
This beautiful stained glass image was taken at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. In Lightroom used Serge Ramelli’s Bad Weather 9 preset as a starting point and added my own highlights and gradients. Not much was done in Photoshop – just some clean up, Nik Viveza 2 where 4 control points were placed in image with 2 on the glass and 1 on the Bible. A little noiseware was used on the image and a Gradient Fill Layer to darken the top slightly. That was it. There really is a lot of detail in the shot if seen at a larger size……Digital Lady Syd
Harvesting Orange
Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving in the US with this perfectly colored Bird of Paradise bloom that was growing in my front yard. Used setting from Urban Walk 15 Vintage Street preset in Lightroom. In Photoshop just practiced some of the things I have been learning about the various plug-ins filters. This image used Topaz Studio’s (see sidebar for website link) Impression default with some slider changes including the Painting Progress slider at 0.60 – then painted out most of the effect off the flower. Then the Precision Contrast filter was applied at 0.84 opacity and the Lighting Shadow set way down to give it a very dark background. Back in PS, On1 Photo Raw 2018 (see sidebar for website link) Effects was opened and their Glow Filter Orton Hear a Who preset at 75% opacity and the Noise Reduction filter Shadows preset was applied. A little burning was done on a layer above to emphasize some of the flower lines a little. (See my How to Create a Subtle Dodge and Burn Effect blog.) Some selective sharpening was done with a 50% gray layer and painting was done on the flowers using my SJ Pastel 3 Brush (see my How to Create my Favorite Brush blog). On a layer on top, a Spotlight Effect was created on the flower (see my How to Add a Spot of Light blog). The last step added the text using Naive Deco Sans font. Enjoy the holiday!…..Digital Lady Syd
Me and My Shadow
This image represents to me a contemplative mood – a connection with the Fall season and nature, and the nature of man with nature. It was a lot of fun to create. A tree from Pixelsquid was added into the shadow. Some of the colors are from using Lucis Pro. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle’s Single Fawn was applied to the image. This image was taken into Luminar 2018 (see sidebar for website link) and the Adjustable Gradient Filter was added to the whole photo and the Sun Rays filter was added to just the foreground tree by using a layer mask. Loved how the tree turned out. PS Liquify filter was used to stretch the foreground tree where I wanted it. Some clean up layers and that was it. Love the whole concept of this image…..Digital Lady Syd
Topaz Labs AI Gigapixel
Check out AI Gigapixel stand-alone software for upsizing your images. It’s incredible! And it can now be used as a plugin when in Photoshop. Also Topaz Labs Photo AI has some great sharpening and denoise tools along with Photo Video AI.
Luminar Neo
Click here to visit Luminar for more info and check out their new AI Filters.
GRUT BRUSHES – Photoshop Brushes for Digital Artists
Click here to visit GrutBrushes.com
And be sure to check out his Free Brush of the Week and Brush Sampler! These are the best brushes you can find!
Topaz Studio 2 and Legacy Topaz Labs Filters
Unfortunately Topaz Studio 2 and other Topaz Lab filters are no longer available for sale as of 2020. If you had bought these filters and would like to put them back on, here is a link to the Legacy Apps where they can be downloaded again. Below is an example of the wonderful Remix AI Filter from Studio 2. The wonderful Impression still works fine in Photoshop right now along with Adjust (all versions), ReStyle, and even PhotoFXLab!
On1 Photo Raw
Wonderful software to use as a substitute for or plugin with Photoshop. Many great filter effects and lots of AI capabilities!
