Took this image at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida, recently. These are Resurrection Ferns living in the bark of an Oak Tree. The bark was so detailed and colorful and competing with the ferns that both Lucis Pro (see my Digital Lady Syd Reviews Lucis Pro 6.0.9 (Now Affordable!) blog and Topaz ((see sidebar for website link)) Impression) were used to get a more pleasing effect. There were several adjustments layers used and lots of masking done to get the detail back into the leaves. Also used a Red Channel Curves Adjustment Layer to help blend total image. (See my How to Use a Red Channel to Create a Nice Blended Image Effect blog.) I really liked the darker colors in the bark – these filters embraced the color without overtaking the image with detail. These plants were so pretty in the sunlight……Digital Lady Syd
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Sweet Alyssum Royal Carpet Flowers
The beautiful little flowers called Sweet Alyssum Royal Carpet were found growing at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida this Spring. This background was duplicated (CTRL+J) in Photoshop and Lucis Pro 6.0.9 in Split Mode was applied (Settings: Mix With Original Image 45/55; Assign Original Image Color 0/100; Enhance Detail Red Channel 113/Green 233 with Smooth set to 19/Blue 199) – see my Digital Lady Syd Reviews Lucis Pro 6.0.9 (Now Affordable!) blog. Duplicated this layer and applied Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Lens Effects Generous Diffusion preset – a layer mask was added and the focal points were painted black to remove the softness in those areas. Duplicated layer again and added in Lens Effects the Soft Olive Green Vignette set to a Vignette Strength of -0.46 and a low opacity of 28.71. Last step was to add a Black and White Adjustment Layer to emphasize the focal points and set it to Luminosity – see my How To use a Black & White Adjustment Layer To See Contrast in an Image blog. These flowers look almost like little wildflowers growing along a road…..Digital Lady Syd
Looking Innocent!
Loved how this beautiful Jaguar turned out taken at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. In Lightroom tried to really bring out the colors so image could be painted in Photoshop. This image was actually of the cat walking, but his face was so beautiful, I decided to crop close. First the image was painted on several different layers using mostly mixer brushes. Brightened eyes using an Exposure Adjustment Layer (see How To Do a Quick Eye Sharpening in Photoshop blog). Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Reflector filter’s Gold Left was used to lighten the left side of the face. On a composite layer (CTLR+ALT+SHIFT+E) Topaz Texture Effects’s Crisp Morning Run preset (with these changes: Basic Adjustment Brightness -0.27, Shadow -0.29, Highlight 0.17, Clarity -0.60, Sat 0.11, Temp -0.40, Tint 0.05, and Opacity 0.80). On a new Composite Layer, Nik Viveza 2 (now free) was applied to just the nose to brighten it up just a little more in the image. And as a final step, a Black and White Adjustment Layer was opened to just make sure my focal point stood out correctly (see How To See If you Captured the Focal Point). Really liked the final effect!…..Digital Lady Syd
Totally Stuffed!
This image is of an Sloan’s Ice Cream at CityPlace in West Palm Beach, Florida – wish I knew the name of the store. In Lightroom just the Basic Panel adjustments were made. In Photoshop, a clean up layer was done to remove distracting sales tags, etc. Created a composite layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) and Lucis Pro 6.0.9 was opened to apply the classic effect from this plug-in. (See my Digital Lady Syd Reviews Lucis Pro 6.0.9 (Now Affordable!) blog.) Settings for this plug-in were: Preview Scan Line 8 and Processing Scan Lines 50; Mix With Original Image 100%/0%; Assign Original Image Color 0%/100%; Red Enhance 53 and Smooth 23, Green 51, and Blue 39. Back in Photoshop the layer was duplicated and Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Lens Effects was opened where the Burnt Sienna preset was used with a few adjustments. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd
Two Rough-Housing Grizzlies
This image of what appears to be two Grizzlies going at each other in the Alaskan wilderness, but is actually just two bears playing in the water on a hot afternoon at the West Palm Beach Zoo, according to the Zookeepers. Definitely pretty exciting to watch though! In Lightroom Kim Klassen’s free Lightroom Sampler Dark 1 preset was applied and the eyes and teeth were sharpened with an Adjustment Brush. Opened image in Photoshop and Lucis Pro 6.0.9 was used to get that classic Lucis look (settings: Enhance Details Red Channel 161/Green 183/Blue 129 and Assign Original Image Color 0/100). (See my Digital Lady Syd Reviews Lucis Pro 6.0.9 (Now Affordable!) blog.) Did a little dodging and burning on eyes and teeth. Used a Black and White Adjustment Layer to fine-tune the focal point. Added the border using Smart Photo Editor‘s Brighten Border by Tony. (See my Digital Lady Syd Reviews Smart Photo Editor Photoshop Plug-In blog.) Then decided it had a little too much cyan in the fur so used a Color Balance Adjustment Layer to add a little dab of red to the Midtones and Shadows. Enjoyed how this image turned out – rather natural looking and just like I remember it. These bears were not making any loud noises, really just having fun!……Digital Lady Syd
The Sculpture Called Reaching
This bronze sculpture called Reaching was created by Edward Fenno Hoffmann, III, in 1963 and is very striking. The image was taken at the Society of the Four Arts’s Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden in West Palm Beach, Florida. It used Technique 1 on the Lucis Pro 6.0.9 website where both their Single Channel mode (47% layer opacity) and Split Channel mode (73% layer opacity) are applied on separate layers. (Settings for the Single Channel mode layer were: Enhance Detail of 55, Smooth Detail of 10 , and Mix with Original Image of 10% processed and 90% original. Settings for the Split Channel mode layer were: same Enhance Detail and Smooth Detail settings as Single Channel mode but no Mix with Original Image.) This image shows how little an amount is needed to get that classic Lucis look we all love. The vignette is from Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Lens Effects – Add Vignette Selective filter set to Medium (Strength -0.46 and Opacity 39.60). Not much else was done to get this lovely effect on the beautiful sculpture. For more information on the Lucis Pro 6.0.9 plug-in, check out my Digital Lady Syd Reviews Lucis Pro 6.0.9 (Now Affordable!) blog……Digital Lady Syd
A Pub at the Borough Market
Found this old picture from the Borough Market in London, England, taken several years ago. It just looked so good when Nik Color Efex Pro 4 was used. I had created a preset years ago that used these filters: Tonal Contrast, Brilliance/Warmth, Vignette: Lens, Contrast Color Range, Remove Color Cast, Graduated Filters, and Image Borders. A Gaussian Blur effect set to 16.8 Radius was added to blur the lower right area. Check out the Nik plug-ins as they are now free from google and try them out……Digital Lady Syd
Coming At You!
Below is an image of a Malayan Tiger taken at the Jacksonville Zoo earlier this year. JixiPix’s free Spectrel Art preset 10 was applied to the whole image. (See my How To Use the Free Spectrel Art Plug-in blog.) Next the tiger was selected using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReMask 5, then a white layer was placed underneath the tiger. One of my Corel Painter textures was added on top of the white layer and a layer mask was added. By painting with a soft black brush, just the parts of the painted texture wanted were left in the image. Lot of fun here!…..Digital Lady Syd
Sunrays At the Beach
This is an HDR image of Flagler Beach, Florida, taken with 3 bracketed images. The images were taken into the now free HDR Efex Pro 2 plug-in from Photoshop (see my How to Use Google (Nik) HDR Efex Pro 2 blog for instructions on how to do this). The Bright preset was used with some minor changes. Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 (also part of the free Nik Collection) was then used to give a different feel to the image – High Contrast (Harsh) preset was used and the layer was set to Luminosity blend mode at 78% layer opacity. On a stamped layer, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle was used to give the beautiful color palette – used my favorite Cream and Plum preset and just adjusted the Color Temperature and Tones a little. That was it. This is really how I see this beach on a beautiful day!…..Digital Lady Syd
Feeling Peachy
Just felt like playing with one of my beautiful peach colored hibiscus blooms that are growing on my back porch. In Lightroom’s Basic Panel, just pressed Auto and reduced the Exposure slider a little (usually the Auto button tends to over-expose the image), added some Clarity, and used the Adjustment Brush to paint in some of the flower focal point details using the Clarity and Sharpness sliders. In Photoshop, Topaz Impression’s Watercolor IV preset was applied with no changes to the image. A layer mask was added and using Grut’s Natural Media Knit Pin brush, small lines were painted to bring the original color from underneath – looks like a light outline in places. Really liked this effect and it is easy to do. On a New Layer above, Grut’s Charcoal Dale Haze brush set to 35 pixels was used to blend away areas that were drawing attention from the focal point, mainly the bud and some of the edges had bright colors in them. Check out Grut.com brushes – each week he offers a free brush to try out and that is how I got the two used here. Nik Viveza 2 (now free) was used to add a slight vignette on the outside edges and to add a little more detail to the focal point. These flowers are so beautiful!…..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!
