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A Blast from the Past!

Image taken at Lake Wawasee, Indiana, of sailboat and wood boat
Got an E-mail from an old lake friend yesterday so I thought I would post this shot for him and my old “lake” family of a place I will always remember as “home.” If you are in the vicinity in Indiana, check out Lake Wawasee – a beautiful fresh water lake. This image was taken with my old 2 mg Casio QV-2900 UX Digital Camera – my first digital camera. It actually did a pretty good job. Trey Radcliff’s Friday Night of Regrets Lightroom preset was applied first before opening Photoshop. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3’s Feature Enhancement II was applied next. A Selective Color Adjustment was used to add a little more green color into the background trees that look washed out. The mask was filled with black and just the trees painted back with a very low opacity brush. Two New Layers were created and both set to Overlay blend mode. The tree edges were painted in the dark areas with a black brush on one layer and a white brush was used to paint in tree highlights on the other layer using a brushes set to 12% layer opacity. The layer opacities were then lowered. The Sharpen Tool was used on the houses on the shoreline and a Curves Layer Adjustment Layer was added and set to 50% layer opacity. Probably more info than you ever wanted to know, but it is nice to see that some of the newer Photoshop technology and tricks can perk up those older digital photos!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
The Best Dodging and Burning Technique!
Turning the Old into the New

05/22/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Beware of Snoozing Cat!

Image of a cat banner at the City Cat Country Cat store in St. Augustine
Loved this banner by Anne Mortimer CDI (she does great cat images) outside a darling upstairs cat boutique in St. Augustine, Florida, called City Cat County Cat. (No website so here is their store address: 72B St. George Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084 – definitely worth a stop if you love cats!) If I had a cat, I would buy this! Just basic changes in Lightroom before going into Photoshop. This time I used the Adaptive Lens Filter to straighten up the edges of the banner just a little. On a duplicate layer, OnOne (see sidebar for website link) Perfect Effects was opened and Jason Lucas’ preset Old Man’s Chair (from an OnOne give-away set when you own the suite) was applied and the top Texturizer layer’s opacity was reduced for less Light Leak effect. A Detail Adjustment Layer was added on top in the plug-in and just the cat’s face was sharpened. Back in Photoshop the layer opacity was set to 73%. I created a stamped or composite layer on top (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) and the Sharpen Tool was used just a little bit on the cat’s face and the mouse. That was it – very simple and I really like the preset by Jason – gave a great vintage effect!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
How to Use the Adaptive Wide Angle Lens Filter

05/20/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Vase of Spring Flowers

Image of a vase of flowers painted in Photoshop
Just a vase of spring flowers that I decided to paint using Photoshop’s mixer brushes. I first increased the contrast of the flowers so they showed up sharp using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 – I do this a lot when I want a nice overall sharpness to an image. Also used a Curves Adjustment Layer to add some contrast to the image. 2 Lil’ Owls Stained Glass 25 (see sidebar for website link) was added on top and the flowers painted back in a layer mask. Next a new layer was added where some soft pink color was lightly brushed onto the layer to add a little more color around the flowers. The last major step was going into Topaz ReStyle and using the Light Pastel Daisies preset which changed the texture color from turquoise to more bluish tones. Love the result. …..Digital Lady Syd

05/15/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Painting | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Where Am I?

Image of a spire on Flagler College and the cupola on the Flagler Presbyterian Church
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

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
OnOne’s Perfect Mask Works Great!
Some of My Favorite Plug-Ins
Loving Both Filters!

05/13/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Actions, Textures, Where Am I? | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Spring Flowers

Image of Red and Cream Flowers

More beautiful and unusual flowers at my local grocery. This time they were post-processed on my phone using Nik’s Snapseed App which produces wonderful results. For this image these tools were used: Crop first, Drama Filter Structure +59 and Saturation +20; Grunge Saturation +24, Texture +60, Center Size +50, Style +60, and Brightness 0; Center Focus Blur +72, Outer Blur -72, Inner Blur +29, Weak circle, and focus control point placed on the top flower; and Frame-Frame 11 tapped three times. Once again, this app creates some beautiful results!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
How to Use Nik’s Snapseed Photo App on Your Smart Phone

05/08/2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

A Little Layer Style Fun

Image of rocking chairs at Stetson University
These are some of the rocking chairs that Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, offers students to use for resting or studying on the campus. I really liked the way they have them located throughout this small beautiful campus. One effect I did use on this image was the Blur Gallery in Photoshop so that the end of the walkway was definitely not too clear but the rockers up front are seen clearly. The other was to use Jack Davis’ Layer Styles called Stucco which adds a Pattern Overlay using one of his patterns to give a very textured surface. I changed the opacity from 25% to 19% and the scale to 203% from 61% which gave a very different look. Try playing around with this layer style using one of your favorite textured patterns and see what you get. Lots of fun!…..Digital Lady Syd

05/06/2014 | Categories: Just Being Creative | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Dahlia Flowers Chatting with the New BLooms

Image of two light purple dahlias

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

05/02/2014 | Categories: Textures | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

My Turtle Friend

Image of a turtle that was processed with Nik Analog Efex Pro
Been enjoying my turtle pictures from the Ormond Beach Memorial Art Museum and Garden in Ormond Beach, Florida. This guy was just minding his own business and enjoying the Florida sun when I snapped him. Just basic adjustments were done in Lightroom. In Photoshop I used Nik Viveza 2 to sharpen his turtle lines and to draw focus to his face, and then the Camera Raw filter was applied using the Radial filter for a vignette effect. Really liked how this guy turned – just fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd

04/29/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Pretty Hats

Image of a Hat Display at Universal Studios - Orlando

Had to take this image of these really cute hats. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 was applied first in Photoshop to add some general sharpness to the image. Then Topaz Restyle’s Waterloo and Mint preset was added – loved the resulting rich colors that were achieved. The last step was added three Camera Raw Filter Radial Filters to bring the focus of the image on the hats to the left. Add my SJ Thin Double Edge Frame using sampled colors from the image to match. I really enjoyed seeing these hats – so pretty!…..Digital Lady Syd

04/24/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Soft Pink Calla Lilies!

Image of beautiful 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

04/22/2014 | Categories: Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

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