The Kiddie Tractor Revived!
Riding my toy tractor may be the first recollection I have. Since I grew up practically in the middle of a corn field (although my parents were not farmers), my first ride-on toy was a tractor exactly like this one. It was my favorite toy and I put miles on it! I did not have a tricycle, just a tractor. I had to get a picture when I went to the 39th Annual Turkey Run in Daytona Beach, Florida, last fall. Looks like we are missing a pedal here.
Used my basic Camera Raw steps (see How to Use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or Lightroom 4 Quickly) in Lightroom 4. Next Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 was applied using Overall Detail Medium II preset first, and then the Soft and Dreamy II preset was applied. The tractor was painted back in a layer mask so just the background was softened. On a duplicated layer Topaz Adjust 5’s Low Key II preset with Transparency slider set to .28 was applied to the layer. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was used to desaturate the greens and yellows. 2 Lil’ Owls (see sidebar for website link) Workbook Bonus Texture 16 was added at 85% opacity. A High Pass Sharpening effect set to 8 pixels was applied and a final Curves Adjustment Layer for added contrast and give a nice orange color to the tractor was added. Lots of fun to work on something from your childhood……Digital Lady Syd
Happy Valentines Day!
These flowers were growing in the countryside in Belarus several years ago. I am not sure what kind they are, but the blooms were huge! And the colors are incredible! Not a lot of processing here. After some basic slider adjustments in Lightroom 4, the image was opened up in Photoshop and three inches were added the left side of the image to create an area to add type by going to Image -> Canvas Size. The image was sharpened using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 and the Feature Contrast II preset. Some of the contrast was removed from the image by duplicating the top layer and setting it to Screen blend mode. A black layer mask was added and the high contrast areas were painted back in so they were not so obvious. (See a wonderful video by Melissa Gallo of Painted Textures called Turn Your Photo into a Pastel Painting, Pencil Drawing or Pen and Ink on how to do this.) A New Layer was created and some of the too bright highlights on the pink and purple flowers were lightly painted out. (See my Tidbits Blog Getting Rid of Those Blown Out Areas in Your Image.) Added a Levels Adjustment Layer per Melissa’s suggestion and then Topaz Simplify 4 was opened and the Painting II preset applied. The centers of the large blooms were brushed out to bring back the detail a little using a brush set to 33% opacity in the Local Adjustments section, the Dynamics slider in the Adjust section was set to 0.38, and Tone in Finishing Touches was checked. Back in Photoshop Kim Klassen’s Reentry Texture was added – beautiful texture that was free by signing up for her newsletter. On a white layer mask the flowers were lightly painted out to reveal the flowers just enough. Next on another New Layer some pink hearts were added to the background using Obsidian Dawn’s hearts-glitter brush set’s Glitter Brush set to 4100 px. Once again a white layer mask was added and the flower painted out so the hearts do not cover them. This layer was set to 68% opacity. The text was added using my favorite Freehand575 BT font set to a default setting of the Bevel & Emboss layer style. A basic texture image turned into a Valentine for you!…..Digital Lady Syd
Painterly Effect using Topaz Detail and Simplify
 |
I was looking through my notes from last year and came across some nice info on using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Simplify and Detail together to create an oil painting look. (See Creating an Oil Painting Effect from Topaz Labs.) My Hawaiian image from the east coast of the Big Island was one I had not originally processed as it really did not catch my eye – hoover over image to toggle to original. While doing a little Hawaii dreaming, I came across it again and thought it might look good using some of the settings from this video. (I really was thinking about how it would be to live in the house up in the top left – hum!) I actually did not follow the exact video workflow, but it did get me thinking about how to do this. Now that both Simplify and Detail have been updated, it was easier to get some different looks. Here are the steps I followed:
1. Duplicated the Background layer (CTRL+J). Topaz Detail 3 was opened and the settings from the second example in the video were applied: Small Detail .53, Medium Detail .46, and Large Detail .44.
2. Duplicated the Detail layer. Next Topaz Simplify 4 was opened and the Painting IV preset was applied. The only change to it is that the Edges section was turned off as it made the trees in the background stand out.
3. A Layer Mask was applied to the top Simplify layer. Some of the Detail Layer was brought back in by painting black on the mask on the foreground leaves. Also some detail in the little rock island was painted back.
4. What I did different was to add a New Layer and paint over the foreground leaves and trees in the midground to give a more painterly look and smoothing out some of the rough edges and colors that Simplify can bring into an image. A wet mixer brush was used for this.
5. Next a general Curves Adjustment Layer was added to bring in some contrast.
6. The sky was really blown out, so I added another Curves Adjustment Layer that brought back the natural clouds from the original image into the sky. The Layer Mask was filled with black and just the sky area was painted back with a soft black low opacity brush.
7. The water was way too cyan for my taste, so another Curves Adjustment Layer was added and the different color channels were adjusted to get a better color for the water.
8. I felt like the eye was not guided with a strong enough element to get you through the image. Therefore, a New Layer that was set to Overlay Blend Mode was added. With a large black brush set to 15% opacity, the edge of the bay was lightly painted on the water all the way to the back center. This burned in a slight contrast in the water for the eye to follow. Much better overall impact for the image.
9. The last step involved adding my SJ Thin Double Edge Frame layer style left at the default colors.
That is how I got this very Hawaiian Oil Paint feeling. Give these two plug ins a try and see what you think…..Digital Lady Syd
Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Topaz Simplify and Topaz Detail Together
Beautiful Feathers!
These beautiful feathers were from the 24th Annual Native American Festival held in Ormond Beach, Florida. Totally enjoyed looking at the many exhibits and vendor tents, and the shows were very entertaining. This image is of a display of feather hair bungies that was in a vendor tent. Very little treatment was done to the image. The biggest change in Lightroom was changing the aspect ratio to a square crop. A few Basic sliders were adjusted before opening Photoshop. First the image was taken into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) photoFXlab where the layer was duplicated and in the Effects tab, Black and White Albumen – Chocolate was applied (this is actually a preset in the Black and White Effects plug-in). Next in the Adjustment Tab, Saturation was set to 2, Exposure to -0.05, Contrast to -5, and Dynamics 25. The top layer was set to 52% opacity and a Color Blend Mode. Once back in Photoshop, Topaz Detail 3 was opened and the Overall Medium Detail preset applied. A black layer mask was added and with a soft white low opacity brush, only areas I wanted really sharpened were painted back in. Then a little clean up to smooth the background was done. I really like the soft looking feathers in this image. What a fun place to take pictures – and not much processing needed afterwards!…..Digital Lady Syd
Happy New Years!
Happy New Years to everyone. I posted this image earlier today and thought I would give you the info on how to create it. The flowers are two of my red gerberas from my back porch that decided to burst forward on the New Years weekend. They are a little crazy looking as I keep moving them into the house when it gets cold and outside again when it warms up! Anyway, here are the steps in a nutshell! After initial processing and cropping in Lightroom, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3’s Medium Detail II preset was applied. Next Isabelle Lafrance free Christmas Lights overlay was applied for the bokeh effect. I just used a soft black brush on a layer mask to bring the red gerberas back into the image. Next I applied my free SJ Snow 2 Slight Blur Overlay and added a Pattern Overlay. In another document I opened up my free Smudge Texture and changed the colors to reds, greens and yellows – saved it down as a new pattern (Edit -> Define as a Pattern). Then on the Snow Overlay layer, I created a layer style using the Pattern Overlay and selected my new pattern set to 33% scale – this gives the colored confetti look. I duplicated the layer and Free Transformed it (CTRL+T) – selected Flip Vertical so the colored snow on this layer lines up differently. The bottle is from Mel’s Happy New Years Brushes with a Bevel & Emboss layer style applied along with the fizz. The font is Orial with a Stroke, Inner Glow and Outer Glow layer style added. The last step was a Curves Adjustment Layer to add some contrast. Lots of fun to play with all these effects! Hope everyone has a chance to play in Photoshop and try out some of these fun techniques!…..Digital Lady Syd
Christmas Wreaths at SeaWorld
For this wonderful holiday, thought I would show this pretty image of wreaths from SeaWorld Orlando. Just a little basic processing in Lightroom before taking the image into Photoshop. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Adjust 5’s High Key preset was applied with the Overall Transparency set to .24. Next Topaz Detail 3 was applied using the HDR Enhancement II preset. French Kiss’s Artiste Chamante texture was applied and set to Overlay at 100% opacity. My free Snow1 Overlay was next applied and set to 75% opacity. French Kiss’s Glorious Grunge Edging Overlay was applied next and a Solid Color Adjustment Layer set to a light pink was added. Since the edging did not seem to show up real well, it was duplicated along with the Adjustment Layer. That was all that was done and I love the final effect – the umbrella really added to the shot. Hope all are having a wonderful week!…..Digital Lady Syd
