Palm Court Cafe cc 1903
Had a fabulous time converting a beautiful black and white image of Hotel Gregorian’s cafe from Shorpy.com into a colorized image. I just used my original Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2 “Look” I created to do this sort of thing called SJ BW to Painted Color. It did not even require any adjusting which really surprised me. (For the Topaz settings, see my How to Convert Black and White Images to Colorful Paintings with Topaz Studio 2 blog with them all listed.) This layer was set to 77% layer opacity and then localized sharpening was done using a gray layer following Blake Rudis’s Sharpen Photos like a Pro! video. (I use this workflow so much I actually created an action for the High Pass technique.) A little clean up and that was about it. What a gorgeous image – I wish I could have breakfast there!…..Digital Lady Syd
Practice Makes Perfect
This image is from ISO Republic and is one of my favorites for practicing new Photoshop techniques. This time I decided use Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2 using some of the best filters from this program. I created a Studio Look a while back called “SJ BW to Painted Color Look” (for settings see my How to Convert Black and White Images to Colorful Paintings with Topaz Studio 2 blog) which was applied. On top the Color Theme filter was added and setting it to the Lighten blend mode and changing the third swatch to color #1c1c1e with Lightness set to 0.12. Color Theme filter is a great way to adjust one of the colors in the image without changing everything and one of the best filters in the Studio program. I also used Luminar 4 to add in the Sunray effect and a Color Lookup called Seattle. The font is called Garlic with both a regular and outline version stacked on top. Sure was fun to play in one of my favorite Photoshop plugins!…..Digital Lady Syd
Enjoying the Day
This is another example of an image that I colorized using the steps from my How to Convert Black and White Images to Colorful Paintings with Topaz Studio 2. I did use Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpen AI and of course Topaz Studio 2 using the same preset as in the my original blog except the ReMix filter was set to Colored Marker for a style. Added a Color Theme filter to get the colors just right. To get a really nice effect, Topaz Lens Effect was applied for a bit of golden feel. That was about it. So fun to do these vintage images!…..Digital Lady Syd
Fisherman’s Cabin
This image was created using one of Shorpy.com’s great images called Fisherman’s Cabin-Shore Road-Magnolia-Cloucester-Massachusetts, cc1905. This image was run through the Image Colorizer (see my How to Colorize Using Image Colorizer blog for info on this) first, then after some clean up in PS before taking the image into Topaz Studio 2 where Impression, Edges, and Color Theme filters were applied. Then the image was taken into Corel Painter and the image was painted over where the canned Impression program left stroke I did not like. Back in PS, the Mixer brushes were used to do the final clean up on the image. Lots of fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd
Fishing in 1904
This image is a fabulous one from Shorpy.com, one of the best places to see great historical images. I decided to use one of my colorizing techniques since the image was so clear and interesting. Used my blog called How to Convert Black and White Images to Colorful Painting with Topaz Studio 2. The first step is very important as noted in the blog – make sure you have adjusted the resolution and size of the image before beginning to change the image. When opened in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2, only AI ReMix was applied using Daylight Fade preset, High, Brightness 0.60, Contrast 1.00, Sat 0.75, Hue 0.15. From within Topaz Studio, Topaz Adjust AI was opened and set to Standard and Strength 0.71 – then mainly all the sliders were adjusted to get a really nice look. Back in PS, the skin color was painted in as for some reason it did not pick up color. The blue color came from Topaz ReStyle and Nik Viveza was used to even out the whole effect. This was the perfect image for this type of coloring…..Digital Lady Syd
Ready for a Snack
These Delicious Muscat Beauty Grapes really are quite delicious! I also loved the color and texture in the grapes themselves so I had to photograph them. Used my regular workflow in Lightroom. Then in Photoshop opened up Topaz Studio and applied the Impression filter’s default preset with a few tweaks, the Dehaze Filter, and the Precision Contrast filter. Back in Photoshop added Curves Adjustment Layer for additional contrast, smoothed out the background with a large blender mixer brush, and did a little edge softening by painting over the edges of some of the grapes at a low opacity. Used the Camera Raw filter to adjust the final color as it was too blue. Last step was to add a spotlight effect on some of the grapes to draw the eye. The font for the text is called Agatha. These grapes did really make a great snack!…..Digital Lady Syd
Bathing Beauties
These beauties were enjoying all the attention they got at the Jacksonville Zoo. I learned one thing about Flamingos – it is hard to get an image where they are all in a “descent” grouping. They are just like taking pictures of groups of people. For some reason I decided to give them a magical background by using one of 2 Lil’ Studios great textures set to 40% layer opacity – a mask was added to painted a bit of the middle. Also the birds were taken into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2 and a basic dose of Impression was added to give them a bit of a painterly look. It was painted softly off their faces though. And yes, one of the Flamingos had to be brought in from another image because someone decided to show a not very interesting area of their bird body to the camera. Sort of like the “class clown!” A Color Lookup Adjustment Layer was added using the Foggy Night preset. That was it. This was a lot of fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd
A Vintage Gas Station
Had a lot of fun colorizing this vintage image taken in 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, using mostly the settings from my recent blog called How to Convert Black and White Images to Colorful Paintings with Topaz Studio 2. Click here to see the black and white photo at Shorpy.com. In the Look I settings I provided, the unchecked ReMix AI was turned on and the Eye of the Storm style set to a High strength and the Overlay blend mode (Brightness -0.41, Contrast 1.42 and Hue -1.00 sliders). The Quad Tone Filter was added on top and the Strength was set to 0.65 – this added a little color in the sky and reduces the color around the flags. Back in Photoshop Viveza 2 was added and the attendant was highlighted to emphasize him a little. On a stamped layer Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Restyle was added using the Butterfly Wings preset – the ReStyle Opacity was set to 30% and the blend mode to Multiply. Give this a try if you have Topaz Studio!…..Digital Lady Syd
First View of Land
This was a pretty exciting moment when land is first seen after sailing across the Gulf Stream all night. There was a sailboat off in the distance in this image, but we did not see another one until Spanish Cay – the ocean is very empty around here. To post process the image, very little was done. The water was adjusted in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2 by adding a little bit of the Impression filter set to the default to tone down all the white reflection on the water – it was masked off the sky. This is exactly how the clouds looked – totally incredible. A Color Lookup Adjustment Layer was added using the free SparkleStock’s Wedding LUT called Airy 01 set to 58% layer opacity. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added on top where the RGB curve was set to a little S curve for contrast and the Red Channel was used to lighten up the Cyan just a little. That was it. ….. Digital Lady Syd
The Purplepassion Flower
This Purplepassion Flower image was taken at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida a while ago. It is a very beautiful bloom and there is a little bee hiding in it. Mainy did the clean up in Luminar (see sidebar for website link) Flex with their wonderful Structure, Detail Enhancer, Image Radiance, Microstructure, and HSL filters. In Photoshop used a Gradient Map tAdjustment Layer to emphasize the color a little. Then used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2’s fabulous Impression filter – just adjusted the default settings a little to smooth out the background. Then used Mixers brushes back in Photoshop to further blend in the effect. Finally used Topaz Lens Effects Fog filter to lighten the top slightly. Viveza 2 was used to adjust the focal point and the last step was a Curves Adjustment Layer. The text is a font called Brettany ….. Digital Lady Syd
Hiding in a Palm Tree
I think this is a little Eastern Bluebird female who was helping me while I cleaned up my flower beds in my front yard. Not much was done in Lightroom, and Photoshop added Viveza 2 filter to sharpen her up a bit. The light was really dark in the palm tree, but really bright behind her so it was hard to get that looking correct. A Curves Adjustment Layer was used for this. Just a slight painterly effect was added in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2’s Impression filter. Then in PS on a few New Layers, mainly just painted in some lines in the foreground palm fronds as they were really blurred. The Camera Raw filter was used to further tweak the color in the HSL panel. Topaz Lens Effects’ Soft Olive Green Vignette preset was added. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd
A Busy Place
Not a whole lot done to my beautiful Bird of Paradise bloom that I photographed yesterday. Looks like the ants are taking over – eish! In Lightroom just did some basic adjustments and used an Adjustment Brush to sharpen up the ants. In Photoshop Luminar’s Flex was used to further sharpen up the blooms and ants and a Vignette was used to darken the background. Then on another layer, used Topaz Studio 2 and applied AI ReMix – a BW filter preset from Greg Rostami was applied (uses Neon Feathers, Style Strength High, Brightness 0.56, Contrast 1.97, Smooth Edge 0.14, Sharpness 0.44, and Suppress Artifacts 0.79.) and set to Luminosity blend mode to give a colored sketch look (check out Greg Rostami’s Topaz webinar AI Magic with ReMix and Clear). In Photoshop a black layer mask was added and painted the effect back in a few places with a low opacity brush on the ants and some of the texture was added in the petals. That was it……Digital Lady Syd
Blushing Roses
Loved the way these roses were lined up at the Harry P. Leu Gardens so I decided to give them a texture and post them. These flowers were first post processed in the updated Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2 using the Impression filter’s default with Type 03 brush, then tried out one of my old Topaz Studio 1 presets (now Looks) that was migrated over in to the new program – it had a Texture filter and a HSL Color Tuning filter. Adobe’s Paper Texture Pro was opened and the texture named Newt was added using the Overlay blend mode at 76% blend mode. Viveza 2 was used to sharpen up the top flower, and Topaz ReStyle using a preset from an old image’s colors saved down as a preset finished up the effect. I ended up with the sort of dreamy look I wanted!…..Digital Lady Syd
Star Wars on Steroids
Image taken at the Infinite Space Art Show by Refik Anadol in Washington, DC. If you get a chance to see it, definitely go – absolutely wonderful. The silhouette was created from people sitting on soft cushions enjoying the show. This image, shot during a video, reminded me of flying into the Death Star in Star Wars. Not much work had to be done to the image. Luminar Flex was opened and Structure, Details Enhancer and Exposure filters were used to really sharpen up the image. Then on a stamped layer in PS, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2 was opened and AI Clear was used to remove the noise in the image. Precision Detail was used just on the Highlights and Precision Contrast’s High Contrast slider was used to really darken the black. Back in PS a Curves Adjustment Layer was added. That was it. This show was full of beautiful color and movement!…..Digital Lady Syd
