Chatting with the Ladies on the Bridge

This was a fairly large sized turtle that was hanging around the bridge platform where I was talking with a few other ladies – he seemed totally enthralled with our conversation. Something tells me he was looking for a hand-out. Lucis Pro was added to sharpen him up a little first. Then Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio Texture Effects filter (started with Earthy Cat and Window Gaze preset – only used these adjustments: Blurs, Basic Adjustment, Texture and set the Opacity to 0.30 – used as it gave a natural looking interest in the water; added Dehaze Adj – 0.72 opacity and Strength 0.91 and Suppress Artifacts 0.73 – gave water a darker richer color; next added Radiance Adj – 0.97 opacity, Overlay bm, Radiance Type Light, Strength 0.53, Width 0.16, Length -0.28, Curl 0, Suppress Weak 0.01, Effect Coverage 1.00, Fade 0.13, and Sat 0.63 – in mask painted around turtle with small brush which lightened it up around turtle, then used the Adjust settings and set the Density and Contrast to blend the color into the water color – gave a very soft edge around the turtle; the Glow filter was added last – Opacity 0.58, Overlay bm, Primary Glow Type 0.10, Primary Effect Sharpness 0.74, Primary Electrify 0.23, Primary Simplify Details 0.87, Primary Edge Color 0.17, Primary Detail Strength -0.40, Primary Detail Size 0.20, Primary Brightness 0.37, Primary Contrast 0.98, Primary Sat 0.23, Primary Line Rotation 0, Primary Glow Spread 0.08, Coverage Transition 0.31 and Sharp Radius 0.10). In Photoshop a Vignette was created using Matt K’s technique (see my How to Create a Subtle Vignette blog). The font is called Style Casual, one of my favorites. ….. Digital Lady Syd