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A Happy Giant Otter

Image of a Giant Otter swimming at the Jacksonville Zoo

I love it when I go to a zoo and the animals seem happy. The Giant Otter exhibit at the Jacksonville Zoo is one area where the all the otters seems so happy and were totally enjoying themselves. A great place to relax and just watch them while at this Zoo. It is very hard to photograph these fast moving animals, but if you are persistent, a good image can be achieved. Not a lot was done on this image but there was a lot of reflective glare from the water spectral highlights. That is why I decided to use Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio 2’s Impression – applied a preset created by Jai Johnson (a fabulous wildlife photographer and texture creator) called Just Paint Hummingbird Scene. (Check out her Artistry Beyond the Camera Episode 1 video for settings – she uses Topaz photoFXlab software, but the Topaz Impression settings are the same.) I made a few changes to the strokes in the Impression filter. Back in Photoshop opened up Luminar Flex – like it to sharpen when Topaz Sharpen AI does not work. Their Detail, Clarity, Structure and Microstructure filters are terrific for this. (These are the same filters as Luminar 4 – see sidebar for website link.) A little line clean up and a free Rain Overlay (from Book Cover Mockup Rain Overlay by Design Cuts) was added at Screen blend mode at 56% layer opacity. A Levels Adjustment Layer was used to add contrast. That was it. What a cute little fellow!…..Digital Lady Syd

02/20/2020 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Just Gulliver Saying Hi

Image of a Coquerel Sifaka (a type of Lemur)

Gulliver is a Coquerel’s Sifaka, a medium-sized Lemur. What a character – I could hang out with Gulliver all day at the Jacksonville Zoo. Not a lot was done to the image – it just looked better in black and white to me. Used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpen AI first, then painted some of his hairs a little darker using some of the brushes noted in my recent blog called Getting the Joel Sartore Look on Your Zoo Images. Little bit of Spotlight Effect on his face and that was about it. He is so photogenic and seems to love to have his picture taken. Go visit him if you get a chance to go the Jacksonville Zoo – he will put on a little show for you……Digital Lady Syd

02/18/2020 | Categories: Photography | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Looking for his Valentine

Jaquar Valentines Card

My Valentine Jaguar buddy from the Jacksonville Zoo was caught looking into what looked like a little window is all dressed up in his holiday pajamas. I thought this image would make a nice Valentine’s Day card so that is what I did. He was actually turned into a sketch using a tutorial called 5 Easy Steps to Create a Realistic Little Drawing from a Photo in Photoshop by Jesus Ramirez. Just followed the steps and painted in some heart shapes on the rocks using a Color blend mode to give the painted effect. Painted the heart pattern out of his spots using an 8-pixel soft round brush and Gruts H Hatch Wren brush (if you have not checked out Gruts brush website, take a look-it’s great). It took awhile but was lots of fun to do. Happy Valentine’s Day!…..Digital Lady Syd

02/14/2020 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Painting | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

The Red Cedar Stump

Historic image of an old car under a red cedar stump in 1920

Had fun with this great image from Shorpy’s – the historical photo archive site. This image was called Pacific Highway through a Washington Red Cedar Stump and was taken in 1920. Here is a link for info on this stump which is still standing in the State of Washington. Is this guy really looking at his phone????

Recently I did a Fun Photoshop blog called How to Convert Black and White Images to Colorful Paintings with Topaz Studio 2. This image followed this technique except a different Look that was created in Studio 1 a long time ago was applied. Three filters were in the Look: Color Themes, AI ReMix (used Wave of Color Style), and Precision Contrast. Also HSL Color Tuning and Details (with settings in the minus to give a painterly effect) filters were added. Back in Photoshop Viveza was used to balance it all out. Last step involved adding a bit of a vignette so car and man stood out. It was a nice image to colorize. ….. Digital Lady Syd

02/11/2020 | Categories: Photo Art, Topaz Studio | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Sneaking a Quick Snack

Here is Gulliver, one of my favorite animals at the Jacksonville Zoo. He loves to perform for all the visitors and is always available to entertain you. Just thought I would give him a little bit of Joel Sartore, the famous National Geographic photographer) clean classic style. His PhotoArk images are currently being displayed all around the Jacksonville Zoo which was a real treat. A perfect selection of the subject is essential to get this effect. It took me a bit of time to get the edges just the way I wanted them with no discoloration from the green background – used a brush with sharp edges and cloned away the bad parts. (See my How to Save a Photoshop CC2018 Regular Brush as a Different Tool blog which tells how to create this fur brush.) Then a very small blender mixer brush was used to fix some of the hairs around his body. The other crucial part of this type of image is getting the lighting on the animal correct. I had taken this image through a plastic smeary glass with some glare, so the contrast had to be really adjusted to get a clear look. It was pretty labor intensive but worth it when you get a final image you like…..Digital Lady Syd

01/29/2020 | Categories: Photoshop Tools | Tags: , | 1 Comment »

The Rag-a-Muffins

Enjoyed painting this image but it took awhile to figure which way to do it. I actually ended up using Jessica Johnson’s Pattern Stamp technique using her brushes also (see my What About the Pattern Stamp Tool? Not Bad! blog). Clean up was done Gavin Phillips smudge brush, which is actually a regular brush but does a great job. An Impasto Layer was created to give a more painterly look (see my How to Create an Impasto Texture Layer Style blog). Otherwise that was about it. Lots of fun!…..Digital Lady Syd

01/21/2020 | Categories: Photoshop Painting | Tags: | 1 Comment »

Landscape of Old

Finally got back to painting. A lot I have forgotten and a lot more to learn but it was nice to get back into Corel Painter. If you have Painter, check out Davey Baker’s Painter 2018 Awe-Inspiring Environment Painting. The video was actually done in 2017 I believe, but Corel has re-released it and runs for almost an hour. He only used one brush called Wet Brush (check out his short video called How to Create Custom Wet Brush for more on this). I changed my brush from his slightly and created two more variants to do the detail work. What I did learn was that to be able to do this, you need to understand how to use the brush so practice with it on a separate layer before painting. Davey’s video had several tips on painting and other things. In Photoshop I actually used Grut’s FX Cloud Lumens (the best Cloud brushes ever made) to create the clouds as I did not like how mine looked using Dave’s Wet Brush settings in Painter. Also used Perfectly Clear v3 Magic Hour preset to adjust the exposure correctly. For final clean up work, used Fay Sirkis’s (a Corel Master but she also did PS videos and brushes at one time) Precious Oil Diamond Blender Mixer brush that I have used for years (the only place her brushes are still available is on KelbyOne – if you are a member, do a search for her name – she has 5 webinars, which are still great, and brushes can be downloaded). This was so much fun but it took several hours to complete……Digital Lady Syd

01/15/2020 | Categories: Corel Painter, Photo Art | Leave A Comment »

Checking Out the Visitors

This guy resides at The Smithsonian Zoo in Washington, DC (check this cool Lion live web cam to see what is happening). He seemed to be enjoying watching the crowds come by for a visit. I decided to do a monochromatic treatment. In Lightroom the sepia tone used is similar to that used by the famous wildlife photographer Nick Brandt. In Photoshop Perfectly Clear was used to adjust the exposure where a preset called Fill Flash was used – it really brought out the details in the face. A Dodge and Burn layer was also used. I love to visit the Lions at the zoo!…..Digital Lady Syd

01/10/2020 | Categories: Lightroom | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Fishing at Flagler Beach

Image of fishing pier at Flagler Beach, Florida.

Had some more fun using Sparkle Stock’s free action called Inception. This time used a fishing pier and added some birds from PixelSquid. This image turned out to be a gig in size as the action tends to really make the file large. I just created a stamped layer and used it to start an new document to finish up. To get the yellow color, a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer preset called Edgy Amber was applied at 74% layer opacity. A few of the fishermen had to be adjusted so they did not look exactly the same. Otherwise, pretty easy to do……Digital Lady Syd

01/07/2020 | Categories: Photoshop Actions | Leave A Comment »

Butterflies

Image of several butterflies on a textured background

Ended 2019 with a butterfly graphic image. Had fun just trying some of the new techniques from this year. Mainly trying out a little blend if technique to remove the backgrounds from the butterflies. A couple Color Lookup Adjustments Layers and a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer were used to add in a little more effect. The original background texture is called Butterfly Flutters by French Kiss and the font is one of my favorites, Argentina Script. There is so much that can be practiced with Photoshop……Digital Lady Syd

01/02/2020 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Textures | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

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