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Presenting the Ragamuffins

Image of Large Yellow flowers at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando

The Harry P. Leu Gardens has a large row of these gigantic yellow flowers – totally get your attention! They look a bit like, I hate to say it, a large yellow weed. Anyway, since I totally love the color yellow, I had to figure out a way to show them in good form. The image actually took a very long time to put together since the background had to be totally removed and replaced with a painted one I did in Corel Painter previously. I won’t go through all the steps, but Luminar (see sidebar for website link) Flex was used to get the sharpness and colors and on a second layer in Flex, Sunrays filter was used – this gives the soft sky effect. (See my Luminar Flex – Exactly What is This? blog.) Viveza 2 was used to get the sharpness on the petals correct and what really created the beautiful color look was using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle which gave me a better color palette. Lots going on here but these unusual beauties deserved it!…..Digital Lady Syd

06/13/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Sweating Plant

This Pink Pineapple Plant was really not sweating, it was being watered to keep it from getting too hot on a very hot day at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. The water drops were quite stunning. There is a pineapple attached on the lower left. This plant image was very simple to post process – used a little of the new Texture slider in Lightroom before going to Photoshop. Then used Luminar Flex (see my Luminar Flex – Exactly What is This? blog) – this time just Accent AI Filter, Advanced Contrast and just Shadows slider, and Details Enhancer where it was only applied to the edges with a mask where the water drops are. Back in PS just used Viveza 2, one of my Lookup Tables set to 44%, and a Spotlight Effect on the center of the plant. What a little beauty hidden in this gigantic garden!…..Digital Lady Syd

06/11/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Candle Lilies

Image of some day lilies that look like lit candles

Had some fun with these beautiful white day lilies taken in the bright sunshine at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. To get the golden color in the flowers, one of Serge Ramelli’s LR presets, Safari Warm Dramatic Strong, was used and then just some basic changes were done. In PS a High Pass layer was created to sharpen the image. Then Lighten and Darken Curves Adjustment Layers were used. A Color Lookup Adjustment Layer using Kodak 5218 Kodak 2395 preset was applied at 55% layer opacity. Then a Gradient Layer Adjustment Layer selecting Sepia 5 as a gradient was added next and set to Soft Light blend mode and 57% layer opacity. Viveza 2 was used to finish up. I like the surreal candle effect. …..Digital Lady Syd

06/06/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Monarch Butterfly’s Magical Dust

Image of a Monarch Butterfly at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida

This was one of many lovely Monarch and other types of butterflies that were very busy spreading the magic dust to the beautiful flowers that were in bloom at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. This image took me forever to decide what to do with it! It had a really distracting background with all the crazy leaves going all over the place – it was a hard image to capture as the butterflies were going crazy on the hot day I visited. In Photoshop Luminar’s (see sidebar for website link) Flex was used to calm it down some and add some structure to the butterfly, then Viveza 2 twice to try and soften the background, before using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle to get the final color palette. That’s along with some painting, spotlight effect, and Red Channel Curves Adjustment Layer. I think I finally got the mystical magical effect I was trying to create……Digital Lady Syd

06/05/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Mars from Above

Image from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

I follow a blog that sends out B&W images from the HiRISE Camera (link shows original image) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Every now and then a really interesting one shows up with lots of detail and depth like in the image above that shows Recurring Slope Lineae (dark markings on steep slopes). The image needed to be sharpened so Topaz’s (see sidebar for website link) new Sharpen AI was used. Then several adjustments layers were added: Channel Mixer set to Hard Mix blend mode at 36% opacity and 6% Fill, Gradient Map set to Vivid Light at 36% opacity, another Gradient Map set to Overlay, Hue/Saturation where the Greens were adjusted, and Curves set to Darken. Several Spotlight Effect layers in different colors were used to further direct attention to certain areas. Nik Viveza 2 was used to even out the tones and sharpen the focal points, and the font is called Abraham Lincoln. This was a lot of fun to do and it is hard to believe the image is from Mars!…..Digital Lady Syd

05/30/2019 | Categories: Just Being Creative | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Splendiferous Bougainvillea

Image of pink Bougainvillea blooms

The beautiful blooms above are growing in my front yard right now – they are quite pretty and textured. Shot manually My 60 mm Nikkor macro lens was used with a Bower 0.5 x High Resolution Digital Lens with Macro added to the lens. I always love the results of this lens. Luminar 3 (see sidebar for website link) was used to bring out the detail (used Structure, Details Enhance, Image Radiance, and Top and Bottom filters). A mixer brush was used to smooth out the background. The font is called Beauty Angelique. Nik Viveza 2 was used to further highlight the focal area. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd

05/28/2019 | Categories: Macro, Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Wanted: Female Interested in Long Relationship

Image of a painted Lappet-Faced Vulture

This handsome specimen of a Vulture (he really is not that grumpy when you meet him) was really fun to paint. A couple of textures were used, one I painted in Corel Painter and another containing a heart bokeh effect, an Evelyn Flint Flickr Texture. The bird was separated from his background and then my newly created Flat Fan mixers were used to paint in his feathers. Some spotlight effect was used on his face and the text font is called Parkway Lush. Lots of fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd

05/21/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Painting | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Early Morning Yoga Session

Image of a Snowy Egret stretching at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery

This beautiful feathery Snowy Egret is getting up early and doing a few Yoga exercises to get ready for a full day of finding a mate. Image was taken at the St. Augustine’s Alligator Farm’s fabulous rookery. Tried out the new Lightroom Texture slider which made the feathers just pop out really nicely. In Photoshop, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio where AI Clear was added first. Then the Default setting for Impression was used, but this time the Painting Progress was set to 0.31 so only a bit of paint was added to the tree branches which looked really bad. The paint was removed from the bird using a Luminosity mask and painting out some more at 0.42 Mask Transparency. Then some Mixer painting clean up was done in Photoshop to smooth out some of the edges around the bird. A yellow light leak was added to make the sky look warm and to match the lighting on the bird. The text used the font called Style Casual. That was about it. …… Digital Lady Syd

05/17/2019 | Categories: Lightroom | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

The Lioness – Need I Say More?

Image of a Lioness at the Jacksonville Zoo.

This beautiful lioness named Taum (I think) lives at the Jacksonville Zoo and looks totally regal while she watches over her domain. She was originally post-processed in Lightroom using Serge Ramelli’s Safari Animal Vignette Cold Medium (click for video to download link) and then made changes to fit this image. Overall it just gave a nice cool feel to the background. In Photoshop Topaz (see sidebar for website link) DeNoise AI was used and it just gave a very subtle effect. So the image was taken into Topaz Studio using the AI Clear Adjustment (Remove Noise Low, Enhance Sharpness High, Recover Details 0.33, Exposure -0.13, and Clarity 0.35), and the Precision Detail Adjustment (Subtle Sharp preset and in layer mask, inverted it and then painted back the lion face and end of foreground paw – middle paws were set to 0.50 and painted back just a little). This creates a very good combination for sharpness. Then just added in some contrast and a Lookup Table (Fuji Reala 500D Kodak 2393 preset) to give a moody feel to the image. That was it……Digital Lady Syd

05/14/2019 | Categories: Lightroom, Photoshop Filters, Topaz Studio | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Just Catching a Few Rays

Image of a red Sunflower taken at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida.

I loved this beautiful red Sunflower taken at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. The color is so striking. I put the flower in a warm background since it was so busy – used a soft mixer brush by David Belliveau (his brushes are really good) to smooth out any unusual lines or blobs. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpen AI set to Stabilize and both sliders to 50 to get a super sharp image. Nik Viveza 2 was used to sharpen the little buds individually and the center of the main flower. Text was one of my favorites fonts called Style Casual. An Inner Glow and Outer Glow layer style was added to the type. A Spotlight Effect using a white color to emphasize the center of the flower to draw the eye a little more. A slight vignette was created using Unmesh Dinda’s Levels Adjustment Layer technique. The last step was to create a Stamped Layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) on top and a Gaussian Blur set to a Radius of 4.3. Then in a layer mask, the Gradient Tool set black to white and a Linear Gradient was used on just the bottom so only the very bottom buds were blurred out a little. The main stems were painted back at 50% brush opacity. That was it. I love the yellow and red color palette. ….. Digital Lady Syd

05/09/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

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