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Thistles at the Zoo?

Image of thistles taken at the Jacksonville Zoo

It is amazing the things you can find at the zoo. There was a large blooming thistle bush growing along one of paths so I had to take a few shots. In Lightroom used Serge Ramelli’s Tone Bleak Mountains preset (a freebie from Kelby One) and added a couple radial filters to light up the plants. In PS, not much was done but a Center Spotlight Background was added – I used one I created in a recent Design Cuts tutorial on How to Create an Epic Poster Design in Photoshop – the tutorial was actually a little hard to follow but at the beginning a nice background effect was created. I just saved it down as a file to be used again. Shapes by amber & ink Floral Shadow 11 was used in the background – did a Free Transform and warped the shadow to fit. Last step used On1’s Color Lookup Table Moody 5 (part of owning On1 Photo Raw software) and was set to 43% layer opacity. Last step added a Curves Adjustment Layer and that was it……Digital Lady Syd

05/07/2019 | Categories: Lightroom | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Another “Uptown Girl”

Image of a double exposure with a woman's portrait and NYC
Enjoyed creating this double exposure in Photoshop – had not done a lot of this so it was fun to try out a new tutorial to see how it went. This time a video called How to Combine Double Exposure and Selective Color Design in Photoshop by Ahmad Salahuddin was followed. (No voice so you have to watch carefully, but he has provided resources to download to follow along – very helpful.) To get the effect, the text (the font is called Adrenaline Brush) has to be set to white and clipped to the selected portrait layer (Unsplash-Portrait of a Young Woman, Florina, Greece by Pete Bellis) and then duplicated, set to black, and moved under the image. Then the image to fill up the portrait is placed on top and set to Lighten blend mode – duplicated and flipped so the words all fill up with the image. Finally the NYC image (from 20 Free New York Photos Deeezy image 05) was placed underneath – it was reduced to a sketch by using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s Black Only II preset set to 48%. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was clipped to the NYC image and the lines were set to brownish color. The last step involved taking a Composite (stamped) layer into Topaz ReStyle and applying the Surf and Tallow preset. I was surprised how nice the final image came out. Lots of fun!…..Digital Lady Syd

05/02/2019 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Filters, Topaz Studio | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Posing for a Portrait

Image of a Ring-Tailed Lemur taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.

This Ring-Tailed Lemur looks like he has been posing for portraits before – he does have a bit of that Star Wars Yoda look going for him. Biggest problem I had with this image was a really large black fence across his body. Had to get a little creative but it was not really that hard. Mainly used the Clone Stamp Brush and Spot Healing Brush to paint over the bars and remove any patterning. In a couple places some new hair needed to be added so using an older free Wildlife Texture Brush Pack by Coyote Mange, several fur brushes were used to add it in – these are terrific brushes so if you do need animal hair brushes in PS, try them out. Otherwise just the basic PS workflow to get the final result. Really love this image…..Digital Lady Syd

04/30/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Painting | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

I Am Feeling So Sleepy!

Image of a Caribbean Flamingo at the Jacksonville Zoo.

This beautiful Caribbean (or American) Flamingo was just an example of the many beautiful flamingoes strutting around the enclosure – it looks like he had a very busy evening the night before. It was a lot of fun to post process this guy but it was a bit of a challenge. The behind of another bird was in the image so I decided to just pull the bird head out of the image and start from scratch. No filters were used this time – and only a little sharpening and noise removal was done in Lightroom. Then I just painted around the bird and added in the grass and plants from PixelSquid. Put a sky background in as a texture taken from the Fantasy Text Effect file, and just added in some spotlight effects, a Color Lookup Adjustment layer, a French Kiss Pencil Frame (not sure it is still available), Curves and Levels Adjustments Layers, and some text (Zing Rust Line Horizontals and Vild Scrapes fonts). That was it but it took awhile to get this all looking right. ….. Digital Lady Syd

04/25/2019 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Painting | 1 Comment »

A Frozen World

An image of a wintry scene at Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, Florida

This image is another view of the trail at Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, Florida. This time it was given a frosty feel – just felt like doing something different with it. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s preset Paint by Numbers was used to get this sort of half painted effect – and the original image was loaded over the effect using an Image Adjustment Layer. Back in PS Topaz ReStyle’s Snow Cover II preset was used to give the wintry look. The birds were added and a Pattern Fill Adjustment Layer was used to give the texture in them. ….. Digital Lady Syd

04/23/2019 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Springtime!

Image of a Coleus Plant and Butterfly

Just had some fun trying a couple new techniques that I learned this week. One involved using the Diffuse Filter to help blend in a composite object and the other was to use Content Aware Scale to put an image into portrait mode from landscape. Both new techniques worked pretty well. Also used the Topaz Studio Impression Adjustment to create an interesting painterly look. The font is Spring Vibes. Will be blogging on these techniques down the road. ……. Digital Lady Syd

04/22/2019 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Trying to Eat Your Roommate for Lunch!

Image of two Western Plated Lizards at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida.

These two Western Plated Lizards at the Jacksonville Zoo Reptile House were having a great time trying to bite each other! I guess this is how lizards play? or maybe a little territory fighting? Anyway, it sure made for an interesting image. Changes were done in Lightroom – mainly the standard edits and a couple Adjustment Brushes were used to enhance their color and patterns. In Photoshop the Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpening AI filter was applied using just the Stabilize setting at 70 with no noise reduction (see my Topaz Sharpen AI – Good or Bad? And Yes, Free Upgrade for Topaz Infocus Owners blog). Then just a little edge clean up, a spotlight effect put on their heads (see my How to Add a Spot of Light Effect blog), and the eyes were sharpened using the Exposure Adjustment Layer (see my The Eyes Have – How to Make Them Pop! blog). A vignette using a Levels Adjustment Layer was applied as a last step (see my Using a Levels Adjustment Layer for a Vignette blog). The text is called Chameleon. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd

04/16/2019 | Categories: Lightroom | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Lantana Reaching for Air

Image of a Lantana plant caught in some palms.

These beautiful Lantana flowers (which was the largest plant I have seen – this is just a little part of it) was being totally smothered by several different kinds of palm plants along a golf course hole in Florida. It created sort of an intriguing image. Since this is an old Android phone photo, it was not the sharpest, even after running it through the marvelous Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI JPG to RAW. So I had to improvise if I wanted to use the image. Therefore, I first ran it through Topaz Studio’s AI Clear which helped quite a bit (used High Sharpness, Recover Detail 0.39, Exposure -0.17, and Clarity 0.67). Also in Studio the Edges Adjustment was used and set to Dark Tones at a Strength of 0.37 and the Impression Adjustment using the default setting with an Opacity of 0.74. Back in PS a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer was applied and set to the Crisp Warm preset. A little painting, some Nik Viveza 2, some lighten and darken curves for dodging and burning, a Blur Tool layer, and a Sharpen Tool layer were also used. Topaz Sharpen AI set to Stabilize and a Remove Blur Amount of 0.80 was used. Last step was to add a slight vignette using Unmesh Dinda’s technique. I was surprised I could use all the AI programs on the image and get a decent effect. ….. Digital Lady Syd

04/11/2019 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Pink in Its Full Glory

Image of Pink Azaleas in bloom at the Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, Florida.

This image of the beautiful pink Azaleas in bloom at the Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, Florida, was pretty difficult to post-process. It was taken around 9 AM in the morning, which was still enough sun to cause shadow problems on a sunny day. Listened to Matt Kloskowsky’s video called Channel Masks and Spring Color where he adjusted a similar type image. It really helped cut down on the overall sharp shadow effect and brought in the colors nicely. I can also say I used several of my own tricks and tips from my recent blogs on Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Sharpen AI, dodging and burning, spotlight effects, and vignetting. This actually looks pretty close to what I was seeing. Amazing!…..Digital Lady Syd

04/09/2019 | Categories: Photoshop Filters, Photoshop Tips | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Living in a Jungle Painting

Image of the Toucans at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Yes, my friends at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm are making another appearance, this time showing off their painted jungle background. This is their favorite place to be. How did this happen? Well, if its a painted background, it is probably Topaz’s (see sidebar for website link) wonderful Impression plug-in, now in Topaz Studio. Yes, this time the Edward Hopper I preset was used and then the Toucans were painted out somewhat – left a few strokes around them. While in Studio, a Glow Adjustment using the Soft Liquid preset was applied and the Primary Glow was changed to 0.90 – used the same mask as in the Impression Adjustment so the birds were not affected. Also used AI Clear Adjustment to sharpen up their eyes and bodies. Several PS adjustment layers were used, a Clone Stamp layer to clean up the strokes, and Nik Viveza 2 to adjust the vignette effect. These birds are such happy creatures – no wonder they are the first exhibit you see when entering the Alligator Farm. ….. Digital Lady Syd

04/02/2019 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

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