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The Mighty Eagle

Image of an Eagle taken at the Jacksonville Zoo

I am a huge Eagle fan (not the football team!) and am always checking in on Web Cams when the nesting season comes along. This guy is an injured Eagle that resides at the Jacksonville Zoo – I feel sorry for him since he is unable to fly the sky like his relatives. He is still a beautiful specimen and seems to enjoy people stopping by when visiting the Zoo. This image involved only a little AI to Expand the right side a bit to balance out his position in the photo and that is all. The rest was just my regular workflow: a Curves Adjustment Layer, two Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layers, Viveza 2 to pop the color of his feathers, Topaz Sharpen AI to sharpen up the feathers using Too Soft, a dodge and burn layer, an Exposure Adjustment Layer for the eyes, and a clean up layer. It felt good to get back to my regular post processing!…..Digital Lady Syd

11/13/2023 | Categories: AI, Photoshop Filters | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

St. Michaels Parish Church in Scotland

Black and white image of St. Michaels Parish Church in Scotland

The image above is from the old Parish Church next to Linlithgow Castle, where Mary, Queen of Scotts was born in 1542 and baptized here. Recently I tried out a new technique by Joel Grimes using his YouTube video called How to Use Photoshop Brushes to Build Atmosphere and Drama. The Light Ray brush he used (and can be downloaded there) created the lovely light rays coming through the windows above. To convert to black and white, a stamped layer was taken into my old Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 (here is a link for the newer version) and just applied the Soft Sepia preset. Another stamped layer was added and taken into Luminar Neo (latest Luminar version but the older versions can be used also) using Joel’s settings. Used Kyle’s 100 px Vignette found in Kyle’s Photoshop Action Set for Artists. Last step was to apply Topaz DeNoise as it appeared just a little grainy for my taste (I used an older version and it works fine). Have not done a black and white in a while and it was fun to do…..Digital Lady Syd

09/25/2023 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

My Happy Firecracker Plant

Image of a Firecracker Plant

No matter what weather is down here in Florida, this plant is blooming and always healthy. It gets huge every year and needs to be cut back. I paid $.75 for it in the damaged plant section of Lowe’s – now it is repaying me with great health! I guess I wish all my plants were like this. Anyway, this Firecracker Plant macro image was processed pretty much with just the same ole workflow that I always follow. I did use it to try out Blake Rudis’s Video for getting the best detail out of a photo – it is called Don’t Use Clarity – Use This Instead and involves using the High Pass Filter. Actually I felt it did a little better adding detail in this image compared to Topaz Sharpen. A small highlight was added on a few of the blooms where the focal point have been more pronounced. A Color Lookup Adjustment Layer set to the Foggy Night preset at 71% Layer Opacity and Luminosity Blend Mode was added. On a stamped layer The Smart Photo Editor filter was used to add a final effect. Fun to get back to my flower photography again!…..Digital Lady Syd

09/06/2023 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

The Frontier Saga Movie Poster

Image of a western style movie poster

Just had fun creating this after watching a couple videos this weekend that got me inspired. The original image is from Unsplash (etty fidele-457310-Bologna Italy – can’t find a link as it is an old download). It was cropped down using the Default Crop, and then followed a pretty cool video by Marty at Blue Lightning called Create a Pencil Drawing from a Photo (he supplies you with brushes and a paper texture also). My image was turned into a brown and yellow one by adding a Gradient Map on top that went from oranges to reds and was set to Vivid Light blend mode at 98% opacity. Next extended down the image using the new Crop Tool Generative Expand – incredible. In the prompt typed “brown and yellow western scene pencil effect” and that is where the little scene at the bottom appeared in the one of the choices. How did I know to do this? I also watched this really interesting video by Lisa Carney (Hollywood poster creator) and Tomasz Opansinski (Creative Technologist for AI/ML at Adobe) where they talked about everything posters. It was called Adobe Firefly Live Weekly Meetup: Using Ai for Entertainment Design and that is how I knew to add a little scene at the bottom – classic poster design. His glasses were removed using the Remove Tool which did a great job on this. The rest was just basic Photoshop creating 3 Text layers and some glows around them and some clean up. Creating digital posters is really fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd

08/14/2023 | Categories: AI, Just Being Creative | Leave A Comment »

Older Woman of Another Generation

AI Image of an older woman

I recently read an interesting article Unveiling the Intriguing World of Face Cubism: Exploring the Artistic Journey on how to do a Basic Cubism Portrait so it seemed like a good idea to try it out in PS Beta AI. Using an image by Jude Infantini at Unsplash, it did not work well, but I did get an effect that I sort of liked. Actually it looked like a man with all this hair (because I used Dave Kelly’s Gen Fill Photo Painting Action set to 40% so the image will not look much like the original), but the overall image was quite striking. Added several New Layers on top and just started painting in the image the way I wanted it. Added in the necklace using AI – with the Lasso Tool selected where necklace should go, I ran Generative AI again (Prompt: Native American Necklace). Ended up using a Curves Adjustment Layer, the Sharpen Tool, and a Layer Style to finish off the image. I am currently reading The Travels of Marco Polo, and I think this rather older woman could possibly look like what a women of this region from back in the 13th Century. Anyway, it was fun to ponder…..Digital Lady Syd

08/09/2023 | Categories: AI, Just Being Creative, Photoshop Painting | 1 Comment »

Vintage Fashion Statement

AI created image of a vintage model with a flowered hat

AI created image using Jerzy GorecKi’s Pixabay model image for starters. First added in some room on the left side and top side with the Crop Tool and using Generative Fill. On a stamped layer, ran Generative Fill with a prompt saying “vintage old fashioned look” – generated and got all kinds of results. Liked this image the best except for her eyes. Therefore, used the Lasso Tool around eyes and ran Generate to get the eyes shown. A little clean up removing a misplaced earring and that was it. It does have a nice vintage feel to it……Digital Lady Syd

07/24/2023 | Categories: AI | Leave A Comment »

A Halloween AI Party

AI created image from the Natural Bridge - used Halloween theme.

I have always loved doing Halloween images so it was a lot of fun to create this one after this rather weird AI generated background from the Photoshop Beta software was produced. The prompt used on this one was “flowers and river oil painting” – see my AI Digital Oil Painting – How To Do This Fun Photoshop Blog for more on how this was done (used Method 2 by Brian Mataish called Photoshop Generative Fill AI Can Turn Photos into Paintings. This Tidbits Blog is on just the post-processing steps used after the AI background was created.

The original AI background had this pretty scary vampire looking guy on the right, so that felt very much like Halloween. A Halloween theme was created using a free Color Lookup Adjustment Layer called SS Vieru 02 for the basic color that I thought looked really good (to download click Sparkle Stock Canyon Film). On a New Layer the Vampire was painted in using my SJ-Pastel-3 Painting Brush (see my How to Create My Favorite Brush Fun Photoshop Blog for the settings) and some cloning was done on another layer. The Remove Tool/Spot Healing Brush layer was created to remove some bad looking areas – I am finding I do switch between them (see center of my Photoshop Beta AI with Fenced Zoo Images Fun Photoshop Blog for more on this). The Pot and Fire were both generated in two different generation layer prompts and read “Halloween black witches pot” and “flames” – then smoke was added on layer above using some really old smoke brushes. The bat was generated using “Halloween bat” in the prompt. The cat is from a Halloween Obsidian Dawn vectors set ($4 set) which had the cat brush, skeleton brush and the raven brush. The cat was painted with a Cheetah Fur brush that the great Aaron Blaise taught how to make (see How to Make a Digital Brush using a Photo) and the tail was flared out to look scary (used Coyote Mange Rough Tough brush for this – still the best animal fur brushes around!). The Dark Skin Cobra Attacking Pose Snake is from PixelSquid, the greatest object resource item around – hopefully even after AI – it is a pay-to-use site. (For more info on them, check out my Some Compositing Tips and Resources Fun Photoshop Blog halfway down.) A sampled light orange was used on a New Layer to add some Fog (used Grut-I Fixray brush – he has the best brushes around – and a free brush weekly!) and then on another New Layer used the same brush with a darker sampled color for a slight vignette effect. Two layers were added as Darken and Highlight layers using Sam Peterson’s brush and colors – see my A Few Photoshop and Lightroom Tips and Tricks Fun Photoshop Blog – Tip 2 – use this for pinpointing light and shadows on an object. A Black and White Adjustment Layer set to Luminosity (because it always looks good) was added next. Used Pratik Naik’s technique Tip 2 for lightening and darkening parts of image (on new layers above set to Overlay blend mode – use at least a 100 px soft round brush set to Airbrush in the Options Bar and Flow at 9% and use white or light color to lighten image or black or darker color to darken image – different colors give some great results – use layer opacity to lower effect). This enhanced the light at the top coming and the dark in areas for more of a cave feel. Last step involved adding a New Layer on top with a few little sprinklers to add some texture in the lighted areas. Phew! That was it – took a while to complete!…..Digital Lady Syd

07/08/2023 | Categories: AI, Generative AI, Photo Art, Photoshop Painting | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Another AI Oil Painted Image of the Natural Bridge

Another AI Iteration of the Natural Bridge

The process used for this AI image is from Brian Mataish’s video called Photoshop Generative Fill AI Can Turn Photos into Paintings using the Quick Mask to set the partial opacity selection. Check out my blog at AI Digital Oil Painting – How To Do Fun Photoshop Blog for info on this technique. This blog is to show the post-processing after the Generative Fill was created to demonstrate what can be done with an AI generated image.

Had to use the Remove Tool/Spot Healing Brush on a layer first thing (see center of my Photoshop Beta AI with Fenced Zoo Images Fun Photoshop Blog for more on this). Then a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer using On1’s Heat Wave 7 preset (yep they work in PS too) was added. I was not happy with the results yet so this time Luminar’s Neo was opened and only my favorite filter called Mystical (a bit like the Orton Effect) was selected. It was masked so the foreground water mainly used it. A swan was added using Midnightstouch Swan Lake set brush #22 (the set is on DeviantArt) – just painted over it with my SJ Pastel-3 Painting brush (it is set to 67% opacity most of the time – see my How to Create My Favorite Brush Fun Photoshop Blog for the settings) and lowered the layer opacity to blend it in. I felt a focal point needed to be supplied. A bluish texture was applied using the Adobe Paper Texture Pro panel (Caspian) set to Saturation blend mode at 79% layer opacity, and used a Levels Adjustment Layer to fine tune the using only the color Channels (followed Aaron Nace’s video called Make Amazing Photoshop Composites Quickly-part 1 at the 22-minute point – really interesting technique). A Curves Adjustment Layer for tone was added (see Denny Tang’s site with a Tone Chart Photoshop Action to download for doing this – have been using this technique as an action for over 5 years – it’s the best way to do this and use it on almost every image). There was this ugly blob on the right side of the image which was supposed to be a tree. Selected the tree area – generated it and got what you see in this image which looks so much better. The color was off a little so a Curves Adjustment Layer was clipped to it to make it match – to clip use the first icon at the bottom. Some sparkly dots were added to add a texture interest on two different layers – one using light colors and one using darker ones. Last step used Pratik Naik’s technique (see How to Create a Fun Cartoon Tip 2 Fun Photoshop Blog – on a layer above set to Overlay blend mode – use at least a 100 px soft round brush set to Airbrush in the Options Bar and Flow at 9% and use white or light color to lighten image or black or darker – different colors give some great results – use layer opacity to lower effect) to draw the eye to the swan. Still using a pretty basic workflow!…..Digital Lady Syd

07/08/2023 | Categories: AI, Generative AI, Photo Art, Photoshop Painting | Tags: | 1 Comment »

AI Painted Image of Natural Bridge

AI Digital Oil Painting of the Natural Bridge trail

Here is another AI generated Oil painted image using the same Natural Bridge photo but has a totally different feel to it. To see how this was created and what the original image looked like, check out my AI Digital Oil Painting – How To Do This Fun Photoshop Blog. The post-processing for this image was pretty simple after the AI Generated Fill background was selected (used the prompt “river and flowers oil painting”).

Started with a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer with bluish tones in it and set to 79% layer opacity (see Sparkle Stock’s free Bleak – Trellick 01 preset); a Curves Adjustment Layer for tone (see Denny Tang’s site with a Tone Chart Photoshop Action to download for doing this – have been using this technique as an action for over 5 years – it’s the best way to do this and use it on almost every image); a Levels Adjustment Layer to adjust the Blue color (followed Aaron Nace’s video called Make Amazing Photoshop Composites Quickly-part 1 at the 22-minute point – really interesting technique); a Black and White Adjustment Layer set to Luminosity blend mode (because it always looks good – see my How to Use a Black & White Adjustment Layer to See Contrast in a Layer Fun Photoshop Blog); Lighten and Darken layers using Pratik Naik’s technique (see How to Create a Fun Cartoon Tip 2 Fun Photoshop Blog – on a layer above set to Overlay blend mode – use at least a 100 px soft round brush set to Airbrush in the Options Bar and Flow at 9% and use white or light color to lighten image or black or darker – different colors give some great results – use layer opacity to lower effect) which was used especially where the light is coming into the image; and finished with a Remove Tool layer for smoothing out a couple tiny water issues. In other words most of my basic workflow – now you know what I do! Quite a difference from the original image!…Digital Lady Syd

07/08/2023 | Categories: AI, Generative AI, Photo Art, Photoshop Painting | Tags: , | 1 Comment »

Same Natural Bridge with Different AI Oil Paint Results

AI generated image from the Natural Bridge trail

This digital AI oil painting was created by following Marty at Blue Lightning’s steps in his video Photoshop AI Transform Photos into Oil Paintings and it created this interesting photo from my original Natural Bridge image. Can you see the frog? For more info on the AI was created, see my AI Digital Oil Painting – How To Do This Fun Photoshop Blog. The Generative Fill prompt said “very spring oil painting.”

This blog is giving all the particulars as to how this image was post-processed after the Photoshop Beta Generative Fill layer was created. A Color Lookup (PS’s Foggy Night preset at 52 % layer opacity) Adjustment Layer; two textures (still using the obsolete Adobe Texture Pro panel even in the Beta!-used Sakura Skies set to Overlay at 100% layer opacity and Masque set to Color Burn blend mode at 28% layer opacity) for the more pastel look; a Levels Adjustment Layer in the Blue and Red Channels (followed Aaron Nace’s video called Make Amazing Photoshop Composites Quickly-part 1 at the 22-minute point – really interesting technique); a Remove Tool layer for getting rid of some of the artifacts that Generative Fill seems to add sometimes; some painting to create the frog – the eyes were already there (used my SJ Pastel-3 Painting brush that I have used forever – it is set to 67% opacity most of the time – see my How to Create My Favorite Brush Fun Photoshop Blog for the settings); and some Darken and Highlight layers using Sam Peterson’s brush and colors – See my A Few Photoshop and Lightroom Tips and Tricks Fun Photoshop Blog – Tip 2. I really like the dreamy effect the AI digital oil created. …..Digital Lady Syd

07/08/2023 | Categories: AI, Generative AI, Photoshop Painting | Tags: | 1 Comment »

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