Just another Valentine – love to create them. These are my Valentine Trees created using the Render Tree filter (see my How to Create a Photoshop Artistic Tree blog) in Photoshop by selecting the Foliage Plant with no leaves. Some hearts were brushed on to hang from the tree using the shape brush created in my Happy Valentines Day (with a Few Tips!) blog. The little scattered valentines were added to the branches and used to create some valentine flowers at the bottom. Paint Swipes (White) by People Love Process is a freebie called Design and Illustration Textures from Design Cuts if you sign up with them – this is a wonderful pack of PNG and PSD files. Different shades of pink were used to paint in the paint swipes. And their Spatter Spray (White) was applied for the snowing looking background. The cupid is one of the brushes I created using Julie Mead at E-scape & Scrap set also from my Valentine blog tips. The image was taken into Luminar 2018 (see sidebar for website link) and the Accent Filter, Image Radiance, Sun Rays very lightly applied to brighten the trees, and the Darken & Lighten filters were used. In PS the layer was set to 57% layer opacity. A pink and blue overlay set to Hue blend mode at 82% was applied to add a little more color in the background. The fonts used were MC Sweetie Hearts and Birch Standard. The last step was adding a Red Channel Luminosity Curves Adjustment Layer. Hope everyone has a Happy Valentines Day!…..Digital Lady Syd
Latest
Statue of Queen Anne
I was pretty pleased with how this image of the statue of Queen Anne in St. Paul’s Churchyard in London turned out as the RAW file was not too great. I actually did a lot of the toning in On1 (see sidebar for website link) Photo Raw 2018 Effects module using the Tone Enhancer, Sunrise, and Dynamic Contrast filters – I am finding I really like the Dynamic Contrast filter for sharpening up the images. It did a really good job on the statue. In Topaz Studio (see sidebar for website link) two textures were added on the image. Used Blake Rudis’s 5 Tone Heat Map to adjust the tone. The Foggy Night preset in the Color Lookup Adjustment Layer was set to 23% on a layer on top. Nik Viveza 2 was used to brighten the Queen up a little. A little reddish tone was used to give a vintage feel to the image. Lots of fun to try these different filters together……Digital Lady Syd
Castillo de San Marcos
This image of Castillo de San Marcos, the old fort in St. Augustine, Florida, was built in 1672. The weather was a little overcast but many famous building spires can still be seen in the background. A lot was done to this image, mainly starting the HDR process in Aurora 2018 (see sidebar for website link) using three-images, and then in Photoshop, On1 Photo Raw 2018 Develop module was opened to increase Detail. The PS Adaptive Wide Angle filter had to be used to straighten the walls of the structure. (See my How to use the Adaptive wide Angle Filter blog on how to do this.) What a wonderful historic place to explore in the US…..Digital Lady Syd
Flowers on an Old Spanish Home
This is the Arrivas House located at 46 St. George Street in St. Augustine, Florida and was built cc 1760. (Click on link for some interesting history on this site). It is now home of the Panama Hat Company store. Used the HDR command in Lightroom to create an image from three images exposed at -1 1/2, -1/2, and +1/2. The sky was totally washed out so had to bring in a sky image taken from my backyard – it was so overcast a sky with similar attributes had to be selected. Then two Curves Adjustment layers were added, one for tone and one for color. A Dodge & Burn layer using a 50% gray layer was created – painted with white and black at low opacity to sharpen up the blues in the flag and color on the flowers. A New Layer set to Overlay blend mode was used for a little spotlight effect placed on the little flowers to brighten them up a bit more. Last step was using Nik Viveza 2 to pull the whole image together. St. Augustine is a great place to visit if you get a chance…..Digital Lady Syd
Blowing a Kiss
On my Fun Photoshop blog (see my Using a 50 mm Lens as a Macro Lens – Really? blog) recently I had two image taken as macro’s on the face of the above sculptor. Thought I would do another macro image, this time using my regular lens and not a flipped 50 mm lens, and get a little creative with the RAW file. This image was just basically post-processed in Lightroom using mainly the Basic Panel. Then in Photoshop Melissa Gallo’s Taupe Canvas (no longer available) was placed on the bottom, then a black layer mask was placed on the LR image on top. Just painted back in what I wanted to see using a couple different brushes at different brush opacities. Created a Darken Layer to outlines the focal point lines and a New Layer for a white Spotlight Effect on the face and hand. A Black and White Adjustment Layer set to Luminosity blend mode to adjust the colors. Then Blake Rudis’s action called 5 Tone Heat Map was used to add some more subtle color to the image – set to 88% layer opacity. I sort of like the feel of the image…..Digital Lady Syd
View from the Road
This image was taken somewhere in Scotland. I tried a few different effects but finally ended up with this rather simple result. Used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio for this image. Started with the Desaturated Blush I preset and changed several sliders. Then used the Tone Theme Filter which made the barn more of an orange color – this is a really nice filter and you should check it out if you own it. Back in PS, created a stamped layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E), applied a Black and White Adjustment Layer set to Luminosity blend mode, a Red Channel Luminosity Curves Adjustment Layer, and a regular Curves Adjustment Layer. Next applied Topaz ReStyle Zambezi Zest to the image at 42% layer opacity. Again back in PS, did some clean up and Black and White Adjustment Layers. A Gradient Fill Adjustment Layer to add a soft vignette and a Selective Color Adjustment Layer for a corner blue sky issue were then applied. Next added a Blake Rudis 5 Tone Heat Map to add a really pleasing look to the image. ……Digital Lady Syd
Blowing in the Wind
Got back to basics and painted this image of what I believe is some variety of dandelion. Painted using three main parts: a background layer to begin, then blocked in the main subject on a middle layer, and detail was added on top, which took several layers and different brushes. Mainly used Fay Sirkis’s (a Corel Painter Master) PS mixer brushes. (These brushes are pretty hard to find now but worth it if you paint in PS – KelbyOne still has them if you are a member – just search for her name.) Hypothermia action was applied at 24% layer opacity (See Chris Spooner’s 10 Free Winter Blues Photo Effect Actions for Adobe Photoshop blog). And another fabulous action by Blake Rudis was applied – got to check out How to Use the 5 Tone Heat Map in Photoshop video and try this. Last step added a grain layer I built a while ago and put in my Library in PS. Lots of fun to paint again…..Digital Lady Syd
Room with a View
Decided to do a little watercolor painting in Photoshop of these flowers sitting on a window ledge that looks at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Basically cleaned up the image using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle to set some colors, and then used Melissa Gallo’s method to paint the image using her watercolor brushes. I took her class several years ago, but the method still works. (If you are interested in purchasing her Painting with Photoshop class, it is still available. There are so few really good PS painting classes, but Melissa’s may be the best of the bunch.) Topaz ReStyle was actually applied again at the end to create a more interesting color palette. The last step used my watercolor border frame. Lot of fun to paint again…..Digital Lady Syd
Orange Daisies
Found this image of some orange daisies from my yard taken a while back. It was a macro shot using a 60 mm lens with a Bower 0.5 x High Res Lens at F16. In PS Luminar 2018 (see sidebar for website link) was opened and the Details Enhancer filter, Structure filter, and the Top & Bottom Lighting filter were used. Then in PS just did a little clean up on the petals and the background, and added several layers to lightly spotlight various parts of the image. Finished up using Matt Kloskowski’s vignette (see my How to Create a Subtle Vignette blog). These flowers were so pretty to photograph!…..Digital Lady Syd
A Glowing Tiger
This image of a Malaysian Tiger was used to get this rather different glowing effect. This image took a whole lot of time to do with lots of layers which I will not bore you with this time. A old tutorial I found in the Photoshop Creative Collection 9 called Make a Glow Effect was used to create this look. The basic steps are to sharpen the image using the Unsharp Mask Filter, the Glowing Edges filter and several Adjustments Layers to adjust the color and luminosity of the image. A layer style was used to enhance the glow. The whole process is pretty nice but I found it very complicated to get the final look. It was a lot of fun to try something totally different……Digital Lady Syd
Topaz JPEG to RAW AI
Check out JPEG to RAW AI stand-alone software for converting JPEGs to DNG/Tiff files for RAW post processing technology. Subtle but wonderful and works great with phone images!
Topaz A.I. Gigapixels
Check out A.I. Gigapixel stand-alone software for upsizing your images. It’s incredible!
Aurora HDR 2019
Aurora HDR is also now available for Windows OS. Click here to visit Aurora for more info.
Topaz Studio
Topaz Studio 2 with the fabulous Remix Filter as seen below – give it a try!
On1 Photo Raw
Topaz ReStyle
French Kiss Collections
