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Drawing of a girl looking at a dying tree

Kyle T. Webster, the Photoshop Evangelist at Adobe, recently did two Masterclass YouTube videos called Learn from Greats – Mark English – Part One and Part Two. In Part One many of the Mark’s various pieces of art and how he created the images were discussed, and in the other Kyle created an image showing how to use some of these same techniques. That is what was attempted with this image, but it is a lot less abstract than most of Mark’s images. 26 different PS brushes were used – some created on the fly. Several layer styles were added and even PS’s Craquelure filter was used (lower right bush). Three Color Lookup Adjustment Layers and three Texture Layers were used. Lots going on here, but it was a lot of fun to try and get some of the expression that Mark English had in his paintings. I am going to try and get a better example using his techniques soon!…..Digital Lady Syd

06/08/2023 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , | 2 Comments »

Some Pretty Trees with the Help of AI

Image of fall trees with a reflection pond

Had to post my first attempt at trying out the Adobe Photoshop Beta version with its new Generative Fill ability. This image was just of a beautiful fall tree line. I decided to make the image longer and then had the Generative Fill function fill in the area added. It gives you three choices which I did not like so another group of three was generated – this was the forth one generated. It was created with no description in the field – just clicked the generate button. The Portraits – Moody Blues Adjustment preset was added. Then I typed in the generative field “foreground oak tree” – had to clone out a shiny spot in one small area but overall it looks great! That was it! It took all of five minutes to get this final fantastic image from one that was pretty good to begin with. ….. Digital Lady Syd

05/23/2023 | Categories: Generative AI, Photoshop Tools | Leave A Comment »

Spring Colors for this Flower

Image of a white flower with orange tips and a little extra color.

Had some fun with this phone image of a beautiful spring flower. Not sure what type it is, but it is gorgeous. Actually post-processed a very normal image, but I decided to try an alternate version. In this case Topaz Studio 2 was opened and just a vignette and AI ReMix filters were applied. Remix was set to Abstract Swirl Style using only 0.17 opacity and Sat set 0.75 (other were default settings). It applied these beautiful brush effects to the petals which is what you see above. I am still mourning the fact this filter studio is no long available from Topaz. Some Gaussian Blur was added to the background as it was pretty busy. I used a new technique learned from PS Guru Corey Barker – instead of using a brush to even out the shadows, the Gradient Tool was selected with default black to white colors set in the color swatches. In the Options Bar, the gradient will now show black to clear – set to radial gradient at 48% opacity used on the petals. On a New Layer set to Overlay blend mode, drag a very small amount to get a very small black effect which can be pinpointed very closely to where it needs to be added. Really nice technique, and different colors can also be selected along with white. This flower was really fun to do!….Digital Lady Syd

05/09/2023 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Raindrops on a Queen

Image of raindrops on a stem of a Queen Emma Lily

Can’t believe I did not post this image a while back. It is one of my favorites and it was taken using my 60 mm F/2.8 macro lens (with my Bower 0.5 x High Definition Wide Lens attached) right after a heavy rainfall. Lightroom Camera Raw settings were added before opening Photoshop. Topaz Sharpening AI was applied first (I still love this plugin!) and a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer using my preset. On a stamped layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E), Viveza was opened – the settings made the image pop! A Burn Layer was added above and another darken layer to darken the background more (used a soft round brush to do this). Last step involved adding a Film Grain Layer set to Overlay blend mode. Pretty basic!….Digital Lady Syd

04/27/2023 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Watching the Sea

Image of people looking at the sea - painted effect

Had some fun revisiting this vintage image from Shorpy.com called By the Pacific Ocean, Seaside Oregon – September 1941. The date made me think maybe these people were thinking about their children or friends serving in World War II. Topaz Studio 2’s Impression filter was applied in my SJ BW to Painted Color preset: changed AI ReMix to Paper Frost swatch, turned on second AI Remix and used Eye of the Storm at 37% opacity. (For preset settings check out my blog called How to Convert Black and White Image to Colorful Paintings with Topaz Studio 2.) To clean up this image, used Kyle T. Webster’s Bowie Set (located in the Adobe Cloud-search for Bowie Toolkit) Heroes Heavy and Hunky brushes, and Kyle’s Megapack Drawing Box-Graphic Control 2 brush (good blender). Used them in the masks a lot also. Also used the Lasso Tool to pin point exact areas to paint in to even out colors around people. It is too bad that Topaz has stopped supporting it creative filters, especially Impression…..Digital Lady Syd

03/20/2023 | Categories: Historical Info, Topaz Studio | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Queen Emma, Governing the Garden

The above was taken in my front yard – these lilies grow like crazy down here in Florida but I really like them. Just had fun using some of my favorite plug-ins that seem to be disappearing from the scene. It took awhile to remove the flower petals from the background – had to do a lot by hand with a hard round 4-pixel brush in the layer mask to get a good result. A solid color blue fill adjustment layer was placed under the masked layer. Topaz Studio 2 was then opened and the Impression filter Degas Dancers preset was applied as is. Unfortunately Topaz Studio 2 is no longer available for purchase for several months now. The products they do have are great – I love this company – but I am crushed that their creative products are no longer available, including the fabulous Impression. A couple Color Lookup adjustment layers were added (PS Futuristic Bleak preset set to Color blend mode and Scott Kelby’s Deep Blue preset set to Multiply blend mode and 19% layer opacity). A Hue/Saturation adjustment layer was added to tweak the colors a bit. Then a brush I made from FrenchKiss’s Tableaux Mirage was added at 3800 pixels and stamped on top using white – set layer opacity to 63%. (See my Texture Brush You Tube video on how to do this.) Last step involved adding the old Nik Viveza 2 plug in, which never lets me down……Digital Lady Syd

02/23/2023 | Categories: Topaz Studio | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Modigliana Guy

Drawing of a guy in the style of Modigliana.

Totally had fun creating this sort of cowboy-looking guy while trying to do another Modigliana figure as in my recent Fun Photoshop Blog (A Few Photoshop Digital Painting Tricks You May Not Know). Been following some of the tips in Aaron Blaise’s class on Clear Expression to learn face object placement (watch for great sales on his various classes). The painting took a long time to do, but eventually it was drawn to get a Modigliana perspective. The background was created with one of my Painter backgrounds and setting 9 Levels in a Posterize Adjustment Layer. A Kyle T. Webster Tilty Pencil Variant (from Winter 2022 set) Mixer was converted to a regular brush (changed Erodible Tip to Small Round and 9 px Tip; added Shape Dynamics Size Jitter 11%; Texture Scale slider changed to 28%, Brightness 60, Contrast 10, and Texture Each Tip checked; and Transfer With Opacity Jitter also checked – use all other settings from the Mixer and it turns into a really nice sketch brush). Also Kyle’s the Hunky and Heroes Heavy brushes from the free Bowie Set (located in the Adobe Cloud-search for Bowie Toolkit) were used to paint his clothes. Aaron Blaise’s favorite brush was used for the face and skin. Used The Etherington Brothers various tips for the face and hands – lots of good information here. He may not be the best thing I have ever drawn, but I am learning a lot about drawing!…..Digital Lady Syd

02/16/2023 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Painting | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Trans Siberian Orchestra in Concert

Image of the Trans Siberian Orchestra in Concert

Hoping everyone is having a great holiday! This image was taken a week ago when they performed their Christmas show (hence the holiday card even though it is stretching it a bit) at the Amway Arena in Orlando. We were sitting pretty far away, but it was still awesome! Had to post a pix even if it is a bit crazy! I actually pulled this image out of a video, and then ran it through Skylum’s software Neo – used a lot of different effect before I liked it. Used Viveza to tweak it a little more and finally painted in a few areas to remove lines holding the hanging contraption. This is pretty much how the color was, which is what I remember most. Anyway, it definitely shows the scope of the color effects from the show! See ya next year!…..Digital Lady Syd

12/24/2022 | Categories: Photography | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Fog Lifting in the Fall

Image of some fall trees

Had fun with this image of a beautiful backyard in rural Virginia. Tried to copy the effect created by Albert Dros to get a fog lifting feel. The original RAW image was actually quite bright. To get a slight fog feel a short technique sent out by Adobe Creative Cloud recently called Enhance Fog and Haze by Liam Man was used. It is for night scenes, but it turned out fine on this overcast daytime scene. Mainly the Neural Beta Filter Depth Blur was downloaded and the Haze slider was adjusted for the image -the Haze was set to 60, Blur Strength to 11, Saturation to +11, and Brightness -8. The Focal point was placed on the main green leaves in the middle of the image. After outputting as a New Layer and blurred foreground areas that should not be blurred were painted over in an added layer mask. Some clean up was done and a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer added (used Scott Kelby’s Farm preset). Last step involved Opening the Camera Raw Filter and adding a vignette by using Scott’s tip to create a Vignette set to exactly -11 for landscape images – always makes them look good. He is right! …..Digital Lady Syd

12/01/2022 | Categories: Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Some Fancy Text

Fancy text lettering

This is an example of a Sam Peterson Challenge from a few months ago called Fancy Text. It was a lot of fun to do. The painting effect was created using Brushes from Kyle T. Webster’s Fall 2021 brush set (these are all part of the PS collection of brushes that can be downloaded for free with a PS membership). The Boxit, Circlez, and Rippolo brushes were used to create the painted look on the letters. From his Summer 2020 set the Brix Brush was used for the splashed-paint background. Overall just a lot of fun to do. Check out Sam Peterson at the Adobe Creative Cloud site for more challenges. …..Digital Lady Syd

09/04/2022 | Categories: Photoshop Painting | Tags: , | 1 Comment »

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