Joyous Ornaments Lining Up for the Tree
This is just one of those crazy photos that make me laugh. It is not all that sharp but sort of exemplifies the total chaos it is for me to get all the ornaments up and hanging right! Biggest issue I had was to get this image sharper without deteriorating the quality. In Lightroom’s Develop module, used my SJ Sharply Dark LUT (created in my blog and video called How to Create Profiles in ACR from LR Presets and Some PS LUT Files) and set it to Amount 81. Then did just the normal adjustments. Radial Filters were used to help sharpen up some of the ornaments I wanted particularly in focus. Went into Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio from LR and used AI Clear (applied it twice to get some additional sharpness and it worked!), the Precision Contrast adjustment, Topaz Lens Effects Diffusion Adjustment to soften overall just a little and Topaz Studio Focal Blur Adjustment, placing it over the main ornaments to keep sharp. Then back to LR where it was opened up in Photoshop. Did a little clean up of some edges and used Nik Viveza 2 to emphasize the focal point on a few ornaments. That was it. I find this a really soft sort of happy image – not one that goes up on the wall but one that reminds me of Christmas!…..Digital Lady Syd
