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
Zooming Man a Ray
Just had some fun with this image. Used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) DeNoise AI Clear, Topaz Sharpen AI, and Topaz Studio Motion Blur. Other than that just had to draw in a few lines that were a bit too blurred from the motion. The font is modernline. A Color Lookup Adjustment Layer was applied and a spotlight effect was added just to his nose. ….. Digital Lady Syd
On Duty at the Zoo
This beautiful male Northern Cardinal just sort popped in front of my while I was visiting the Lion exhibit at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC recently. I decided to give him a better location as he was right in the middle of a bunch of us tourists. He was painted with mixer brushes and I believe an older Jai Johnson texture, with the colors and size of the texture changed to fit the scene. You do not have to keep a texture exactly the way it was when you got it. That is what makes it fun! Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Impression was used to paint in the foreground rocks – just the default settings with Brush 06 using the Graduated Filter to line it up on the front. The background birds are a brush from Jenteva Plant Brushes. Last step was a Curves Adjustment Layer. It is so relaxing to paint birds!…..Digital Lady Syd
Early Morning Yoga Session
This beautiful feathery Snowy Egret is getting up early and doing a few Yoga exercises to get ready for a full day of finding a mate. Image was taken at the St. Augustine’s Alligator Farm’s fabulous rookery. Tried out the new Lightroom Texture slider which made the feathers just pop out really nicely. In Photoshop, Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio where AI Clear was added first. Then the Default setting for Impression was used, but this time the Painting Progress was set to 0.31 so only a bit of paint was added to the tree branches which looked really bad. The paint was removed from the bird using a Luminosity mask and painting out some more at 0.42 Mask Transparency. Then some Mixer painting clean up was done in Photoshop to smooth out some of the edges around the bird. A yellow light leak was added to make the sky look warm and to match the lighting on the bird. The text used the font called Style Casual. That was about it. …… Digital Lady Syd
The Lioness – Need I Say More?
This beautiful lioness named Taum (I think) lives at the Jacksonville Zoo and looks totally regal while she watches over her domain. She was originally post-processed in Lightroom using Serge Ramelli’s Safari Animal Vignette Cold Medium (click for video to download link) and then made changes to fit this image. Overall it just gave a nice cool feel to the background. In Photoshop Topaz (see sidebar for website link) DeNoise AI was used and it just gave a very subtle effect. So the image was taken into Topaz Studio using the AI Clear Adjustment (Remove Noise Low, Enhance Sharpness High, Recover Details 0.33, Exposure -0.13, and Clarity 0.35), and the Precision Detail Adjustment (Subtle Sharp preset and in layer mask, inverted it and then painted back the lion face and end of foreground paw – middle paws were set to 0.50 and painted back just a little). This creates a very good combination for sharpness. Then just added in some contrast and a Lookup Table (Fuji Reala 500D Kodak 2393 preset) to give a moody feel to the image. That was it……Digital Lady Syd
Springtime!
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
Lantana Reaching for Air
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
Living in a Jungle Painting
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
Hanging in There!
This Coquerel’s Sifaka monkey was having so much fun when I was at the Jacksonville Zoo recently – couldn’t help but smile and watch him. This image was done in blue tones first, and Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s Basic Adjustment and AI Clear were applied. Then the Impression Adjustment was added using the default settings and a mask to bring back the monkey and the netting above. An Image Adjustment was added and the original image was placed in the Background. A layer mask was used to paint the monkey back and the overall adjustment was set to 0.54. At this point the image was saved as a tiff and opened in Topaz AI Gigapixel as the size of the monkey was very small in the image – it was enlarged by 2 times. The Tiff file was then opened in PS and Topaz ReStyle plugin’s Grass Swing preset was selected to bring out all these beautiful fun colors. Quite a bit of clean up and painting was needed to get the final effect. Just had a lot of fun doing this image. …… Digital Lady Syd
Senior Neighborhood Pine Cone Meeting Today
The old Pine Cones were all having a giant convention underneath a couple of their favorite Pines trees. I decided to sneak up on them and get an image of part of this large group. Since I took this image with an older Android phone, it was not one of the best but I liked it. Therefore I ran the image through Topaz (see sidebar for website link) JPEG to Raw AI program which produced a Raw tiff file. (See my What Is Topaz’s New JPEG to RAW AI? blog.) Then the image was opened in Adobe Camera Raw and adjusted before going into Photoshop. The image was first run through Nik’s Color Efex Pro. Then a Saturation mask was created for a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Some spotlight effects were created on the cones. Then Topaz Studio was opened were AI Clear, HSL Color Tuning, and Impression’s default with Type 03 brush was applied. That was it. It was a lot of fun to post-process!…..Digital Lady Syd
Lunch at Its Best
I think this place is perfect for having a nice lunch on a warm sunny day. Scotland does not get days like this very often so these locals were enjoying themselves. I see the tourists coming up the block though. I have to be honest I am not totally sure what I did to create the look in this image. I like the final effect though. Topaz (see sidebar for website info) Studio’s AI Clear was applied. Then back in Photoshop Topaz Simplify was applied using the BuzSim preset. Then Topaz Sharpening AI set to Focus was used. A High Pass Filter was used to sharpen up some of the details. Then back into Topaz Studio where an Abstract Adjustment was applied and an AI ReMix Adjustment. In PS the Rough Pastels filter and the Dry Brush filter was applied. A Darken and Lighten Curves Adjustment Layers were applied. A Noise Gradient Map Adjustment Layer was applied and a Foggy Night preset in the Color Lookup was added. There were some painting layers and other things, and I think I was going nuts by the time I finished this. Anyway, I like the overall look but I don’t think I could reproduce the effect. ….. Digital Lady Syd
The Trail from ??????
This image was taken at Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, Florida where it is known for their beautiful Azaleas. They were blooming a bit early this year so my Photo Club made a quick trip to catch the buds at just the right time. How could this beautiful flower lined trail be so bad? Word to the wise if planning a visit to this park. It is quite steep in places and the stones are very unevenly placed so it is a little tricky to hike on, especially if carrying a heavy camera around. In this Park’s defense, it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael last year and they are just getting it back up to speed. Not a lot was done to this image (after all it is of gorgeous Azaleas – what else do you need?) but of course I used my trusty Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio AI Clear. Just enhanced the steps with a spotlighting effect for where the sun was peaking through already, added a pink overlay to enhance the pink color, and added a little vignette. Lots of fun to explore!…..Digital Lady Syd
My Magical Garden
This Spanish Moss image was photographed at Ravine Gardens in Palatka, Florida. Since the trees do not have their leaves yet, the Moss is just hanging off the bare branches and with the sun was just rising, it gave a sort of magical feel. This image took a lot of post processing. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear was applied and this time the Exposure was set up to 0.53 and Clarity to 0.36 to lighten up the whole image. And a little bit of Topaz Detail was used to really sharpen up the moss effect. Some lighten and darken Curves Adjustment Layers were used to add some contrast. On a stamped layer Topaz ReStyle”s Polo Blue and Pink Lace preset was applied at 62% opacity using the Color blend mode. Another stamped layer was created and Luminar’s (see sidebar for website link) Image Radiance (this creates a really nice effect) and Cross Processing using the Auckland preset at Amount of 20 finally gave me the result I liked when set to 53% opacity. Nik Viveza 2 was used to even out all the coloring and adjust the focal point. Who knew all these filters would be needed to get this magical effect???……Digital Lady Syd
Best Friends
Just went a little crazy here and had a bunch of fun in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio! My recent trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm was a lot of fun but my pix of these two characters did not come out well. (They reminded me of Heckle & Jeckle from cartoon days past.) So I decided to improvise using a lot of adjustments to get this colorful Toucan image. Used AI Clear, Ai ReMix twice, Edge and HSL Color Tuning – threw them all into a preset and put it up in the Community called SJ AI ReMix Cartoon Look if you want to give it a try. Back in PS just cleaned up the image a little, and added an Exposure Adjustment Layer on the eyes (yep, use it even on cartoon looks). This was a lot of fun to create. …..Digital Lady Syd
Happy Valentines Day
These beautiful birds, the Greater Flamingos which are not real bright pink like the American Flamingos, are enjoying the holiday – here they are observing some rather tree-like hearts in the pen. Since it is a holiday, I will not go into major detail on how I created this effect – it was a major trial-and-error in this case. The hearts are all from Julia Mead, a really great scrapbook object creator. The texture is called Imperfect Heart Soft Pink by Evelyn Flint (can’t find a link but it was in her Flickr feed at one time), and the font is Antalia Script. The rest is my own doing. Used so many different filters: Topaz AI Clear and AI ReMix, Luminar, and Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4. Lots of clean up layers and adjustment layers. Lots of fun to do. Everyone have a very Happy Valentine’s Day…..Digital Lady Syd
Please Return Me to the Jacksonville Zoo!
This Coquerel’s Sifaka is actually a native of Madagascar and would never be caught in a snowstorm, much less at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. But with a great image and crazy imagination, I felt he just looked like he was in a winter coat. I spent a long time taking pictures of this guy and his buddies – they were very entertaining and those eyes! In Lightroom used one of my camera profiles that created an HDR desaturated look – then just some Basic panel adjustments. The original image was post-processed using the correct coloring of the Lemur with the green background. In PS had to remove some background items with Edit -> Content Aware Fill command. On a stamped layer Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI Clear, Precision Detail, and HSL Color Tuning adjustments were applied. Then a Darken Curves Adjustment Layer, Nik Viveza 2, Exposure Adjustment Layer for the eyes, and PS’s Charcoal Filter setting the foreground and background colors to light green and yellow. So where did the blue color come from??? The Fuji Eterna 250D Kodak preset was applied and set to Divide at 47% layer opacity – there is the blue. Serge Ramelli’s snow brushes were used on a separate layers to add the snow effect – love these brushes! (The free Snow Brushes can be downloaded under his video called How to Create Snow in Photoshop CC.) Then just another Darken Curves Adjustment Layer to darken his coat in places and a vignette. Lots of fun here!…..Digital Lady Syd
Miss February
This big African Spoonbill just appeared to look like a calendar girl to me so I had to create an image for this. She was really huge! In Lightroom used Serge Ramelli’s Safari Warm Dramatic Light preset as a starting point – then adjusted a few sliders before coming into PS. On a duplicate layer used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear with Auto for Noise and High for sharpening. Used Detail on just the bird to enhance some of the feathering. Also worked on bird in Nik Viveza 2 to adjust the tones on the bird. This was a difficult image since the background was so busy. Luminar (see sidebar for website link) was used to help darken it down by using Joel Grime’s Portrait Pop the Blue preset and adjusting the vignette. A few text layers were added and that was about it. She/he is definitely intimidating!…..Digital Lady Syd
Vintage Hy-Red Gasoline Station
I saw this image posted on Facebook for my hometown and remembered driving by this old 1930 Hy-Red Gas Station in Greentown, Indiana, many times while growing up – apparently it is still standing and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Since Indiana is in the middle of a terrible cold spell right now, I thought I would add some more snow to it to really give this image a major wintry feel. It also gave me a chance to play with the free Snow Brushes that Serge Ramelli offered during the holidays (see under his video called How to Create Snow in Photoshop CC). I used a couple other splatter brushes to add solid snow build ups to the image (one by Melissa Gallo from a long time ago and one from Aaron Blaise). Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio’s AI Clear, Precision Detail and Precision Contrast Adjustments were used to really get a nice sharp effect to the image. On a stamped layer in PS, Topaz ReStyle’s Warm Steel Wash preset was applied to the image, then set to 50% layer opacity and Color blend mode – this gives it the vintage feel. Nik Viveza 2 was used to add just a soft blue color to the sky which was a total white – two control points were placed in the upper corners where the Brightness sliders were set to the negative side to add in the wintry sky color. I was really surprised how sharp the image turned out……Digital Lady Syd
Giraffes Playing Hide and Seek
These giraffes were kind of funny when I visited them at the Jacksonville Zoo. This image is another example of using Serge Ramelli’s Safari presets that I discussed in my last Fun Photoshop blog called Showing Some of Serge Ramelli’s Effects. This image used Animal Vignette Cold Strong preset. This image also used Topaz Studio’s (see sidebar for website link) AI Clear adjustment to start in Photoshop – just the best! Then on a stamped layer, Luminar 3 (see sidebar for website link) was opened and their Dehaze, Golden Hour, Image Radiance and Sunrays filters were applied. Some clean up, including a fence removal was also done. That was it!…..Digital Lady Syd
A Fuming Old Cannon
This image was taken on the top side of the Castillo de San Marcos old fort in St. Augustine, Florida. So many things were done in this image that it would take a long blog to explain. Mainly following one of Hazel Meredith’s Topaz Studio (see sidebar for website link) webinar examples from a few days ago and just started playing with all the settings and adding new adjustments like Edges Adjustment, Motion Blurs, and Color Themes. Grut’s Cloud Brushes (none better than these) were used to create the smoke from the cannon – even though they are cloud brushes, the smoke effect is very nice also. Topaz Adjust was added as a last step back in Photoshop. It took a long time to get a result I liked – many attempts to get a good look. I forget about how good Topaz’s original star plugin, Adjust, really is. This plugin gave me the final result that I really liked…..Digital Lady Syd
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone – thanks for visiting my blog when you get a chance. This image is of my Christmas Cactus that was in full bloom for my holiday this year. To get the soft background, used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI Remix (A Neon Rose preset with the leaves brushed out at 50%). Painted some texture and snow on the image. Last step was to add Nik Viveza 2 to sharpen up the petals a little. The font is called Buffalo Inline 2 Grunge. Looking forward to have a wonderful 2019!…..Digital Lady Syd
Santa Relaxing after Busy Holiday Flight
Just an image of one of the my son’s favorite tree ornaments. Nothing like a warm dip after a hard night’s work. Workflow included a few changes and a crop in Lightroom. In Photoshop used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) AI Clear, Lucis Pro 6.0.9 applied with a black layer mask and painted in on Santa’s beard and Reindeer face, and some clean up and line accent. A spotlight layer was created on Santa and the Reindeer’s faces. Last step was to add a little Nik Viveza 2 to add a slight vignette effect. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!…..Digital Lady Syd
Posing for the Family Christmas Picture
Merry Christmas to everyone! Enjoyed making my annual Christmas images – this one was particularly fun since I really like the free funny vector characters in the image from Spoon Graphics. The really cool spiral was created using the Hibiscus flower in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Studio using the Motion Blurs Swirl set to an angle of -1.00. Back in Photoshop, the Hibiscus flower was selected and taken back into Studio where the Impression Adjustment was using Jai Johnson Oil Glaze Light preset (see her In the Digital Studio January 6 2017 video for the settings). Then some snow was added on the ground and a white texture added and set to Multiply blend mode. My free SJ Snow 2 Overlay slight blur PNG was placed on top at 54% (I still think mine is the best out there since it is a png – no blend modes needed to use it). The font is Honey Script. Maybe you can download or use some of these resources. Anyway, have a very Happy Holiday!…..Digital Lady Syd
Happy Place for a Hornbill
Love this guy! This Hornbill is definitely in charge of his domain and seems to blend right into it. This image is exactly why I love Topaz (for website link see sidebar) – this Studio Adjustment called AI ReMix never ceases to amaze me. The original image was not good and I had basically decided this Hornbill would never be used. But I am finding AI ReMix is a game-changer for me – this guy turned out pretty nice! (The Studio settings were: AI Clear – Remove Noise Medium and Sharpen High; and AI ReMix: Desert Prism at 65% opacity, Low Style Strength and Brightness -0.35, Contrast 1.04 and Sat 0.75.) Back in Photoshop, a little spotlight effect with a white brush was used to brighten up the tree fronds to get a bit of a translucent effect. It took a little clean up to get the final, but overall, this plugin saved an image…..Digital Lady Syd
