Sometimes for the Sunday Sampler I take one image and make several versions in post-processing. Today I’m going to give you an example of doing that with an image.
This is my original image of a swamp in Florida (we were on an airboat).
I had been helping a student the other day with a similar image, and we discovered if we applied the “Radiance” filter in Studio 2 (at a very low number), we could get a foggy/hazy look:
So then I started trying other effects. I started the original image and opened Nik Color Efex Filters > Midnight:
Still in Nik, I went back to the original and tried the Vintage Filter:
I then took my original from Photoshop into Topaz Studio 2, using a B&W preset:
Finally, I tried one in Smart Photo Editor and got this Faded B&W look:
I think this one may be my favorite!
So play and have fun with your images – you never know where software can take you!
Reminder – New Cosmos textures are 50% off till 1/31/20!
I’ve added two groups of Cosmos textures to the Peacock Studio. These are large groups of 12 textures each, 15″ x 15″, 300 dpi. These were created on the iPad in Procreate!
Regular price $12 per set – on sale 50% off until Jan. 31, 2020 (midnight EDT).
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Barns & Back Roads Workshop Update!
I mentioned in my newsletter last week that I added one more workshop, May 2-5, 2020 — THERE IS NOW JUST ONE SPOT LEFT! If you are interested, sign up now!
APRIL WILL BE HERE BEFORE WE KNOW IT! Don’t miss out on the 4th Creative Photography Conference April 25-26, 2020 MeadowView Resort & Conference Center Kingsport, TN
TWO DAYS OF CREATIVITY!
Creative photography and post-processing techniques featuring: Creative Landscapes; Post-Processing (PS, Topaz, Textures); Creativity with Lens Baby Lenses; iPhoneography; hands-on photo-ops, and much more!
SPEAKERS:
Ken Sklute (AZ) – Canon Explorer of Light – Landscape artist, storm chaser, hot air balloonist
David Kelly (PA) – Topaz Instructor and Lens Baby creative
Loretta Paul-Goldin (CT) – Creating textures with alcohol inks
REGISTRATION INCLUDES:
Sat. & Sun. seminars and photo-ops; coffe/tea & refreshments in the mornings; lunch both days; speaker notes on a flash drive; door prizes and a goodie bag with discounts and freebies! Also – vendor tables for your shopping pleasure.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS
We have a block of rooms reserved at $130/night. Link on our website.
PRE-CONFERENCE SESSIONS ON FRIDAY
If you’d like a hands-on, intensive session on “Creative Editing with Topaz” or “Working with Textures”, then come join David Kelly or Hazel Meredith on Friday from 1:00-4:30 pm.
Happy Sunday! What a difference a week makes – last Sat. was 75 degrees, now we’re heading into the 30’s this week (average for this time of year is 45 in TN). Though I’m not complaining about a little chill – we’re not shoveling snow anymore!
This week’s Sunday Sampler takes one of the new Cosmos textures from last week and gives you 3 more versions created by hubby, Dave! He used various Topaz products (Impression, Precision Detail and some presets) to create these versions for you! Just a hint of the many things you can create from any texture! Enjoy!
And speaking of the Cosmos textures…
I’ve added two groups of Cosmos textures to the Peacock Studio. These are large groups of 12 textures each, 15″ x 15″, 300 dpi. These were created on the iPad in Procreate!
Regular price $12 per set – on sale 50% off until Jan. 31, 2020 (midnight EDT).
GROUP 1:
GROUP 2:
BARNS & BACK ROADS WORKSHOPS UPDATE!
I mentioned in my newsletter this week that I added one more workshop, May 2-5, 2020 — THERE IS NOW JUST ONE SPOT LEFT! If you are interested, sign up now!
Using Cosmos Overlay to Create an Evening/Night Image
As I mentioned on Sunday, I took one of my new Cosmos textures and made multiple versions with Topaz ReStyle.
I used the “Muted Gray Walls” version over one of my barn shots to create the look of night.
I started with this original image:
I began with a Preset/Look in Topaz Studio 2 called “Striking Grit”, which I had used when I originally edited this photo.
I then brought in the Cosmos-1C-Muted Gray Walls texture above the other layers. I found the original sky to be “too much” when I blended the Cosmos, so I added layer masks to the original image and the Striking Grit layer to remove the sky. I then added a mask to remove most of the Cosmos texture from the barn and foreground.
Here is my final layer stack:
And the final image:
And speaking of the Cosmos textures…
I’ve added two groups of Cosmos textures to the Peacock Studio. These are large groups of 12 textures each, 15″ x 15″, 300 dpi. These were created on the iPad in Procreate!
Regular price $12 per set – on sale 50% off until Jan. 31, 2020 (midnight EDT).
GROUP 1:
GROUP 2:
REMEMBER…As I did with the texture in the barn image, you can use Topaz, Photoshop or almost any program to change the colors of the textures, desaturate to B&W, make them Impressionistic and so much more! The first texture in Set 1 (pink & blue) is what I changed to the colors for the barn image!
APRIL WILL BE HERE BEFORE WE KNOW IT! Don’t miss out on the 4th Creative Photography Conference April 25-26, 2020 MeadowView Resort & Conference Center Kingsport, TN
TWO DAYS OF CREATIVITY!
Creative photography and post-processing techniques featuring: Creative Landscapes; Post-Processing (PS, Topaz, Textures); Creativity with Lens Baby Lenses; iPhoneography; hands-on photo-ops, and much more!
SPEAKERS:
Ken Sklute (AZ) – Canon Explorer of Light – Landscape artist, storm chaser, hot air balloonist
David Kelly (PA) – Topaz Instructor and Lens Baby creative
Loretta Paul-Goldin (CT) – Creating textures with alcohol inks
REGISTRATION INCLUDES:
Sat. & Sun. seminars and photo-ops; coffe/tea & refreshments in the mornings; lunch both days; speaker notes on a flash drive; door prizes and a goodie bag with discounts and freebies! Also – vendor tables for your shopping pleasure.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS
We have a block of rooms reserved at $130/night. Link on our website.
PRE-CONFERENCE SESSIONS ON FRIDAY
If you’d like a hands-on, intensive session on “Creative Editing with Topaz” or “Working with Textures”, then come join David Kelly or Hazel Meredith on Friday from 1:00-4:30 pm.
Wow – I thought New England weather was fickle – the South is just as crazy! Yesterday was 75° out and gusty. A major line of storms came through in the evening (sadly with tornadoes in some areas), with crazy rain and some lightning. Although there were severe weather alerts in our area, it wasn’t too bad and we made it through just fine. I must say, having weather alerts set up on our phones is a good thing!
This week’s Sunday Sampler contains one of the Cosmos textures from my new releases coming out later this week! I took this texture and ran it through Topaz ReStyle (one of the older modules), and changed the color palette of the texture. Below is an example of how I used one of the versions in my barn image – in “Tutorial Thursday” I will show you how I did this! Enjoy!
APRIL WILL BE HERE BEFORE WE KNOW IT! Don’t miss out on the 4th Creative Photography Conference April 25-26, 2020 MeadowView Resort & Conference Center Kingsport, TN
TWO DAYS OF CREATIVITY!
Creative photography and post-processing techniques featuring: Creative Landscapes; Post-Processing (PS, Topaz, Textures); Creativity with Lens Baby Lenses; iPhoneography; hands-on photo-ops, and much more!
SPEAKERS:
Ken Sklute (AZ) – Canon Explorer of Light – Landscape artist, storm chaser, hot air balloonist
David Kelly (PA) – Topaz Instructor and Lens Baby creative
Loretta Paul-Goldin (CT) – Creating textures with alcohol inks
REGISTRATION INCLUDES:
Sat. & Sun. seminars and photo-ops; coffe/tea & refreshments in the mornings; lunch both days; speaker notes on a flash drive; door prizes and a goodie bag with discounts and freebies! Also – vendor tables for your shopping pleasure.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS
We have a block of rooms reserved at $130/night. Link on our website.
PRE-CONFERENCE SESSIONS ON FRIDAY
If you’d like a hands-on, intensive session on “Creative Editing with Topaz” or “Working with Textures”, then come join David Kelly or Hazel Meredith on Friday from 1:00-4:30 pm.
A couple of Saturdays ago we had 2 red tailed hawks visit our property. They both landed at the top of a tree at the far end of our yard, about 200 feet away. The first one flew off pretty quickly, but the other stayed for quite a while. I had time to get my Sigma 150-500mm lens out and my tripod.
The hawk started to do lots of preening, and Dave actually got this shot (I had left everything set up when I went off shopping with a friend!). He kept taking shots for a while till the bird disappeared.
Even at 500mm on a crop-sensor Canon 70D (which makes the lens at about 800mm), you can see he or she was still very small in the frame in this original image:
So I brought it in to Photoshop, cropped it heavily, then brought it in to Topaz Studio 2. First I ran AI Clear (this filter adds sharpening, gets rid of noise and adds clarity all at once).
The vertical lines in the background are not caused by the software – they are there in the original – it’s other trees further in the background!
So while this was an OK capture – not competition worthy, but a decent “record” shot – I, of course, decided to add a little drama to it with some textures!
So I duplicated my layer in Photoshop and went back to Studio 2. I applied the look/preset Peeling Paint (one of my faves), and then added an additional grunge texture of my own. I also did a vignette in Studio 2 to darken the edges. I masked the look and texture off of the bird to keep him brighter. Here is the final image:
An option now would be to smooth out those background “lines” using the healing brush or clone stamp. But I think they’re a little less predominate with the texture and darker effect.
As photographers, we know the “rules” and that rules can and should be broken at times. Here is a good article about the “Living with (and Without) the Rule of Thirds” from PictureCorrect.com.
Due to popular demand, I have added an additional “Barns & Back Roads Workshop”! The dates will be Sat. May 2nd-Tues. May 5th. There are two spots available, so act quick if you are interested!
Design Cuts just released their first bundle of 2020!
The Creators Diverse Design Collection
This bundle includes patterns/textures, Photoshop effects, hand lettered fonts, Procreate brushes, text effects and much more!
As always, it’s just $29 (a $1014 value). CLICK HERE to grab yours now!
FREEBIES
DID YOU KNOW…that Adobe offers creative freebies to customers? Items include textures, actions, brushes, templates, mock ups, graphic design items and so much more! CHECK IT OUT HERE!
AND…You can also create your own portfolio website for free with Adobe! Check out ADOBE PORTFOLIO.
PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS
Like me, you may have heard of “luminosity masking” but didn’t really know what it was. I had a general idea, but hadn’t seen a tutorial that explained it clearly – until now! This one from Digital Photography School is pretty thorough. “How to Enhance Urban Night Photographs Using Luminosity Masks in Photoshop” is worth checking out!
So as soon as I hit “publish” on the earlier blog post, I realized I forgot the links for the “Sunday Sampler”! While I revised it right away, the email of the blog post doesn’t have the live link. CLICK HERE for the updated blog post and link!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Hard to believe it’s 2020!! Stay tuned to the blog regularly for all the new happenings at Meredith Images and the Peacock Studio this year!
This week’s Sunday Sampler has some dramatic sky overlays! Yesterday had the BEST skies – stormy and pouring to the East and clearing blue skies and puffy white clouds to the West! I took some shots of the edge of the storm system, and just as I was getting ready to post this blog, Dave noticed the great sun rays coming through the clouds – so I added one of those too!
This kind of texture/overlay is great when you have a really blah gray/white sky. Overlay one of these, mask if needed off of your subject, and voila, an interesting sky for your image. Here’s an example:
A shot of the Baltimore skyline from a water taxi:
While it wasn’t truly an overcast day, the day was hazy and lacked color.
There are two ways to use the overlay: 1) Lay the sky over the image, reduce the opacity so you can see the image below, and use a layer mask to mask the sky off the subject. 2) If you have lots of hard edges in your subject (like in this image), make a selection of your subject then hit Control+J to copy the selection to a new layer. Bring in the sky overlay between the two layers.
Screen shot of my layers.
Finished image – has much more “punch” than the original!
NEW SUNDAY SAMPLER GROUP IN THE PEACOCK STUDIO STORE!
Group 7 = 93 Textures & Backgrounds
You can always download at least 6 months of Sunday Samplers through the blog.
Once 12 months have passed, I bundle the oldest 6 months of Samplers and place them in the Peacock Studio for sale. This group is from Jan.-June, 2019. You can still download July-December 2019 through the blog posts.
Sunday Sampler Groups are regularly priced at $15 each, but you can grab the newest bundle for 33% off through Monday, Jan. 6th!CLICK HERE!
AND, if you are a new reader to the blog, you can grab an extra special deal – all 7 Sunday Sampler Groups, regularly priced at $90, also 33% off through Jan. 6th! CLICK HERE for the deal!
USE THE COUPON CODE NEWYEARBUNDLES at checkout to save 33%!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Hard to believe it’s 2020!! Stay tuned to the blog regularly for all the new happenings at Meredith Images and the Peacock Studio this year!
This week’s Sunday Sampler has some dramatic sky overlays! Yesterday had the BEST skies – stormy and pouring to the East and clearing blue skies and puffy white clouds to the West! I took some shots of the edge of the storm system, and just as I was getting ready to post this blog, Dave noticed the great sun rays coming through the clouds – so I added one of those too!
This kind of texture/overlay is great when you have a really blah gray/white sky. Overlay one of these, mask if needed off of your subject, and voila, an interesting sky for your image. Here’s an example:
A shot of the Baltimore skyline from a water taxi:
While it wasn’t truly an overcast day, the day was hazy and lacked color.
There are two ways to use the overlay: 1) Lay the sky over the image, reduce the opacity so you can see the image below, and use a layer mask to mask the sky off the subject. 2) If you have lots of hard edges in your subject (like in this image), make a selection of your subject then hit Control+J to copy the selection to a new layer. Bring in the sky overlay between the two layers.
Screen shot of my layers.
Finished image – has much more “punch” than the original!
NEW SUNDAY SAMPLER GROUP IN THE PEACOCK STUDIO STORE!
Group 7 = 93 Textures & Backgrounds
You can always download at least 6 months of Sunday Samplers through the blog.
Once 12 months have passed, I bundle the oldest 6 months of Samplers and place them in the Peacock Studio for sale. This group is from Jan.-June, 2019. You can still download July-December 2019 through the blog posts.
Sunday Sampler Groups are regularly priced at $15 each, but you can grab the newest bundle for 33% off through Monday, Jan. 6th!CLICK HERE!
AND, if you are a new reader to the blog, you can grab an extra special deal – all 7 Sunday Sampler Groups, regularly priced at $90, also 33% off through Jan. 6th! CLICK HERE for the deal!
USE THE COUPON CODE NEWYEARBUNDLES at checkout to save 33%!
