Another Beach

I textured and posted this one to flickr soon after we launched the spring painterly set, I especially loved the effect the impressionist Sisley texture gives here.
Often you can get away with using just one texture in processing, but I tend to build up the layers to add depth, even repeating the same texture twice at different opacities often works wonders.
Anyway here's the processing....

Curves layer to tweak tone this was masked off the upper portion using a graduated layer mask
Spring Equinox @ Soft Light 62%
Syrinx @ Soft Light 100% masked from upper portion using graduated layer mask
Syrinx @ Soft light 100% masked as above
Hue saturation layer to warm the image slightly
Sisley @ Soft light 77%
Spring Equinox @ Soft light 100 % masked from the central portion as I just wanted the texture on the edges
Gelato Ice @ Multiply 100% Masked from the sea

All textures are from the Spring Painterly Pack

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and  Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

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Thom Cross - Standing on the Edge of the World

Yet another Flypaper product to share, this time an indie pop CD/EP!
Several months ago I was contacted by Thom, originally a New Zealander, and now a London based musician who wanted to use one or two of my images, naturally I was delighted to help, and sorted him out with this and another image, as yet unused.

The Graphics were designed by Dublin based Steve Avrill, who many might recall designed the most famous U2 albums!
The original square format was left intact, - always a good sign!
We leave a music link here, kindly supplied by Thom, who is said to sound a little like David Bowie spliced with U2, but I can also detect a smattering of Suede!
Have a listen yourselves and let us know what you think, Im sure Thom would love to hear feedback, as for us here at fly, we love it!:-)

The recipe was shown some time ago, but I'll republish it here, using Flypaper Summer Textures.

Back in Brighton where I took many photographs on my late afternoon
visit, walking from one pier to the ruined West Pier. I remembered seeing it before I left England in the 1990's, It was being renovated into a huge restaurant/night club but had mysteriously caught fire.
Today this is all that remains of this Victorian iron construction, impossibly expensive to repair and left to rot gracefully like a whales skeleton.
For now this wreck is the perfect roosting place for thousands of migratory starlings!

The first landscape version had already been brightened and had Matmos Lake added,flipped vertically and desaturated. Jill suggested it would also be nice cropped square and re-textured. This is the result!

Simple, light processing was called for as there was already quite a lot going on texturally already.

From Summer Painterly I used:
Aquarius - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated to a pale blue tone
Brushed Rose - Soft Light @ 100%

A final tweak of the merged image to pull the sky tones together.

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and  Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Daydream

I'm just back from a short holiday at Kaikoura, a lovely coastal town several hundred kilometres north of here. Kaikoura is famed for its whale watching but there's much more to do...wildlife, fishing seals, wild beaches, walks etc etc....
My holiday coincided with one of the most widespread snow falls we've had in New Zealand for many years and while there wasn't much snow in Kaikoura itself, it was freezing and the surrounding mountains were covered in a good dusting of snow. The bad weather meant grey overcast days, not the best for photography unfortunately. I haven't had time to do much processing of the photos I did take so here's an old one featuring the kind of weather I'm dreaming of at the moment.

The processing....
Brushed Rose @ overlay 51%
Scotch mist @ overlay 100%
Peacock @ Soft light 36%
Tempest Sea @ Overlay 51% (masked from the sky using a graduated mask)
At this stage it looked fine but I thought a bit of contrast wouldn't go amiss so I added...
Nik Contrast Colour Range (but lacking Nik you could use curves or PS Hdr to give a similar effect)
And it was done.
With the exception of Brushed Rose which is from the Summer painterly set, the textures are from the Spring painterly collection.

See it a little larger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and  Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Books

In recent times I've been going through a slow phase, photography wise, it being winter here in New Zealand is probably something to do with it.  Anyway I was getting sick of going through my archives looking for something to process so decided to do a quick still-life with the first thing that came to hand...these old books.

My set up is as always very simple, I put them on the living room table and they were lit by afternoon window light.

My processing was equally simple. Both textures used are from the Spring Painterly pack.
Catacomb Frieze @ soft light 60% desaturated using a hue saturation adjustment
Swanns Way @ Soft Light 83% masked from the focus areas as desired
Finally  the very useful Nik Tonal contrast  (from Nik Color Efex Pro) to add drama and bring out the details.

See it a little larger on Flickr

Spring Painterly Pack

40 Large Textures (38 square and two huge rectangles) for only

$40

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

Complete Flypaper Package

Tex Box 1, Tex box 2, Fly Edges, Summer Painterly & Spring Painterly

$180

Flypaper Triple Combo Deal
$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and  Tex Box Two

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

See all our packs and deals on one Page