FINE TEXTURES AND PHOTOGRAPHIC OVERLAYS TO ENHANCE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND MORE


Saturday, October 22, 2011

Pumpkin seat son!


Summers strong clear light is great but Textures and Autumn were made for each other!
Less than 2 weeks ago we were bathing in the sea and basking in 90F here in the south of France, now the heaters are on low as there is a chilly north wind a-blowing. With it comes the Mediterraneans smoky evenings as many people burn old Vine stumps in their kitchens and cook in their ashes. The downside is that those Vines are steeped in years of sulfur applications against mildew, and I'm quite allergic to this in the air. Still it has its upside, the seasonal celebrations are a fun distraction and give us an excuse to do a shot or two, with tongue firmly in cheek!

Shown here in front of my new chocolate colored wall, did I say chocolate? Because look how the lighting has changed it to green!
Shot very simply with reflected sunlight from the right and a cheap, 120w small halogen lamp's light is reflected from the left hand white wall.

Nothing was planned, I sat on the floor and snapped a couple of fast shots as I had an appointment to go to. I'm glad I did as we now have a week of low light and rain forecast!
Processing was fairly simple, I wanted our flypaper texture showing on that back wall, which has already been slightly enhanced in CS5 HDR, or with the Nik HDR Efex Pro I'd recommend number 26 Friendly scenery, and take down their effect with their sliders.
Before merging I removed around 50% of the HDR enhanced layer.
I also used Nik - darken lighten center moving the brightest part to the pumpkin and finally after the textures were fattened I gave a slight Glamor Glow from the Nik filters. Naturally, you can do all this with photoshop, but I like Nik these days for its speed and ease of processing.

Finally, I clicked auto tone in photoshop on a duplicated layer giving an effect like turning on a spotlight, however it was in the wrong place above the chair, so I brushed away most of this final layer leaving the brighter Pumpkin, nicely highlighted!

I chose Flypaper Summer Textures, as I didn't want the Spring paint brush effect, but I could have chosen any pack in reality, perhaps it was a hankering for those balmy summer days?
Anyhow, I opened Dawn Grunge, and it brightened up the chair a little too much so I removed a little from the chairs top fabric. Then opening up Sariel Leather, thinking it might enhance the autumn tones, and it worked a treat.
Sometimes the first textures you choose work perfectly and this was one of those spooky days!

Happy Halloween!

Dawn Grunge - Overlay @ 65% brushed from chairs highlights
Sariel Leather - Soft Light @ 48%


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5 comments:

Pam Martin said...

Very interesting and informative, Paul.

paulgrand said...

Thanks Pam, I enjoyed writing this one!:-)

Borealnz (Jill) said...

Great photo and blog Paul! That's one beautiful pumpkin and the chair is a perfect foil.

Lynne Daley said...

Very classy! Did you use one image in the HDR plug-in? I use the glamour glow effect frequently and love the look.

paulgrand said...

Yes number 26 as I said, but very much toned down the percentage showing, thanks Lynne! :-)

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