Equilibrium

It was a grey damp day here yesterday so I decided to take some still-lifes indoors as the light was soft. I used my favourite 50mm lens at f1.8  which accounts for the fairly shallow depth of field. The backdrop is a piece of pale blue velvet that I rediscovered yesterday morning while rummaging in a cupboard!
The processing is fairly subtle as I didn't want the texture to overwhelm the subject.
The original RAW image was processed in Camera Raw using a pastel tones preset I've created.
Then I opened it in photoshop to do the texturing.
Burnished Clay @ Hardlight 47% With some of the texture removed from the lower portion and the stones using a layer mask.
Sail cloth @ Screen 11% removed from the stones as above.

See it on Flickr

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Belle Toute Lighthouse

On my recent visit to England I returned to an old haunt of mine,
along the cliff edges of the Severn sisters. When I lived in London I'd often drive down to this place to get some fresh air and walk the dog. This 'Belle Toute' lighthouse was then on the top of the hill near Eastbourne and there was ample grass to walk around its frontage.
I'd guess where we used to walk has now gone into the sea below, as it seems around 20 meters of land has been eroded.
The lighthouse having also been moved back inland on rails that were dug under the building.
For more info on this famous building please visit their official website!
www.belletoute.org.uk./

Processing was fairly straightforward, I used the CS5 HDR filter to first brighten the image, this is the base image shown.
The green sky colour mostly came from the textures, but added depth came from the use of a B/W copy of the base image.

Brushed Rose - Overlay @ 81%
Base image copy - Overlay @ 19% B/W Sky made darker with sliders
Iorek Ice Overlay @ 22 %
Apple blush Overlay @ 9%
Apple blush Overlay @ 9% flipped horizontal to balance edge tones
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 58% Slightly desaturated.

This image is only two thirds of the original format, the complete edit can be seen on my Photoshelter.

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National Grid

This was taken when I visited the lovely hot pools resort village of Hanmer Springs NZ, last weekend. Just over the hill from town the countryside becomes much wilder and  very picturesque with largely unspoiled tussock land and snowy mountains -that is  apart from the ever present power pylons which follow the road. They take electricity from the southern hydro lakes to the North Island and are very hard to avoid in a photo, at least without walking for miles. So rather than trying to clone them out, I tend to use them as a focal point.

I had intended doing this one entirely with fly edges but got playing (as I do). So the processing...
Fly Edge 24 @ Hard Light 57%
Zuriel Stone @ Hard light 77 % with a little brushed off the lower grown portion of the photo as it made things too dark.
Copy of the Background @ Overlay 72%
Labyrinth @ Hardlight 72% -this layer pulled things together and added a bit of a vignette
Levels layer to tweak the tone.
Zuriel Stone is from Summer Painterly, Labyrinth from Texbox2

See it a little larger on Flickr

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

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sunset through the pines

I've photographed this historic roman ruin filled site many times,
and I'm always captivated by its scenic treasures. Previously written about before in Pines in the Mist.
Being a hill covered with these tall willowy umbrella pines, its often ravaged by the sudden cruel winds we get from the distant black mountains, and thus these trees tend to look a bit sorry for themselves!

This picture was taken about 20 mins from sunset, it was getting quite dark, and having my trusted polarizer fitted didn't help, next time, I'll shoot without it first!
This image is only 2/3rds of the original, the full edit can be seen on my flickr or Photoshelter.

To start processing I used a slight painterly effect, to remove the camera noise. I then used curves to lighten the black areas and merge.
The strong green sky tone was created by going to the top line of Photoshop - Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation.
And moving the slider so as to get the sky to turn a bright glowing grass green! I did this with two layers of the duplicated base image and then a normal blue layer on top to bring the green tones back into the trees.
I realize this could be quite confusing, so I'll show a screen-grab, so you'll see the crazy coloured layers I play with!

Background - normal
Base image copy - Luminosity @ 47%
Base image copy - Soft light @ 29 % Hue/Saturation - green sky
Base image copy - Soft light @ 29 % Hue/Saturation - green sky
Base image copy - color @ 36% Hue/Saturation - blue sky
Apple Blush - Overly @ 100 softly brushed from sky only
Apple Blush - Overly @ 19% softly brushed from sky only
Raw Linen - Soft Light @ 100 % softly half brushed from sky only
Iridescent brush - Soft Light @ 100 %

After the above, I merged all then duplicated, cloned out the messy bottom bushes and covered with grass. I then tweaked the brightness to lighten the black areas still more - right up to the CS4's limits!

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Blue and White

You know that spring is well and truly here when the grape hyacinths or muscari are in flower.  I photographed this bunch in my newly purchased "little white jug" bought especially (and cheaply too I must add) for photographic purposes, I was imagining a bunch of roses in it when I spied it on the shelf.

Quick processing once again, and this is quite a nice combination recipe if your background is fairly plain and pale.
Apple Blush @ Soft light 100% gently brushed from the focus flowers and jug using a layer mask 
Iridescent Blush @ overlay 72% with a little of the texture removed from the jug as above.
Apple Blush is from Tex pack 1, Iridescent Blush from Summer Painterly.

See the photo on Flickr

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green pineapple

This week I started a new Photoshelter account and was searching for images to stock it with, when I came across this abandoned oldie from February. Coming from a batch of pears I'd shot, it had been rejected because it was a little over-textured. But by simply clicking off the final texture I could see it had possibilities, so I brightened up another earlier texture, and there it was, finally, a usable image!
Thank goodness I always save my images with their full layers in photoshop files!

Processing was straightforward but used many textures to build up great textural depth. This was made during my desaturated period, thus many textures were first desaturated.
I start as always from the first texture used to the last.
Being a pre-summer image it only uses the first two texture sets.

Antique Liaisons - Overlay @ 23% desaturated
Backdrop - Hard light @ 70%
Backdrop - Multiply @ 71%
Leadenhall - Hard light @ 45% desaturated and pulled down from the image
Colosseum Sienna - Soft Light @ 75% desaturated
Antique Liaisons - Overlay @ 100% desaturated
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated
Base image duplicated - Overlay @ 31% desaturated
Base image duplicated - Hard Light @ 53%
Base image - Normal @ 22%
Base image duplicated desaturated - Soft light 36%
Raw Linen - Overlay @ 71% desaturated
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 100% desaturated to purple

Regarding the aforementioned Photoshelter account, at the moment it is only set-up for selling RM licenses for now. If anyone would like to purchase a print, please use the contact link on that sites page, and I'll be happy to turn on the printing and prices for selected images!

Summer Painterly Pack

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and  Tex Box Two

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Foxy

After a great week of 50% sun & rain in autumnal England I was glad to get back to the late summer heat and sun of the south of France!
However, the new lush green landscapes were like a breath of fresh air after our arid grass-free summer environment.
I was going to show Stonehenge but unfortunately I managed to mislay it! So its now for another time. For now, I thought it might be interesting to show my sisters Foxy, her popular teacup Chihuahua! She's just a year old but already rules my sisters household.
Her favorite pastime is fighting with the Sis's new kitten, and yapping safely behind the glass door in the evenings, at visiting Foxes, Badgers and Deer to my sisters woodland surrounded garden in Hampshire.

For the portrait, I simply put Foxy onto my sisters garden table and shot her in Raw from below, in the morning sun.
The backdrop is just her cream painted house-wall.
In the before image you can see, she has already been brightened up with the CS5 HDR filter I spoke about last time.
I also brightened up the eyes and added a cloned sparkle from one eye to the other darker eye. This helps bring dark-eyed dogs faces to life.
Its a trick all the best pro-animal photographers use!
Also getting down to the dogs eye-level and removing all collars and leashes, as these can make an animal look imprisoned and sad.

I used Textures from the first Flypaper Box Set One and the new Summer Painterly.

Necropolis - Overlay @ 27%
- brushed away from dog, desaturated to a gold colour
Raw Linen - Soft Light @ 100%
Iorek Ice - Soft Light @ 20%
Pans Sky - Overlay @ 100% brushed away from dog and table top.
Pans Sky - Soft Light @ 73% brushed away from dog, desaturated to B/W - to tone down the bright colours and give body to the sky.

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

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