Looking North

Another photo of my favourite beach, taken on a warmer and sunnier day than the previous photo of it I posted here.  I was lucky that I managed to catch a passing gull when I snapped this.
Onto the  processing...
Beau Linge Paysage @ Soft Light 13% masked from the lower portion of the photo
Evening Veil @ Soft Light 100%
Oxford Parchment @ Soft light 100% masked from the upper portion of the photo
Nik pro contrast (though you could use curves) to increase the contrast of the sea. I masked this from the lower portion.
Villa Adriana @ Overlay 92% masked from the central portion)
Beau Linge Paysage and Villa Adriana are from the SpringPainterly pack, Oxford Parchment and Evening Veil are from the Summer Painterly Pack

See it 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

 Texboxes 1&2, Fly edges, Spring, Summer and Autumn painterly

$220

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

Stormy Sunday

Yesterday our daylight saving/summer time started here in New Zealand, the weather was far from summery with showers and a biting cold wind. In the afternoon we decided to go for a walk at one of the city beaches but on arriving we discovered that the tide was too high to actually get down to the beach added to this it started to rain and sleet!
The sea however was wonderfully dramatic -just the kind of seas I love and getting photos like this one made braving the weather worthwhile. We're hardy souls down here in Dunedin -there was even a surfer out amongst the waves,  I suspect the water may have been warmer than the air yesterday.

So onto the processing, and it was relatively simple....
Villa Adriana @ Overlay 77%
Umbra Eclipse @  Soft light 100% and masked from the lower portion of the photo using a graduated mask.
Curves layer to tweak tone/contrast
I finished with a Brilliance/Warmth filter from Nik Color Efex to add a tiny amount of warmth.
And it was done.
Both textures are from the Spring Painterly pack.
See it 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

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

See all our packs and deals on one Page

Trio

Our country hut (or crib as they're called in southern New Zealand) is situated beside a river in the midst of farmland. We have sheep on one side and cows on the other so I have plenty of four legged models. These "models" were in a paddock up a hill just a short distance away, thankfully they weren't too scary when they spotted me and stood still long enough for me to snap a few shots.
The photo was taken just prior to  sunset so the light was lovely.

I started processing with a gentle levels adjustment to brighten the shot slightly.
Peach Blush @ Overlay 39%
Brushed Rose @ multiply 100% the colour of this layer was desaturated and toned more yellowish using a hue saturation adjustment. I also removed some of the texture from the sheep using a layer mask.
Necropolis @ overlay 22% desaturated  slightly and with its colour tweaked a little using a hue/saturation adjustment.
Next I did a little gentle dodging/burning to brighten the sheep.
To do this I made a new layer and filled it with 50% grey @ Overlay ,  then with a soft brush at a low opacity (about 8% or less), I painted with white to brighten selected areas, or black to darken.
I finished with a subtle HDR adjustment layer on the merged layers.

Peach Blush is from Tex Box 2, Brushed Rose from the Summer Painterly and Necropolis from Tex Box 1
See the photo a little larger on Flickr

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

Gift Coupons

Click Here

See all our packs and deals on one Page

The Fence

I take a lot of photos out the car window as I'm travelling (as a passenger of course) and this is one of them. I loved the pattern the fences made. The fairly ominous sky did bring rain for which the farmers were very thankful as conditions are very dry in a lot of areas.

Both Paul and I are in Christmas holiday mode at the moment but we'll be back to more regular posting here on the blog soon. And since this will be our last post for the 2010 we'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year!
Now the processing:
Moleskin @ Overlay 35%
Purple Haze @ Soft light 100%
Sariel Leather @ Soft Light 83 % this layer was to give colour solely to the land so was masked from the sky.
Curves layer to tweak tone and contrast.
All textures are from the Summer Painterly pack.
See it on Flickr

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

Gift Coupons

Click Here

See all our packs and deals on one Page

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

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

Sunday Stroll

I've got lots of photos like this with distant people walking on the beach, at one stage I'd have wanted an completely deserted beach but now I seek out opportunities like this.  Luckily our beaches down here are often all but deserted, especially at this time of the year.

Now the processing, I think I used a texture from each pack in this one.
Sariel Leather @ soft light 100% blurred
Fly Edges 16 @ Multiply 60%
Voyageur Map @ Soft Light 100%
Algae@ Overlay 100%
Tarte Tatin @ Screen 22% masked from the sky
Ming @ Overlay 100% masked from the beach
And it was done!
See it a little bigger on Flickr

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

Wish you were here....

This was taken at a lovely little beach called Bobby's Head about half an hour north of Dunedin which is now a wildlife reserve,  there's been much planting over the past 15 or so years to restore the area to its natural state after years of farming. The beach has wonderfully golden sands and is bordered at the south end by fascinating sandstone cliffs. It's a habitat of the rare Yellow-eyed penguins and we were lucky enough to see some, one on the beach and the other at its nest up a cliff. Unfortunately as usual I had the wrong lens on the camera for taking photos of wildlife -wide angle lenses are good for landscapes but not for penguins.

Now the processing, it's hard to tell from the finished photo but it was actually quite overcast and dull when we were at the beach, textures (and a bit of photoshop magic) have turned a dull late winter day into summer!

Pistachio @ overlay 58 % using a layer mask I removed the texture from the sky. This texture accentuated the orange of the sand.
Lavender skies @ Soft light 95% just on the sky
Next I added a sky layer from my archives to add some drama, it was a blue sky with clouds and I used it at overlay 100%
Oxford Parchment @ overlay 100% masked off the sky, another texture which warmed the sand.
Purple Haze@Overlay 100% I used a graduated mask on this layer to remove some of the texture from the lower portion of the photo
Finally to tweak the sky colour I used two colour fill layers
A Bright yellow @  Overlay 24%
Aqua  colour @ Screen 21%  -both these layers were just used on the sky.

Pistachio, Oxford Parchment and Purple Haze are from the Summer Painterly Set, Lavender Skies is from Tex Box 2

See the photo a little larger on Flickr

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