Life on the edge

Back on a misty autumnal day I visited this Roman excavation site,
I've written about it before in Pines in the Mist
This image is from the top of that hill overlooking the famous l'oppidum d'Enserune, a UNESCO protected medieval cartwheel farm system, here, totally obscured by the sea mist. See Here
And that's Martine with the brood!

I loved the way that the westerly wind has shaped these umbrella pines into distorted bonsai likeness!
Processing is simple, but there is an addition of a lovely stone texture, I'm giving this away free on my Flickr site, Here
But remember its just to incorporate into your images and not to be repackaged or claimed as your own!:-)

Apple Blush ~ Opacity ~ Overlay @ 66%
Caramel Soft ~ Opacity ~ Hard Light @ 22%
Base image ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 13%
Raw Linen ~ Opacity ~ color Burn @ 19%
Free Stone texture ~ Opacity ~ Hard Light @ 60%
Base image ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 35%

winter wheat treescape

Another AutopanoPro merge of two portrait formatted landscapes.
I've left the base showing where I had a missing bit to clone in.
Shot as the sun was setting behind riverbank trees.
The first copies of the shot were treated to give a Painterly effect..
Then treated with the following textures:

Apple Blush ~ opacity ~ Soft Light @ 47 %
Caramel soft (desaturated) ~ Hard Light @ 47%
Elysium ~ opacity ~ Color Burn @ 12 %
Raw Linen ~ opacity ~ Soft Light @ 47 %
Colosseum Sienna ~ opacity ~ Overlay @ 29 %
A final color tweak, to enhance the colors with curves.

Its always hard to know when to stop processing.
I expect many will find this picture too bright, but as I've said before,
I'm not here to hold back, I tend to go to the max,
always pushing at the boundaries is the only way to learn! :-)

See my recent photoshop Interview here:
Link: Site www.photoshopforartists.com/
Interview www.photoshopforartists.com/#/paul-grand/4538245709

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

the winter group

The other day on our freezing beach.
Shot with my 75-300mm zoom lens, this scene was captured from a great distance of a neighboring beach.
Because its from a distance the people look much closer together than they were!
Not shown on my base image are a line of fishing rods and a fisherman sat in front, already cloned out!
I also removed the mid picture-line of distant hills with the patch tool.
If you notice the filters used you'll see they are all Soft light, ideal for building up grunge.
A final colour tweak removed some yellow tones and added a cooler blue tone.

Apple Blush ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 42%
Caramel Soft ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 100%
Raw Linen ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 54%
Leaky Garret ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 82%
Lime Plaster (flipped upside down) ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 100%
Lost Void ~ Opacity ~ Soft Light @ 100%

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

Soft dune days

One of those soft yet mild overcast days in August when the low sea clouds come in over the land from the Mediterranean.
In France we call it the 'Marine' pronounced Maran it brings damp dark weather that can last for up to two weeks in winter!
Luckily in summer it's short lived, tending to blow away in a few days.
Before I textured this image I used the Painterly effect.

Raw Linen ~ Opacity ~ Overlay @ 48%
Antique Liaisons ~ Opacity ~ Overlay @ 52%
Unpublished Silk texture ~ Opacity ~ Hard Light @ 42%

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

morning mist

I was emailed a few weeks ago, asking how to create a mist effect
with textures. My tardy answer is now shown here (sorry Bob!)
This image was captured on the mountains last January.
I'd not used these particular images because although I shot them in raw, It still had blown out areas.
However, with our new textures it came to me just last night, a bit of a revelation! - Don't bother hiding the blow-outs, simply lighten and texture the rest of the image! :-)
Necropolis is still my all time personal favorite texture, but these days I tend to use a tweaked version. Just the other day, you might recall,
I used a dark green version?
You can create your own easily by following this tip:
With the aid of the Colour sliders at the top in photoshop I turned this texture to a dark indigo colour with the slider pushed all the way to the right. I then save and use like a new texture, the beauty of this new texture are - no warm/brown tones!
How to:
Top of Photoshop - Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation -
Hue @ +180
Saturation @-28
Lightness @ -23
Save this Texture and name it 'Necropolis Indigo' for future tutorials!
Here's my texture recipe
Necropolis (turned into an indigo blue as discussed) Opacity - Soft Light @ 89%
Necropolis (indigo blue), used on blown out highlights at the top only) Opacity - Color Burn @ 8%
Apple Blush - Opacity - Overlay @ 68%

At this point something wasn't quite right, the sky colour didn't really blend with the picture. So I flattened all my layers and started with a second onslaught of texture! This time from Tex Box Two.
If you look at the base image you'll see the bottom of the image is very dark with no mist, it wasn't really working.
So I pulled out the 'Leaden Hall' texture - don't ask me why I thought this might work - I was lucky!
I flipped this texture vertically and so the pale part was at the bottom. The Skirt at the top was pulled above the picture top and cut off.
To create the extra fog and pull together, I simply turned this Leaden Hall texture to - Opacity - Screen @ 61%
I blurred it a little and I also changed this layer to B/W and changed the colour to a green/blue with the top sliders.
I then removed the top half of the texture with a very soft eraser brush, used selectively.
Last finishing texture was:

Chlorophyll Opacity - Soft Light @ 57%
Used to just add a slight vignette at the edges.
Further colour tweaks to finish.

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

Moon tree ~ Bonne année !

From Jill and I we'd like to wish you all a gilded Bonne année!
Its funny how the best shots are never planned!
Yesterday, as it was sunny, I went for a drive in search of fresh images.
Its continually maddening that all the best views are from our motorways and they are impossible to access without doing huge detours!
However, thus armed I left the motorway and snaked my way home via the normal slower side roads, capturing a few views I was after.
I saw this view from a side road I'd been turning the car from,
looking back towards the East the moon had come up over a hill, framed by this scraggly old fruit tree glowing with the sun set golden light!

I used my 75-300m zoom lens, turned the camera portrait wise and took several panning shots of this scene.
Back at home I joined them in my trusty Autopanopro program to make a huge landscape version first.
This image is a later Square crop of only half the image.

Apple Blush - Opacity - soft light @ 43%
Lost Void - Opacity - Overlay @ 33%
Muscatel - - Opacity - Overlay @ 50%
Colosseum Sienna - - Opacity - soft light @ 47%
Necropolis (turned to indigo blue) - Opacity - soft light @ 49%
Caramel Soft - Opacity - soft light @ 39%
I then flattened the layers, doubled the base image and turned the top layer to B/W.
I then made this copy a contrasty sepia, this helped bring out the depth.
B/W sepia copy - Opacity - soft light @ 42 %

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Both texture Packs!

Geraniums

I've kept this one back a few months because it was a first try-out with the as then unpublished; Lost Void & Lime Plaster textures.
Its just a shot of Geraniums & ivy on our north facing window ledge.
They caught the sunlight glancing off the stone house windows opposite.
I liked the way this texture combination gives a kind of antique glass look. I was pleased with this painterly effect, reminding me of the Paintings of Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmond.

This image uses textures from both Box One and Two.

Lost Void - opacity - Soft light @ 100%
Lost Void - opacity - Overlay @ 46%
Lime plaster - opacity - Overlay @ 46%
Apple blush - opacity - Overlay @ 32%
Necropolis (turned to a dark olive green) - opacity - soft Light @ 100%

Butterfly Bliss

Just like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and viewers and wish everybody from both of us - Happy Holidays!:-)
Here's an oldie but a Goldie, taken with a 75-300m zoom lens in the summer at a small lavender farm at Barjac in the Gard area of the south of France.

Processed first by tone mapping in Photomatrix, to enrich then adding:
Phosphorescence - opacity - Soft Light @ 51%
From Pack One of our Flypapers.
I gave the final image a clean up with a slight paint effect
Reprinted here:
"To achieve the painterly effect, I simply use the 'Colour Noise filter'
at a very low setting, then sharpen this with 'Poster Edges' Filter at around 10%.This pulls it together again, I sometimes also use the
'Paint Daubs' filter at a low setting and then Poster Edges".

fishing trip

On Sunday afternoon just to curb the midwinter 'Cabin fever'
we drove up towards the mountains. The light was clear and the air was crisp, but this time I diverted, hung a left and drove to 'Lake Salagou'.
Normally its a tourist nightmare, being the biggest and most famous lake in our area of the languedoc, but now in midwinter it's almost deserted, and apart from it being a couple of meters lower than it should after our 10 year drought, looked superb!
These guys were having a great time, all over the place, drinking, and not much catching as it was too cold for fish to bite. The sun was setting, catching a slight mist. These light misty scenes are ideal to texture.
The last two overlays are blurred because I liked the color they gave but wanted to keep the bokeh effect soft.

Textures used are from both packs, using the first listed to the last.

Chlorophyll (Blurred) Opacity - Soft Light @ 19%
Muscatel - Opacity - Soft Light @ 25%
Apple Blush - Opacity - Soft Light @ 44%
Pompeii Stucco - Opacity - Soft Light @ 32%
Phosphorescence - Opacity - Overlay @ 48%
Phosphorescence (Blurred) - Opacity - Overlay @ 22%
Phosphorescence (Blurred) - Opacity - Overlay @ 22%

Wall Story

We drove past this windmill many times on the way to the beach,
situated on a hilltop overlooking the Mediterranean salt marshes.
Thankfully we managed to stop a few times at sunset on route home to capture it on camera.
I was lucky because it was cut down this year, it was really sad to see the top rotors resting in the vines..
It was beautiful lit up at sunset, I even climbed it once!
Martine pretended she didn't know me, but that's another story!:-)

We've been asked about our thought processes when we use textures.
Firstly, if you get the format or crop of the image sorted I think you're halfway there.
Here I noticed the ground at the same level as the texture's skirt,
a lucky marriage made in heaven. The rest just fell into place...

This recipe uses textures from both sets..
As always its the first listed used to the last.

Leaden Hall - Opacity - hard light @ 94%
Copy of base image - Opacity - Luminosity @ 14%
Lime Plaster - Opacity - Color @ 68%
Copy of base image - Opacity - soft light @ 98%
Copy of base image - Opacity - Color @ 34%
Necropolis - Opacity - soft light @ 65%@

red box

Back in early July we made a special trip to the beach at sunset just to photograph the full moon rising over the Mediterranean.
The light was superbly opalescent, and I was lucky, as I captured several nice images as well as the later moonrise.

This is one, a huge red container, not sure why it was there or what it contained, but being this amazing rust,
the final rays of the sun turned it into a stunning bright red.

The base image has already been brightened, I only needed a texture to beef up the tones and give a slight vignette effect.
I chose just one, Caramel Cream - soft light Opacity - @ 45%
This was given the full 'Gaussian blur' treatment for a really smooth finish.
I gave the final image a clean up with a slight paint effect, and removed a group of people on the left with the clone tool.
If you look on my Redbubble thread, you'll see another more painterly version.

derelict farmhouse

Whilst on the way to the beach yesterday,
with a slight sea mist over the vineyards.
I came across this derelict farmhouse in a sea of golden vines.
'Chasse Gardee' I'm told, means strictly licensed hunters only.

Apple Blush - Soft Light Opacity @ 29%
Raw Linen - Overlay Opacity @ 100%
Necropolis - Overlay Opacity @ 39%
Caramel Soft - Soft Light Opacity @ 27%

Both the final Necropolis and Caramel Soft textures were brushed off the left side of the image to help balance the tones.
The hard canvas texture of Raw Linen was left to help pull it all together.

Life goes on

Another human for our professional readers!
Taken on a professional Portrait shoot with French Artist, Martine Roch a couple of years ago.
This one was never used but I now like the little surreal looking figure with a bucket in the corner!
It was shot in that cold, sharp April light, the shadows being so dark,
it needed a little help, thus we used a reflector for fill-in light.
We were standing on the Sea's breakwater for the maximum light reflected off the sea.
It was so bright, Martine couldn't open her eyes!
Shot in tiff.

Textures shown from first used to last.
Necropolis - Soft Light @ 34%
Raw Linen - Hard Light @ 48%
(this texture brushed off all the model)
Caramel Soft - Hue @ 43%
(texture brushed off the models head only)

This last texture setting is the important one for the
lovely grayness, Its percentage is vital as too little and the color is too bright, too much and it becomes sepia!
We're talking Goldilocks!:-)
Bigger version on my Flickr site.

Three routes into mist

Another misty 'Canal du Midi' shot, just west of Beziers,
our famous local French Atlantic coast to the French Mediterranean sea connection. One of the main reasons for its being built was to avoid having to sail around Spain.
Because just over two hundred years ago those pesky Spanish Pirates were quite a problem!
This in turn brought wealth to the wine producers in this area,
further unimagined riches came with the railways, over a hundred years later.
But that's another story..

The beautiful mile upon mile of huge poplar trees were planted to give the pulling horses and barge drivers some shade and help stop the canal water from overheating and thus turning stagnant in our hot summers.
Hope you're taking notes as there will be a test later! :-)

First of all, try the Curves option to bring out more light.
This picture is made from 4 images joined together in 'Autopanopro'
As always, I list from the base texture up.
Apple blush - Opacity - soft light @ 18%
Raw Linen - Opacity - Hard Light @ 29%
Caramel Soft - Opacity - Soft Light @ 100%
Caramel Soft - Opacity - Overlay @ 17%

the sea bobber!

As requested, we now start to tackle live subjects!
This image is from a shoot with a charming Danish Family.
Its hard to believe that just a month ago we were still sea bathing!

I don't recommend standing in the sea with an expensive camera, but if that's what it takes to get a natural shot, who am I to argue?

Okay, to bring your 'family photos' up a level,
try this blend of Flypaper textures.
Just three were used with these levels;

Apple Blush with Soft light @ 100%
Orient express with Soft light @ 39%
Pompeii Stucco With Overlay @ 39%

To keep the skin nice and smooth (flattering) I simply painted over each texture covering just the boy with the blur tool.
This keeps the same rich colour values as the surround but stops the skin from looking 'dirty'.
I'm sure his mom will approve of that! :-)

La tour romane

This 10th century Franco Roman tower is just outside the medieval village of Puissalicon.
Its just a short 10 min drive north from my coastally situated Beziers.
known as a veritable masterpiece of Romanesque art in Languedoc.
Its 4.3m wide and stands at 26m.
It was built as a bell tower for the church of Saint Etienne de Peazan priory.
These buildings are now lost in the mists of time, probably during the wars of religion. All that remains is a fragment of an arch top, left on display at the base of the tower. This tour is one of the most precious monuments of the region of Beziers.

I was very lucky to find this tour bathed in a biblical light, seeing this site much as the original 10th century Gallo-Romano people saw it.

Shot with a polarizor, using just 3 simple flypaper textures.
For the PP I upped the colour/brightness values and then used these textures:

Apple Blush with Soft light opacity @ 100%
Caramel Soft with Soft light opacity @ 100%
Orient Express with Overlay opacity @ 43%, Fill @ 72%

When I don't add the'Fill level', Its left at 100%.
If you have no Fill, you can just ignore this slider setting.

To see the full landscape version, please go to my Paul Grand flickr site!

Gilded

This is in the south of France in my local languedoc area.
There were many old windmills, but these are fast disappearing.
This one overlooks my old village as seen from a farmers side road.
I'd never seen it before the other evening!

For this bucolic sunset scene I used three flypaper textures,
two of them doubled.
Bruised Saffron Soft light Opacity @ 71% Fill 62%
Bruised Saffron Soft light Opacity @ 23% Fill 45%
Necropolis Soft light Opacity @100% Fill 79%
Apple Blush Overlay @ 71%
Apple Blush Soft light Opacity @ 100% Fill 83%
To finish I adjusted the Hue/Saturation colour,
which can be found at the top.
Image-adjustments-Hue/Saturation.
I didn't do much, I just helped the sky colour become slightly greener.

Once again you'll see I cloned out an object in the bottom left-hand corner!:-)
And if you'd like to see the full size landscape image,
please look at my 'Paul Grand' on flickr!

nights backcloth

Whilst driving home from Carcassonne one blustery day last January,
I came across this tree nursery, growing on the banks of a flooding river near our famous Olive Oil factory, the Coopérative Oléicole L'Oulibo, Bize-Minervois

The setting sun lit up these trees like a stage-set!
If you look closely you'll see I've removed the tips of an olive tree in the bottom left hand corner.
Moments after I took these pictures using a polarizer, storm clouds brought the whole scene back into winter..

Firstly, I just used one texture twice.
Dangerous Liaisons @ Linear light, opacity 58%,fill 45%
Dangerous Liaisons again, but this time with full Gaussian Blur,@ 32% opacity, fill 45%
After several colour tweaks and differing adjusted layers I finished with a smooth Grosgrain @ 30% opacity and 20% fill.

The Letter

Here I used our 'Necropolis' texture very lightly.
By simply running your mouse over the image you'll see before and after the textures were applied!

Logistics

Nora Batty (inspired by the BBC's 'Last of the summers wine') was used here to illustrate Logistics or Summers End, when our local beach shack cafe was removed :-(