The Layer Mask was filled with black and just the sky area was painted back with a soft black low opacity brush.ħ. The sky was really blown out, so I added another Curves Adjustment Layer that brought back the natural clouds from the original image into the sky. Next a general Curves Adjustment Layer was added to bring in some contrast.Ħ. What I did different was to add a New Layer and paint over the foreground leaves and trees in the midground to give a more painterly look and smoothing out some of the rough edges and colors that Simplify can bring into an image. Also some detail in the little rock island was painted back.Ĥ. Some of the Detail Layer was brought back in by painting black on the mask on the foreground leaves. A Layer Mask was applied to the top Simplify layer. The only change to it is that the Edges section was turned off as it made the trees in the background stand out.ģ. Next Topaz Simplify 4 was opened and the Painting IV preset was applied. Topaz Detail 3 was opened and the settings from the second example in the video were applied: Small Detail. Duplicated the Background layer (CTRL+J). Now that both Simplify and Detail have been updated, it was easier to get some different looks. (I really was thinking about how it would be to live in the house up in the top left – hum!) I actually did not follow the exact video workflow, but it did get me thinking about how to do this. While doing a little Hawaii dreaming, I came across it again and thought it might look good using some of the settings from this video. (See Creating an Oil Painting Effect from Topaz Labs.) My Hawaiian image from the east coast of the Big Island was one I had not originally processed as it really did not catch my eye – hoover over image to toggle to original. I was looking through my notes from last year and came across some nice info on using Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Simplify and Detail together to create an oil painting look. I used a combination of Nik’s Color Effects Pro and Topaz’s Simplify to achieve the effect below.Painterly Effect using Topaz Detail and Simplify I really wanted this image to be a high-key simple photo that showcases the multiple layers of the petals. Because it can’t really provide previews of what your image will look like with each technique, it does require a time investment to watch it run, figure out when you want to stop it, and then change directions if you are not please with the results. This is one plug-in where I don’t mind watching it work. I thought I would try a more painterly look with a similar image, so I used Dynamic Auto Painter. I choose Alien Skin’s Snapart 4 again, but used a crayon preset that still provided a fair amount of detail. I imagined this image to be a playful element in a bright sunny room. Papavar Blooms (thank you to bentehaarstad for helping me identify them) I used a preset that provided a fair amount of detail and warmed up the flower. I processed this image with Alien Skin’s Snap Art 4. I wanted this flower to have a softer look, but not be completely abstracted. This processing sampler should give you a sense of the capabilities of different plug-ins and what they could be used for. It was a lot of trial and error (and time), but I am please with the results. It was a challenge to take a step back and ask myself, “What do I want this image to look like when I finish?”, and then find the software that would give me the capability to create it. All of these flowers were taken on a Lightpad. I thought I would continue Peter’s thoughts from last week, by using different techniques to process a similar subject.
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