Tips for Flower Textures

I have been enjoying adding textures to the beautiful flowers on my porch. Thought I would share where I got some of the textures and some of the techniques used.
Three textures created this beautiful effect. The textures used were: ShadowHouse Creations Oil Painting 1 set to Overlay at 100%, ShadowHouse Creations Faux Marble set to Hard Light at 21%, and Blue Color Fill Adjustment layer set to Normal blend mode at 43% opacity and stacked on each other. Using a Color Fill Adjustment layer is an easy way to change a texture to a color you like – this image was very greenish colored from the Faux Marble texture but the adjustment layer was added to turn it into a color combination I liked. Also, the layer mask was painted in to give a bit of a spotlight effect on the flower so it stands out a little more in the image.
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For this image I followed a ShadowHouse Creations tutorial called “Applying and Blending Textures Tutorial” which lists all the textures used in this image and where to download them. This is a very easy technique and I think it turns out quite nice.
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Two of my favorite textures, Oil Painting 1 and Marshmellow Skies, by ShadowHouse Creations were used on these pink daisies. The trick to getting a nice blend of textures is to try different blend modes at different opacities and to use layer masks and paint with a very low brush to blend carefully to clear the texture in places that are too heavy. The above image took quite a few attempts until I liked the way the textures blended together. Also, be sure to do all the clean up and color work on your image first and create a composite layer (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E) on the top of your layers before adding your textures. This way, if a color is really not working, you can go back to the original corrections if you have to and create a new composite.
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This yellow daisy was processed in OnOne Software Perfect Effects program (see sidebar in my Tidbits Blog for website link). It has some great features once you learn how to use them. In this case I layered two presets on top of the original photo – in the Color & Tone category the Tonal Contrast preset and in the Textures category called Warm Swirl. All their presets can be adjusted for your image by going into the Effect Options and applying different drop-down settings or adjusting sliders. Also, you can use the Brush Tool or the Mask Bug to paint in or paint out the effect and at different opacities. OnOne PhotoFrame acid burn controlled 11 was applied and it added more texture around the edge.
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This image uses three free textures all by Shadowhouse Creations – Aged and Distressed Vintage 1, Oil Painting 3, and Attic Treasures Creative Texture 7. All his textures are beautiful and he has great tutorials on how to combine the many textures. The first texture was added into a layer mask by opening up the texture in it own document, CTRL +A and CTRL+C to select and copy the texture; ALT+Click on the layer mask to make the layer white; and CTRL+V to place the image into the layer mask. The other two textures were added above and a layer was added with the Snow Drops brush by Frostbo.
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With textures there are so many choices – you can make them, find them in plug-ins, and find them on the internet. The more your work with textures, the better you get at applying them. The above tricks really help – the opacities of the layers and brushes are crucial to get a smooth blend. Try out some of these resources and see if you like them as much as I do. Sometimes an image can be perked up with just a bit of textures…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Adding a Texture for Flair!
More Texture Fun!

Create a Winter Scene with Photoshop Brushes and Textures

A while back I did a Fun Photoshop Blog called “Just Plain Fun Brush Effects!” and I find it is still one of my favorite pastimes, especially when I seem to lack that creative urge. Here is a fairly detailed “how to” on creating the first image. So here we go.

1. First start with a New Document – I used a 10 ” X 8″ size at 240 Resolution. This whole image uses the same gray blue color.

2. One of my favorite places for textures and brushes is from ShadowHouse Creations – almost everything he has is great. On a New Layer I loaded up his Tree Brush Set 2 and started with The Woods brush in a dark blue at the largest size. Clicked once in the foreground of my file and my image is started. Add a layer mask and paint out (in black with a soft brush) some of the bottom edge so it is not just a straight line across but looks like a little snow drifting.

3. Added a New Layer below the foreground tree and selected his Tree 9 from the above set – clicked once near the middle of the image to create a horizon with some soft trees showing by setting the layer opacity to 33%.

4. I had to add another New Layer and selected The Woods brush again. Click once, Free Transform (CTRL+T) and line up with the treeline in the first layer you created. Add a layer mask and paint out the tree sticking in the image so it is just a line of grass across the lower image.

5. In Tree Brush Set 2 add the deer on its own layer on top.

6. In ShadowHouse Creations Birds Brush Set 3 are the Birds – 14. Add on their own layer.

7. With Obsidian Dawn’s Grasses and Plants brush set, use grasses 1 and 8 and at different sizes to cover the sharp edge of the foreground line.

8. Create a group for all the brush layers -all but the background layer and name it Objects.

9. Next I added a sky image above the bottom background image. Add a layer mask and paint black on mask to cover all but the sky. I set the opacity of the layer to 19% as I did not want much color in the sky, just a feeling of blue. Add a Curves Adjustment Layer to further light it up if it is still colorful.

10. Highlight the Objects Group layer and add ShadowHouse Creations Texture ST-8 to give a really old feel to the image.(Go to File -> Place, locate your image, and click Enter. Adjust texture to fit image and click Enter to set. Finally right click and in menu select Rasterize to get rid of the Smart Object.) Set layer to Linear Burn mode at 63% opacity.

11. Florabella’s Snow 3 texture (the link is to her Facebook page with the free download on the left side) layer was added under this layer to add a snow falling effect. Highlight the Objects group and then follow the steps for bringing in a layer as in parenthesis above.

12. The last step involved adding two OnOne PhotoFrames (see sidebar for website at my Tidbits Blog) using Taufer Texture 05 and grunge 09. This gave the cool effect of snow appearing on the tree. A layer mask was used to remove too much white from the tree areas in places that did not look natural. So I don’t eave you at this last step and not know what to do if you do not own OnOne PhotoFrames, try BittBox Ice Texture 2 set to Soft Light blend mode, another one of my favorite textures and gives a very similar effect.

It looks like a lot of steps but it becomes very intuitive once you get going and a lot of fun.

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For another winter look, here is an image I created just from brushes and posted on my Tidbits Blog back in September. Since it fits the theme for this blog, I am going to add this image again and give you the resource information to use some of these beautiful brushes. Same basic workflow as above: creating a New Document, adding objects and brush effects (in slightly different colors this time) on individual layers above, and adding interesting textures and frames or styles as a last step.

This images use tree brushes from Winter Trees by Melbrushes and Trees from c4grfx brushes. Textures from Shadow Creations Old Canvas 4 and the Glitter Brush Set by Obsidian Dawn.
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I guess you can tell I like to use tree brushes. This look will take a little more time but I love the overall calm feel to the image. Used the same tree brushes as above, from Winter Trees by Melbrushes and Trees from c4grfx brushes with a light gray-tan color. Then I added the best Flood Filter around – the Flood Filter from Flaming Pear to create the water reflection. I have not found any other plug-in that simulates flooding and reflections as well. In this case a simple reflection in Photoshop could be made with a Wave Filter applied. To create the foggy look, BB Brushes Fogs and Mists 12 was used in a soft white. A layer was added just above the white background to add a slight texture effect using a light tan color with Seu Davi brush 775 applied to the upper sky area at only 6% opacity. This layer was copied (CTRL+J) and flipped vertical so it shows up in the reflection area and the layer was set to 9%. Next a New Layer was created using beautiful gradient from Graphix1 Tainted Love gradient set called Contrast 30. The gradient was lined up to separate the sky from the ground and set to 49% opacity. Last, the little lights in the reflection were created in Topaz’s new Star Effects plug-in (see my Tidbits Blog sidebar for website link) but a similar effect could be created by using Frostbo’s Snow Drop brush (love this brush!).

I am constantly amazed at all the beautiful brushes available for free download and what great images you can put together with very little effort or artistic skill. Download these brushes and textures that I have indicated and see what you can put together. The sources listed are some of the best resources you will find and their websites are packed with lots of other goodies…..Digital Lady Syd

Where To Get Those Free Valentine Templates

It’s that time of year and everyone is trying to get creative quickly and present just the right valentine. Here are the latest and greatest I have found in my search.

The first valentine is from Graphics Fuel. I added a layer and painted using brushes . Personally I think is a very classy looking valentine and is very easy to use. The font is called Precious and has a very valentine appeal to it. I created a layer above the background and used Brushesstock Flowers Swirls Hearts Brush 1 and 8 set to a layer opacity of 54%. On the top Obsidian Dawn’s Glitter set Hearts-Glitter brush was used to scatter the little hearts around.
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Each year Florabella Collections always has a nice set of free Vintage Valentine templates to give away and this year is no exception. Here is an example of several she has to offer. The font in this card is one she used called Batik Regular. Florabella is known for her wonderful photo actions but now has textures available for sale also.
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This valentine is being promoted from their Facebook page, MCP Actions, for a site called Photographer Cafe. The image is just a stock photo and a layer was added on top where a valentine brush from DigitalTouch was used. There were several choices and are free for download here.
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This example is from Designrs Hub and uses Photoshop Layer Comps for the cover page and the second page. I had to search around to find suitable fonts and ended up using Loci Cola and adjusting the butterflies to look right. I am not sure this is a correct color representation as it is pretty pinkish but you can see what a pretty background this is.

I hope this has helped out a few of you who are the creative type and want to jazz up a nicely created template. It is never too late to download a few brushes and add a couple layers to give them your own look. Hope you have fun creating some Valentines!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Free Valentine Templates and a Valentine with Heart
Creating Your Own Art (and Cards) While You Are At It!
My Valentine Images
A Few More Valentine to Make
Create a Valentine
How to Add Images to Text

Trying Out Topaz Star Effects

The above was actually the first image I tried using the new Star Effect plug-in from Topaz – I thought is makes the tree look like it is flowering. The plug-in is a little different than any other ones they offer since it is sold separately from the bundle and it does a very specific effect. (See my Tidbits Blog‘s sidebar for website link.) I beta tested this plug-in before its release so here so are a few tips I learned from using the filter and Topaz’s great Webinars. Topaz suggests this plug-in looks really nice applied to water, candles, city lights at night, dewdrops on flowers, jewelry, Christmas lights, and sunsets to mention a few ideas. This image was first taken into Topaz Simplify and a Paint Colorful preset applied with some adjustments. Next it was taken into Dynamic Auto-Painter program and an Aquarell effect was run. Finally Star Effects was applied back in Photoshop where a Traditional Star was applied using one of their presets.

Star Effects Things To Know:

• Most important thing to understand is that you cannot add stars using the Add brush where you want on an image – if there is not enough light to support the spot where you want the light to appear, it will not let you paint one in that place. However you can remove stars using the Remove brush where the program placed them in areas you do not want them to appear. This is important to know or else nothing makes sense in this plug-in.
• The program places up to 300 stars in the brightest parts of an image.  Anything above that amount over this will not be enhanced. This is important if you have a sky image with a lot of points of light but only a few are being picked up by the program. The work-around is to segment you image in Photoshop and select different parts to apply the effect to individually. They say the effect is layer dependent so this works.
• In Main Adjustments settings, must have a setting below 1 in the Threshold slider, above 0 on the Luminance slider, and in Additional Effects section a 0 Glow or you will see no changes. (Threshold near 1 is just one point of light, a setting of 0 is the maximum points of light your can have in that image.) Spread is how thick your star gets – works with Luminance.)
• For a smooth glow to use on water, set Threshold to 0 and Luminance to 0 and paint in a star; then set Glow fairly strong in the Additional Effects section. Be sure to set your Saturation (Saturation set to 0 is white light but as you move it right, it picks up the color from that part of the image so it could be magenta instead of yellow) and Temperature (move to left is cooler colors and right warmer colors) in the Color Adjustments to get a stronger effect. Also try adjusting the Size and Spread to get the final effect.
• Be sure to create presets (identify them as yours with your initials or some other way) so that you can repeat the effect again once you find one you like. Rarely is a preset set up exactly as you need for your image. Topaz says you will probably have to set Threshold and Size with every preset.
• To find out where some of the stars effects are hiding in your image, go to the Star Settings and select Stars Only. I find it very handy to delete the obvious misplaced effects from here with the Remove brush. Sometimes you have to click the Remove brush several times as the stars get stacked easily if the spot is a really hot spot in your image. You can also save image with the just the stars showing on a black background as shown in the Stars Only mode.
• You can remove all the spots in a bright area and then use the Add brush to place the star exactly where you want it – this is particularly handy with a sunset or sunrise image where you want to enhance the sun effect or on candle flames. Even if the Threshold is set to 1, any stars you have set will appear. Also, if the area you are adding stars is not real bright, it will only set a small star, but if area is really bright, then you will get a larger brighter star.
• You do not have to start out with a preset, just select a type of star you like and use the Add brush to place them – note it must be a bright spot for it to stick. It was noted that the Hollywood Star type is good for sun bursts look in sunsets or between trees.

I did not really want to do a Christmas image but I had trouble finding anything with little lights to use, so here it is. I wanted to try two different types of stars applications, so in this image, first a Jewel Sparkle I preset using a Burst Star Type was applied and then adjustments were made. I removed all star effects from the top star area. Next the Sun Flare III preset was applied to just some of the lights to make them stand out more. The Star Type was Traditional and it had more Saturation and Spread than the first stars applied. Once again the star effect was removed from the top star. The last step in the plug-in involved just adding the star effect to the top star. This time I used a Dew Drops I preset as a starting point and added just enough stars to get the top one filled. Then went in the Stars Settings -> Stars Only and removed any points of light that are not in the the top star only. Finally the other sliders were adjusted to get a nice star light feel. Three textures were then added to this image afterwards to get this effect: ShadowHouse Creations Oil Painting-4, Florabella’s Snow 3 (the link is to her Facebook page with the free download on the left side), and OnOne PhotoFrame toner scratch 20 (see my Tidbits Blog‘s sidebar for website link.) . The Sharpen Tool was used to oversharpened to exaggerate the detail and color in the star.
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This reminds me of Disney World during the fireworks! Actually it is just a little fountain in our neighborhood. I just wanted to show how fun this effect can be and how pretty the water glow effect is. (See in list above how to do this.) There is not much to say except how did I get the points of light in the sky? Easy, I set up a star scatter brush using the soft brush set to 30 pixels and spacing 1000%. In the Scatter dialog, set the Jitter to 1000% both axis and the Jitter Count to 100. I saved the settings to use the brush again. Just clicked on the sky a couple times and then took it into Star Effects. From there you can use the Remove brush to take them away from areas you don’t want it in. Pretty easy.
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An oldie but goodie image from the London Eye is like one Topaz uses to show the City Lights preset effect. It does not look like much but when compared to the original, it is a lot more luminous. Even the sky looks better with a little luminosity in it. Topaz says that the City Light presets can be adjusted to remove the actual stars by setting the Threshold and Luminance to 0, set Glow to a level you like to get a nice glow in the city. For my image the Glow was set to 0.19, Saturation to 0.56, Temperature 0.40, Size of 0.37 and Spread of 0.21. I felt like this gave a very natural look. This image could also have had two different sets of lights applied, one for the city lights and one for the sky.

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Topaz has a good User Manual when you download the trial and are offering several more Webinars which is a great way to learn the program. I am not sure this plug-in will be of great use to all Photoshop users, but definitely it makes a great addition if you enjoy the creative aspect of Photoshop. There are so many different looks, and as you can see some are quite realistic looking while others are just for fun. I had a bit of difficulty finding images I have taken that look good with this filter. Several just did not work out. I believe for me to make this plug-in really useful, I need to play more with the controls and see what results I can get. By adding textures after using the effect and creating skies before going into the plug-in will expand the use for me personally. The more I am using it, the more applications I am finding for it.

I have to give Topaz credit for trying a totally different concept from what they usually do. If it does not work on all your images, you won’t feel bad since the price is very reasonable and all upgrades will be free once purchased. That said, it is going to take me some more time before I will really know if it is a plug-in I will use a lot. I will write after I learn more about the effects. Until then, give it a try – it might just be the inspiration you need to get that really great look!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd’s Related Blogs:
Combining Plug-ins for More Image Interest

Using Cloud Images to Fix Up a Sky

This image of the Old State Capitol Building (circa 1837 to 1903) in Jackson, Mississippi, was taken at sunset. It turned out not to be that great an image to work on but the Topaz Black and White Effect Photoshop plug-in (see link in sidebar at Tidbits Blog) using a Van Dyke Collection preset to create my own vintage feel preset created a much better image. Below is how the image looked before processing. The cloud image was taken from my backyard in the morning in May and had to be flipped to get the effect of the sun’s light on the right edges of the clouds to match the sunset light on the Capitol Building. A layer mask was added to the sky image to fit it into the sky correctly and set to 86% opacity. A Curves Adjustment Layer may need to be added to get the correct tone in the sky. Be sure to change out the sky before running any plug-ins or filters on the image.

All these images just used a new sky image posted above the original. A layer mask was then added and the sky was painted out where you do not need it. I find it easier to begin by making the layer mask black by holding the ALT button while clicking on the layer mask icon in the Layer Panel (or press CTRL+I while clicking on a white mask) – then paint in white to bring in the sky. Usually I set the opacity of the sky layer down a little to make it blend in naturally with the original image.

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This beautiful daisy was processed in the new Lightroom 4 Beta that came out last week. I really love the way it looks. (For more on this, see my Tidbits Blog “Trying Out Lightroom 4 Beta” – this image uses the same flower with a slightly different texture for the background). I wanted to show that you do not have to use an actual image for the sky effect, although if you are doing a very realistic image you would. In this case the flower has a very light painterly look and by combining it with this beautiful texture by Shadowhouse Creations called Marshmellow Skies, the total effect is enhanced. OnOne PhotoFrame emulsion 21 was added to finish.  (See sidebar in my Tidbits Blog for a website link.)
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This bright image of a caboose in Madison, Mississippi, originally had a totally washed out whitish sky – it actually washed out all the beautiful red and green color in the image. An bright blue sky with puffy clouds image taken in Mount Dora, Florida, replaced the original sky and it gave a totally different feel to the image. OnOne’s PhotoFrame grunge 11 was added and that was it. (This image was also used in my blog called “Different Images-Same Look Using Psuedo HDR” if you want more information how this image was processed.)
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The Smithsonian Building was a Photoshop CS5 HDR image from 3 exposures. This created some really ugly almost engraved looking indistinct clouds. Therefore I took a clouds jpeg image that had that great blue color and some interesting clouds to use as a background. It definitely enhanced the image. (See my Tidbits Blog “Where Am I?” for more information on this photo and how it was processed.)

This technique can really save an image that was taken at the brightest time of day with no clouds present or with the sky blown out because of the sun placement or HDR processing. It is really handy to have a folder set up with some of your favorite sky scenes. I take a lot of sky images, especially when I see clouds that look unusual or interesting. It does not matter whether the files are in RAW or jpeg format which is nice since my little Canon only does jpegs. Give this a try and see if you do not get some fabulous results by just replacing a washed out sky…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Fun With Clouds – Brush Them In to Add Some Interest

Getting that High-Fashion Desaturated Look

The technique involved in the three images of Aliona followed a blog entry called “Pure White Portrait Retouch” which was quite easy to follow and created a beautiful result – of course it helps to have a beautiful model too! This is a look that you will see in almost any fashion magazine. Basically the workflow involves creating several adjustment layers – a Photo Filter, Hue/Saturation and one or two Curves, depending on your image. I do not do people photography very often, but it is nice to try every now and then. This is a very simple but effective technique to use on portrait images.

I created SJ-Light Desat Portrait action that can be downloaded – it will take you through the workflow pretty quick. You will have to make your own brushes but they are nothing special – just low opacity and a 10% hardness in most cases. The action tells you what brush you need to use where for each step. Hit Stop and do the the step and then click the Play button on the Action Panel to continue the action.

This is a sculpture by an unknown artist at the Lightner Museum in the old historic Alcazar Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida. I applied this action to the image but set the Saturation to -59 in the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Otherwise the default settings were used to get this look. I was surprised how nice it turned out.

The St. Augustine Greeting Center has just a bare hint of color except in the palm tree fronds. The action was run on this image and then in the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, the Master Saturation was set to -47, Greens Saturation set to +50, Blues Saturation set to -100 and Cyan Saturation -100. That was it – a very clean desaturated look with a selected color only showing.

Definitely try this look. I was surprised by the versatility of the action – not just for portraits! I will keep this one in my arsenal of Photoshop tricks! Enjoy the Action!…..Digital Lady Syd

Using NIK’s Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza Together

If you don’t watch the wonderful webinars and training videos that all the major plug-in makers are offering, you are really missing out on some great tips for using their software. Recently Nik released a really great video titled “Mastering Macro Images with Nik Software and Photoshop Elements, presented by Mike Moats” and is located at Nik Software On Demand Center. Mike Moats (he has a really interesting blog) shows how he changes up the workflow from what one might normally do with the Nik products. He first applies Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 (CEP4) and then Nik’s Viveza. He is never quite sure what the CEP4 filters will do to an image. Since the Viveza plug-in adjusts the color and light of an image, it does make sense to apply it after adding CEP4 filter changes. Note: All my CEP4 settings for images are listed at the end of the blog.

I bought the Viveza plug-in when it first came out and everyone was singing its praises. I must confess that after getting Lightroom, I hardly used this plug-in. Now I think I was crazy not too! This video refreshed my memory on why this is the great little plug-in that everyone was raving about. The reason this image pops is that Viveza is able to pin-point small or large areas on the image and adjust it individually – adding in a bit of detail, or toning down a certain color. He teaches you how to set the Control Points that Nik is famous for to get exactly the results you want. In this case, both the saturation and structure control point sliders were individually adjusted on the butterfly and flowers without affecting the background. This is very similar to Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw’s adjustment brushes, but with much better control and more variables available. It absolutely made a huge difference to all of the images in this blog. See the comparison below showing the layer with Vizeva filter turned off and then on. Seven control points were set to get this effect and no Global Adjustments were made. Both plug-ins can be applied to the same Smart Object layer and all image control points are saved for each plug-in on this layer so you can go back and adjust a slider if you do not like the results. The final processing involved cloning out some of the brown spots on the leaves and sharpening the body and wing lines of the butterfly.
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The pink daisies are in a container on my front porch. CEP4 and Viveza (using 11 control points) were both used along with OnOne PhotoFrame weathered wood frame (see sidebar on my Tidbits Blog for website).
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This last image is a different shot of my carnation and daisies Christmas flowers. The original image required me to duplicate the original layer and apply a Gaussian Blur at 9.1 pixels to block out the distracting background. A layer mask was added and the flower painted back into the mask with a black brush. Then the CEP4 and Viveza (with 17 control points) plug-ins were applied. OnOne PhotoFrame grunge 05 was added along with the Sharpen Tool and a Curves Adjustment Layer.

As you can see, by using the control points to your advantage, very interesting images can be attained. The Viveza plug-in definitely helps sharpen up a slightly soft image. And by setting control points with Structure at -100, the background can be smoothed almost like a gaussian blur effect. If you own either or both of these plug-ins, definitely take a look at this video. Even though he is using flowers and close up photography, he illustrates how to use the control points very well. I learned a lot and am very happy Nik released such a good example of how to use their products…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Nik Color Efex Pro 4 – Digital Lady Syd’s Review
Pseudo HDR Using Nik Color Efex Pro 4

CEP4 Settings for each of the images:

The Monarch Butterfly image above was first adjusted in CEP4 with these filters stacked: Detail Extractor (Detail Extractor 26%, Contrast 37%, Saturation 53% and Effect Radius Large); Darken/Lighten Center using #1, Center Luminosity 28%, Border Luminosity -100, Center Size 53% and centered on butterfly head); and Bi-Color User Defined (Opacity 7%, Blend 17%, Vertical Shift 41%, Rotation 46 degrees, Upper Color R66 G68 B98 and Lower Color R184 G103 B4). I would never have thought about using a Bi-Color User Defined filter without viewing this video, but it really enhanced the oranges in the wings and brought out the pink in the flower.

The Daisies used Detail Extractor (Detail Extractor 86%, Contrast 78%, Saturation 39% and Effect Radius Large); Bleach Bypass (Brightness -2, Saturation -20%, Contrast 50% and Local Contrast 50%); and Cross Processing (Method L02 and Strength 45%). This example uses similar setting to his first example.

The Christmas Flowers CEP4 settings were: Bleach Bypass (Brightness -6, Saturation -2%, Control 27%, and Local Contrast 65%), Darken/Lighten Center (#1, Center Luminosity -10%, Border Luminosity -27%, Center Size 44% and Place Center just below red carnation), and Detail Extractor (Detail Extractor 36%, Contrast 6%, Saturation 21%, and Effect Radius Large with control points in background to remove effect).

My Top Ten Photos from 2011

Continuing with my one year tradition of presenting year end photos for 2011, below is what “my inner critic” thinks are the best. Keep in mind that sometimes the images were not photographically the greatest, but were ones I really enjoyed putting together and got a lot of personal satisfaction from just creating the results. To learn more, just click on the image and the blog featuring it will appear in a new window.

10. This is the beautiful current Jackson State Capitol Building in Mississippi.

9. I created a template from Samuel Morse’s “Gallery of the Louvre” painting where I put my photos in for the ones he painted. I actually got to see this painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, this past year – what a treat! Just fooling around but had lots of fun putting it together.

8. My favorite flower to photograph is the hibiscus and here is one of the beauties in my backyard.

7. I did a blog on the Flood Filter and this image came out looking so natural I was totally amazed. The beautiful roseate spoonbill bird was photographed at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Rookery in Florida – a great place to photograph birds in the springtime.

6. I experimented with the minimalist art effect which I had never tried before and not sure if my image turned out to be this type of art. I loved the final results anyway since sailing is another passion of mine.

5. I felt this image needed a vintage feel to it since I took it in the Florida Heritage Museum at the Old Jailhouse in St. Augustine, Florida.

4. Loved how this gorgeous old Victorian house turned out from St. Augustine, Florida – was lucky to catch the rays just right in this image.

3. The “Painting and Sculpture” exhibit just captured my attention when visiting the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, this year. Very interesting story goes with the sculpture too.

2. I learned how to use the new Mixer Brushes in Photoshop and painted this image from a rose for a “Rally for the Cure” event.

1.  This year I decided to post a Happy New Year image as my Number One favorite image. Maybe not my favorite, but creating this snow globe text effect and droste effect clockface was a lot of fun.

I hope you enjoyed my images. I have tried to be true to my goal of having fun in Photoshop and hope to continue doing this during the coming year. Happy New Year to everyone! Now go have fun playing in Photoshop!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
My Top Ten Photos from 2010

Happy Holidays from Digital Lady Syd!

Since the season is upon us, I have decided to present a few of my favorite holiday creations. For resource and technique details, see information listed at end.

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Image Details:
1. Used the tutorial “Christmas Night Magic scene with flying Santa“  for initial direction – very easy to follow and lots of fun to create; Snow images Frozen Landscape and a different Frozen Landscape from Stock.xchng; my own sky Belarusian sky image; Santa sleigh in Christmas Brushes by Fina; Snow Drops brush by Frostbo (my favorite brush for realistic falling snow); BB’s Fogs & Mists brush #3; and the Fonts are  Old Script and an old Cosmi Font I bought years ago called 41. The images were transformed and blended using a layer mask to get the look above. OnOne PhotoFrame Acid Brn Controlled 05 was applied – (see my Tidbits Blog sidebar for website link).
2. Some of my favorite pictures have been made of these beautiful pink and white tulips I bought this year at the grocery store. This image uses three free textures all by Shadowhouse Creations – Aged and Distressed Vintage 1, Oil Painting 3, and Attic Treasures Creative Texture 7. All his textures are beautiful and he has great tutorials on how to combine the many textures. The first texture was added into a layer mask by opening up the texture in it own document, CTRL +A and CTRL+C to select and copy the texture; ALT+Click on the layer mask to make the layer white; and CTRL+V to place the image into the layer mask. The other two textures were added above and a layer was added with the Snow Drops brush by Frostbo.
3. I guess I was really into Santa sleighs this year??? Very simple image that started with the Bright Christmas Texture by Graphix1 where the color was changed into a darkish blue to appear like a night image using a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer; BB’s Fogs & Mists brush #12; my SJ-Cloud brushes; my SJ-Mountain brushes; Snow Drops brush by Frostbo; Santa sleigh in Christmas Brushes by Fina; Moon brush by Hawksmont; Font is Fantaisie Artistique (my favorite); the pattern used on Santa and it’s sleigh was added in the Pattern Overlay using Pattern 23 from Obsidian Dawn’s Grunge and Dirty Patterns; and Bevel and Emboss and Drop Shadow layer styles were added to the text layers. OnOne’s PhotoFrame Dave Cross 01 was added as a border (see my Tidbits Blog sidebar for website link).
4. This image first appeared in my “Free Calendar Template for Use with Elements” blog. The image is the top of the Standard Life building in Jackson, Mississippi. The gradient used is from Gorgeous Gradients – PrimaveraII, and the snow is a very useful snow brush called Snow Drop by Frostbo. The lettering on the building is called Kingsthings Christmas font, the Flying Santa Sleigh is by Fina, the fog was created using Sampled Brush #3 and #12 from Brushes Fogs and Mists, the green Christmas Tree and Icicles are in Obsidian Dawn’s Holiday set, and the icy edges are an OnOne PhotoFrame Taufer Texture 08 frame ((see my Tidbits Blog sidebar for website link). I have to admit this image was a bit of a challenge but I really liked the final effect.
5. A tutorial called “Glossy Snow Globe Text Effect” was the inspiration for this image. I used the layer styles and brushes from the tutorial along with my SJ-Cloud brushes on a light to darker blue gradient for the background. OnOne PhotoFrame grunge 15 was applied. It is not hard to do, but it takes some time to create the brushes and styles.
6. This image was posted in my “Christmas Card from Digital Lady Syd!” blog which contains all the resources and information for this rather complicated card.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and takes time to enjoy the time with friends and family!…..Digital Lady Syd!

Topaz Plug-Ins – Same Image Trying Each!

Since I am such a big fan of Topaz, I thought it might be interesting to use the same image and see what effects I could come up with using each of the five major plug-ins in the Topaz Plug-in Bundle (to go to website, click on the sidebar in my Tidbits Blog). The photo is of an old Sears Victorian house built in St. Augustine about 100 years ago. There are still a few that can be seen when driving around the city. Very beautiful houses! I could picture myself living in one! All these images were finished by painting in a flare in the top right corner using my Lens Flare Brushes since the image was blown out by the sun in that corner, and a Curves Adjustment Layer. I have written about almost all of these plug-ins previously, so check out my related blogs at bottom if you find you want more information on one of them.

Topaz Adjust

This is the mainstay of the whole Topaz Plug-in Bundle, in my opinion, so this is the first plug-in used on the image. I used a preset I had created a long time ago to get this effect. Basically it involved using a warm feel to achieve an early morning look. Many different filters could easily have been used – this plug-in is fun to try on new looks to your images.

Topaz Simplify

This is a creative plug-in – definitely gives a more painterly look as opposed to the more realistic look some of the other plug-ins give. The canned Buzz Sim preset was used to create this look, an effect I have always enjoyed – see my blog “Simplifier and Simplify Filters” about the original filter that was picked up by Topaz many years ago.

Topaz Lens Effect

Topaz recently updated this plug-in and added three more filters and several presets to make this plug-in even more versatile. I am not the best at setting up a great depth map, it does take some practice. In the image above, you can see that the center ground is more in focus than the foreground and background. This is where this plug-in really excels and once you get the hang of it, it is quit effective. I do not know of any other plug-in that does this type of effect. In this image, a Bokah Selective effect was applied and several adjustments made after the depth map was created. This plug-in allows you to stack filters, so next a Filter Dual Tone was created where a Blue/Cyan color was added to the top and a slight yellow cast added to the bottom of the image. Finally a new filter from the latest upgrade was used called Warmth and the Warm I preset was applied. Overall, a bit of a different look with softer lines of the house with the focal point being centered on the palm tree and the color beams in the image.

Topaz Detail

Topaz Detail is an overlooked plug-in but actually gives some wonderful results. This image uses the Desaturation Blush preset with the Saturation slider set to -0.62. It gives a very nice effect on this house and perhaps the most natural of them all. I was surprised how similar it looks to the Topaz Adjust filter result.

Topaz Black and White Effects

This is my favorite plug-in in the bundle and a relative newcomer. Every time I use it, the image comes out really nice – not necessarily like I shot it, but with a bit of artistic flair added, and yet it retains the true nature of the image. It looks like how I envision an old Victorian house should look on a hot summer morning. Totally unique feel. In this image a preset I created for a sunny water landscape was used. (This preset contains the default Basic Exposure settings; Adaptive Exposure Settings: Adaptive Exposure 0.18, Regions 26.10, Protect Highlights and Shadows – 0, Detail 1.11 and Detail Boost 1.09; Quad Tone settings: Color 1 Region (color R1/G1/B12) set to 0.60, Color 2 Region (color R63/G78/B85) set to 95.97, Color 3 Region (color R216/G211/B129) set to 141.2, and Color 4 Region (color R255/G254/B237) set to 255.0; Edge Exposure set; and Transparency set 1.00. The key to this look is the Quad Tone section in Finishing Touches. See my Tidbits Blog “Quad Tones in Topaz Black and White Effects Plug-in” for more information on this.

Topaz Adjust, Detail and Black and White Effects

Topaz has done a wonderful job of providing great videos to learn how to use all their plug-ins provided in the bundle. A video, “Creative Essentials with Topaz Plug-Ins presented by Joel Wolfson,” was presented where he went over his Topaz workflow to create some beautiful works of digital art. I followed some of his suggestions and created this final image. I was very pleased with the results – looks similar to the one above but is more of a black and white effect and, again, not unlike what I visualize an old Victorian house might look like.

I hope this is giving everyone a chance to see the flexibility that this bundle of plug-ins can produce. With just a few of these plug-ins, a great variety of effects can be achieved and they can be used together to get even more interesting results. I am very happy that I have this set of filters at my fingertips – they do produce beautiful results. …..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd’s Related Blogs:
Using Topaz Adjust 5 and Color Efex Pro 4 with Photoshop Elements
Topaz Adjust 5 Is Here! First Look!
Topaz Lens Effect’s Artistic Flair!
Combining Plug-ins – Double the Effect! (Several Topaz Plug-ins)
Little Nighttime Fun from Topaz! (Topaz Adjust and Len Effects Plug-ins)
Loving Both Filters (Topaz B&W Effects Plug-in)
Trying Out the Minimalist Look? (Topaz B&W Effects Plug-in)
Same Image – Different Plug-In (Topaz B&W Effects and Lens Effects Plug-ins)
Sunny Preset for Topaz Black and White Effects
The Art Corner: Painting and Sculpture by Tassaert (Topaz B&W Effects Plug-in)
Quad Tones in Topaz Black and White Effects Plug-in
Get Rid of Those Power Lines Fast – with Paths and Spot Healing Tool! (Topaz B&W Effects Plug-in)
Why I Love Topaz Adjust!
Just Another Topaz Black & White Effect Example
Topaz B&W Effects vs. Nik’s Silver Efex Pro
Topaz B&W Effects Plug-In – A Real Winner!
Topaz Lens Effects Plug-In
Topaz InFocus Plug-in – Digital Lady Syd’s Review
More Filmstrip Fun – How Can This Be? (Topaz Detail Plug-in)
Instant Mirror and Quick Mirror for Photoshop (Topaz Simplify Plug-in)
How to Add Images to Text (Topaz Simplify Plug-in)