An painterly effect from the unlikely pairing of two third party plug-ins

“I look for subjects that move me emotionally...When I got the slides back however, the magic was missing”

hen in the field taking pictures I look for subjects that move me emotionally, that make me feel a certain way just by being there. I then try to

compose the picture in a way that whenever I view the picture at a later time those same feelings are aroused. The feelings this little waterfall gave me were fun and intrigue, like it was out of a mystical forest in a children’s fairy tale. When I got the slides back however, the magic was missing. It was just another shot.

If I were printing with a traditional wet process darkroom I would have filed the slide and never used it, but with the creative possibilities of the digital darkroom the image you see above resulted. The following are the steps and techniques used in Photoshop to produce the image.

First, the background information: original slide 35mm Fuji Velvia, exposure f 16 at ½ second, camera Nikon N90s with a Nikkor 180mm EDIF lens, and as always I used a tripod and a cable release. A polarizing filter was also used to add saturation to the colors and reduce the incoming light, pushing the shutter speed slower. The slower shutter speed added a little movement to the water.

The slide was scanned on a Polaroid Sprintscan film scanner. Adjustments were made in the scanning software to preserve as much shadow and highlight detail as possible. The image out of the scanner was never what one would say is finished. The Polaroid scanning software wasn’t very good. We had to rely on Photoshop to finish the image. These days we are using a Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf with Silverfast software. The images out of the ArixScan are very good requiring very little extra Photoshop work.

W

Original Image Scan

Upon opening the image in Photoshop the plug in Grain Surgery was applied to reduce the film grain. Next a levels adjustment layer was created. The gamma (the middle slider) was moved to the right till the density looked right.

Next a hue saturation adjustment layer was created. I increased the green saturation by selecting the green areas in the photo with the eyedropper and moving the saturation slider to the right.

Still not having quite the color pop that I wanted I used the nik Color efex Brilliance/Warmth filter to saturate more and shift the color towards the warm side. The nik filter is like an 81 series warming filter on steroids.

Now comes the first bit of digital magic. The layer is duplicated and the nik Color Efex Midnight filter is applied to the duplicate layer in the darken blending mode. The Midnight filter adds an ethereal softness. If you are wondering why the darken blending mode, it is one of those on the spot creative choices. Whenever we apply an effect on a duplicate layer we always view the results using the darken, lighten, overlay, and of course normal blending modes. For this image the darken worked best.

I liked the look but there was still tweaking to be done. The bright rocks in the lower left of the picture bothered me, so I took some liberties and used the clone stamp tool to clone some green grassy stuff on top of the rocks.

Next was the second bit of digital magic. The Segmentis buzz plug-in was applied smoothing the image making it look more like a painting than a photograph. A final levels and hue saturation were applied to lighted the image and saturate the colors.

The resulting image may not represent reality, but it does arouse my original feelings of fun and intrigue.

After segmentis buzz plug-in

Back to Top

“the first bit of digital magic... the nik Color Efex Midnight filter was applied”

Changing the weather

“ the nik Color Efex Sunshine filter was used to convert the scene from a dull overcast day to a bright sunny one”
Converting a Color Image to Black and White

“The magic in this technique is the use of two separate black and white conversions, one for the sky, and one for the trees.”
Creative Controls F-stops & Depth of Field

Another factor that affects depth of field is distance from the camera to the subject. Depth of field decreases as the camera moves closer to the subject.
Digital Film Tools 55mm; Photoshop plug-in review

“The bragging rights for Digital Film Tools is that the means of producing the masks is more intuitive, flexible, and powerful than Photoshop CS.”
Grain Surgery for Photoshop - Review

“the noise is removed, yet the details remain”
How to Improve the Image Quality of your Camera

By using a tripod, slower shutter speeds can be utilized allowing the aperture of the lens to be stopped down increasing depth of field
Lens choices for landscape photography

“The wide-angle perspective ... gives the viewer the impression they could walk into the photo”
Becoming a student of Light and Color- Part 1 - Quaility of Light

“I changed, from a photographer that photographs what he finds, to one that starts with a vision and then goes out to produce an image that matches the vision.”
Becoming a student of Light and Color- Part 2- Light , Color, and Composition

“a color only takes on importance when considered relative to the other colors surrounding it."
Long Lens Landscapes

“I am always willing to try for that image with the “wow factor”, and long lenses are definitely an unordinary if not extraordinary way to capture grand landscapes.”

Canadian North Atlantic Coast

“Stories were told of quaint fishing villages virtually untouched since the turn of the 19th century, surrounded by landscapes from seemingly lost worlds.”

Nik Color efect Pro - Photoshop Plug-in Review

“Unlike so many other plug-ins for Photoshop, the nik Multimedia Color Efex Pro filters are truly useful.”
Nikon Capture nx-first look

"What is needed is a raw converter with an extensive enough set of imaging tools that a second program like Photoshop is not required."
Photoshop tips and techniques -An introduction to 5 great plug-ins

“It’s all about color...What caught her eye was the contrast between the yellow tree, the glowing red rocks, and the cool blue base.”
Photoshop tips and techniques -A watercolor effect from the unlikely pairing of two third party plug-ins

“I look for subjects that move me emotionally...When I got the slides back however, the magic was missing”

Painting with Light -A Photoshop tutorial

“most images need at least one of their elements to be pure black, meaning black with no detail, and need at least one of their elements to be pure white meaning white with no detail”
Basic Photoshop for photographers - Part 1

"Today we are making images that we could not even have dreamed of making before"
Basic Photoshop for photographers -Part 2

"Always use a separate layer this allows mistakes to be erased at any time"
Segmentis Fo2PiX buZZ review

"The user has control over how much detail is removed. One can choose to remove detail in the highlights, shadows, or both"
The Filters we use and why

"The question I often hear is “do you still use lens filters”. The answer is yes, because there still is no substitute for capturing the image properly."
The Gas Station- The story behind a picture

“I wanted the picture to interact with the viewer, to encourage the viewer to explore”
Waiting for the right light

"Planning for the light means selecting the time of year and the time of day"
Tutorials and Reviews Index

After Levels and Saturation

After nik color efex Midnight filter

Mike and Tammy Rice

For Large image click here