The Old Bridge

[Dave Woeller]

Man do I love new toys! I took this file, which was kind of so-so and played in Topaz Simplify for quite a while. It's just so much fun to see how many variations you can come up with by pushing sliders. At any rate I kind of settled on this version to offer for guidance. I think that the addition of the hard, dark edges is what makes this sort of successful. Without the edges it kind of all gets lost in itself. Thanks to all.

[Dan Brown]

Dave, very nice effect! To improve this, I would crop or remove the bottom white elememts. Cropping the bottom would be the easeist method and it seems to strengthen the image. The bridge seems to be tilted but the trees and the post seem balanced so I would leave the bridge as is.

[Dave Woeller]

Thanks Dan. I was also concerned about those white elements, but was undecided as to the best approach to eliminate or subdue them. Oh boy, I get to play some more:D

[denise ippolito]

Hi Dave, I like the effect also! You are right the edges make it! I agree w/ Dan about cropping bottom. You could always burn them to tone them down if you wanted,but I would clone the one in the path.It looks great and I think your exploration is going to lead to more!!!!Well done.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Dave,
This id very nice...Agree on cropping out the white elements at the bottom...I like the leading perspective into the woods...congrats...well done...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Anther vote for the light element eviction !!! Does have a great feel and again the key to most of these images is starting out with a goo compositional base image !!!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Love the treament and the colours Dave. The black lines make it look like pen and ink. Does look like it needs a bit of CW rotation, but I am sure it was level. Topaz looks like a neat program.

[Dave Woeller]

I tried cropping up from the bottom and the shot just didn't seem to have that same feel, so I went to work with a clone stamp. If this doesn't work, then I'll have to go with the crop. Thoughts?

[denise ippolito]

Looks great Dave!

[Julie Kenward]

The second one is much improved...agree with Jackie that a bit of clockwise rotation would help even this out and make it even stronger. I love watching all the fun you're having with Topaz. I've barely had time to play with it.