Another GBH Fract

[Cheryl Slechta]

Here's the same GBH, little different angle (this one's for you, Artie:S3:). I used Topaz 5 Detail Light Preset (to get a little more detail in the finished image - for John S:S3:), then used Fract Rounded blended with soft light. I used a slight Nik Color Efex Skylight to warm it up a bit, then Topaz Clean and finally extended the canvas a bit on the right.
Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Cheryl. Looks good to me! Nice muted color tones...........Cool pose of the GBH. Just a hint of Vertical line (maybe you did the canvass add) in the right corner, on my monitor..........Good detail. Filters done well. not overdone..........

[John Storjohann]

Cheryl, I really like this image...love the fact that there's now more detail and texture in the feathers, and that extra bit of "edge" to the details around the head and bill...I think I like the BG a bit more in the original (I know, I know...*grin*...I want it all, don't I? :t3), but I like the treatment and the pose of the bird here more. I have never been able to get an image of a GBH that I've been happy with...I'm jealous! Keep them coming!

[denise ippolito]

Another beautiful GBH image, I like the processing and the background colors are great. I am loving these Cheryl and you have inspired me to take a look at some of mine.:S3:

[Dennis Bishop]

This is another winner, Cheryl. I agree with John's comment about the benefit of the extra edge on this one -- in the throat area, particularly.

If you hadn't said something about adding canvas, I'd not have noticed any sign that you did it. Because I wanted to compare this one to your previous GBH posting, I pulled this one into Photoshop and had it side-by-side with the first one (on dual monitors). While I was in Photoshop, I decided to try something to see if I could get rid of the line to which Jay referred. Blurring turned out not to be a good approach, so I used the smudge tool (completely soft, 7% Strength, and Finger Painting checked). It did an amazingly good job of obscuring the line. In addition, because I did it diagonally there was no telltale horizontal extension of features. I'm going to have to remember that the next time I want to add canvas when there's a soft background.

By the way, I really like the background on this one. In addition to its being soft and painterly, I have a strong attraction to blue and brown together. Not only does the background add those colors to the ones already on the heron, but it results in the blue head being on a brown background and the brown neck being on a blue background. I love it.

Oh. As for comparing GBH #1 and GBH #2, I decided not to even try. They're both very good for different reasons. And, for my taste, the different head angles each are great for the respective images.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Jay, John, Denise and Dennis - thanks for your comments. I hadn't noticed the line - thanks Jay for pointing it out. I just lassoed that side of the bg and used a gaussian blur and brushed back in the edges. Dennis - I'll have to try your technique - I haven't used the smudge tool much but I'll give it a try. I also added a little more saturation to the eye. John, I know what you mean about the bg and I considered having a less saturated, slightly softer bg on this one but I thought this bg went better with the sharper, more saturated gbh (just my theory:S3:). I did dodge a little bit and paint in some blues to lighten it a bit. Hope this improves the OP.

[Jay Sheinfield]

looks perfect..........

[Andrew McLachlan]

Love it Cheryl! Lovely work! :S3:

[Roman Kurywczak]

Nice one Cheryl!!! I like this one better and the HAP will be happy too!