Lake Kissimmee State Park

During the Florida part of the trip, we spent time at a few state parks. This was the first. I would've loved to have done this shot, again, at sunset, but the park closed to all but campers too early for that. In case you're wondering, I shot this from a bridge and didn't have to wade into the water.

Nikon D3S, ISO 200, f/22, nine-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, zoom at 70mm

processing highlights

• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II, partially masked from tops of trees
• three Photo Filter adjustment layers -- Underwater to water (Multiply, reduced opacity), Warming 85 twice, once to entire image, and again to all but water and sky
• Nik Color Efex -- two layers, Contrast Color Range and Sunlight
• Hue/Saturation adjustment layer -- changed hue of blue to lavender
• Flypaper Textures -- two textures; one to water and part of sky, Color Burn blend mode; other to entire image, Vivid Light blend mode
• Fractalius -- three masked b&w layers; two in Multiply blend mode and one in Divide (sky)
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize Line Art, two masked b&w layers, Multiply and Divide blend modes
• uniform gradient vignette

Dennis - beautifully done. I really like all the leading lines of this and the painted effect.

TFS,
Rachel

Dennis, this is a lovely "painting". What do you think about cropping from the top to eliminate the darkest clouds on the edge?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cheryl Slechta

. . . What do you think about cropping from the top to eliminate the darkest clouds on the edge?

---

It's probably been a week or so since I processed this, and I can't remember why I cropped (or didn't crop) the way I did. Because my first reaction would've been to put a horizontal divine proportion line on the horizon, I'm guessing my first thought would've been to crop a bit from the top. It could be that I didn't like the way it would've cut through the clouds. In any event, the vignette has darkened everything along the edges, so I'm going to play with masking it to lighten the dark clouds.

I'll also take a look at a different vignetting method I've been trying out over the last couple days. Instead of a solid-color (usually black) gradient, I've used the darkest of my black & white Fractalius presets. Often, it's too dark to apply across the entire image -- even at a reduced opacity -- but it's been working as a vignette.

Thanks for the question.

Lovely serene feeling to this one, Dennis.

This is well seen and well done! I'm always impressed with the steps that you carefully incorporate and how they lead to your final creation and vision. It is also impressive that you document your work so well! Hope to learn from your recent Mini-mag artricle.

Lovely muted colors. Pleasing composition and shapes--those triangles are strong. The whole scene looks beautiful, with no particular element dominating, rather, creating a peaceful whole. I just now read your description, and like the subtle use of HDR. You achieved a beautiful painterly look.
As always, I appreciate your detailed description of processing steps. I notice that in Fractilus and Alien Art you used B&W. What is the effect of this? Also, how do you do a uniform gradient vignette?
Many thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anita Bower

. . . I notice that in Fractilus and Alien Art you used B&W. What is the effect of this? Also, how do you do a uniform gradient vignette?
Many thanks.

---

The Fractalius and Alien Skin Snap Art b&w layers are used for two different things. The first time I used Topaz Simplify, I was attracted to the way it blends colors and makes the image look more like a painting. I've been using it in probably all my images ever since. With the colors blended, a lot of detail is inevitably lost. My first solution to that was to use the edge outlining option in Simplify. It worked but -- for several reasons -- not as well as I wanted. Enter, Fractalius. I've put together a group of three b&w presets based on the Sketch preset packaged with an earlier version of the program. The three vary in the amount of black that results. The least intense does little more than outline some of the edges; the most intense darkens the image substantially. In it and the intermediate one, more edges in the original image are shown, and there's a gradient in darkening perpendicular to the lines.

In Multiply blend mode, white becomes transparent, and only the black (or any other color) is revealed and interacts with the layer below. With judicious use of one or more of the Fractalius presets and the layer opacity, I can restore detail and contrast to the Simplified image.

Snap Art Stylize Line Art can be used to produce lines of any color on a white layer. Most often, I choose black. These lines are much looser than the Simplify edge lines, the lines in the Fractalius presets I use, or in filters like Photoshop's Poster Edges. I use them as accents. (Several postings from now, I'll have an image from Dudley Farm. In that one, I chose dark brown instead of black for the lines, and the Color Burn blend mode turned them somewhat reddish. It should be reasonably easy -- because they're not black -- to separate them from the Fractalius effects.)

In cloudy skies and in water, I'll often use the Divide blend mode for either the Fractalius or Snap Art Line Art b&w layers. Again, the white in the layer becomes transparent, but the black becomes white.

Uniform gradient vignette . . . For this, I use the Gradient Tool in Photoshop with the foreground set to the color I want for the vignette. With the rulers turned on and the Shift key held down, I pull the cursor toward the center of the image the same distance from each edge of the frame. The result is a linearly decreasing intensity from the edge toward the center. Then, I change the blend mode to Multiply (most of the time) and reduce the opacity substantially.

I did take a look, after considering Cheryl's question, at options related to the dark cloud at the top of the image in the current thread. My remedy is related to the questions you asked, and the change was a lot more apparent when I look at the image in Photoshop than it was when I viewed it after the conversion to sRGB and both quality and size reduction. It didn't make sense to re-post when it didn't show much, but here's what I did. The vignette further darkened some gray clouds, so I got rid of it and substituted a layer of the most intense of the b&w Fractalius presets in Multiply blend mode. To confine the effect to the edges, I added a black mask to that Fractalius layer so the layer had no effect (except to make the file larger, of course). Then, I used the Gradient tool with a white foreground in the same way described above except that it was the mask thumbnail and not the image thumbnail that was active. The result was the Fractalius effect tapering off away from the edges. Even after reducing the layer opacity, the effect was still a bit much on the dark clouds, so I removed it from there by re-blackening the top of the mask. The dark clouds were acting like a vignette, anyway . . .

Dennis: Thank you ever so much for your detailed response, which is exactly what I expected from you. I don't yet own fractilus or snap art, so I've copied your answer and filed it for future reference. The gradient vignette is lovely--soft and gradual. I'll have to try it. :-)

Dennis, thank you for posting such a thorough response to Anita's question. I've saved it for future reference:S3: I don't have Alien Skin but think it looks like a worthwhile tool for the arsenal!

Dennis, another masterful job with the filters! I really like the final product, and appreciate your sharing of your techniques. I especially appreciate the composition in this one, with the leading lines of the waterway and the dividing line of the horizon, which work together to lead the eye into the scene and then up and out of it. Very nice!