Pequonnock River, early autumn

A long time ago, I fell in love with the Connecticut towns and countryside. Unfortunately, I didn't live there very long, but I spent the months of June and October, there, this year. The series of photos that comprise this image were taken early in October along the Pequonnock Valley Greenway in Trumbull. The water level was low, and there wasn't much color at that point, but it was still enjoyable. And it gave me another opportunity to dabble with long exposures, something I'd started playing with while there in June.

Nikon D3S, f/22, zoom lens at 34mm; the water was 2 minutes at ISO 100 (stacked ND filters); everything else was ISO 200, 7-exposure HDR at 1 EV increments

processing

• flipped horizontally
• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II, reduced opacity
• two Photo Filter adjustment layers -- Underwater on the water, Warming on the rest
• Nik Color Efex -- Contrast Color Range and Foliage
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Watercolor, partially masked from water, Color blend mode
• four B&W layers (2 Fractalius, Alien Skin Snap Art Stylize Line Art, Topaz Simplify edges) -- all at least partially masked from water, Multiple blend mode
• gradient vignette -- masked from water, partially masked from top center

Nice softness and leading lines going from the water to the lightest part in the forest. Very pretty scene.

Another truly beautiful image, Dennis! Wonderful composition with the water and the creek naturally taking your eye back into the yellows in the distance, to a place that begs to be explored. Totally fabulous processing! When you processed all 8 images, did you use a PS function or something else? Is it difficult to get this seamless look? I would love to be a fly on your wall and watch your processing.

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Originally Posted by Nancy Bell

. . . When you processed all 8 images, did you use a PS function or something else? Is it difficult to get this seamless look? . . .

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I'm still feeling my way on this long exposure thing. It started just a little bit downstream from this point sometime in June. So far, I've only taken the long exposures to get an exaggerated silkiness of water. One of these days, I'm going to try it on clouds.

The two-minute exposure wasn't part of the HDR sequence. The exposure for it was based on the middle exposure of the HDR series adjusted for the lower ISO and the neutral density filters. The HDR processing was done in Nik HDR Efex. Most of my photography is done as HDR, and I saved a preset, which I usually don't adjust, to simply give a good histogram -- no grunginess.

The image started out with the tone-mapped HDR tiff file, which was, then, processed with Topaz Simplify. The result was fairly flat. Next, I added the long-exposure layer, which had probably been tweaked in Camera Raw, processed it with Simplify, and used the Lighter Color blend mode at 85% opacity. Because the long-exposure was taken at an average reading, some of it was lighter than the tone-mapped HDR layer. It lightened up the yellowish part and some of the green at the top nicely, but a fair amount of the water wasn't affected. To fix that, I copied the Simplified long-exposure layer and masked it to reveal only the water. That layer was Normal blend mode and 85% opacity. For masks, I usually do a rough selection with the Quick Selection Tool followed by Topaz Remask. In this case, I might've omitted the Remask treatment, but I'm not sure. In any case, the mask wasn't feathered.

In the two long-exposure images I'd done earlier, I combined the river with the rest of the scene before applying Topaz Simplify. I'm not sure why I did it differently this time.

I could spend a really long time in a fairyland like this!! Love it!! And kudos for experimenting with combining HDR with long exposures. That never occurred to me -- might have to play with it!

For masks, try just adding a mask and painting it with the "black" brush to erase areas, and reversing goofs with the white brush -- ultimate control!

Well done Dennis. I particularly like the progression of fg subdued light to the distant brightness.. The processing of the foliage, ground cover and rock is superb. To my eye, the water is a bit over done.

Lovely image Dennis! I especially like the flow of light to water, or water to light depending upon how the viewer perceives the flow. I like to think of it as light falling from the sky and turning into water, but that's just me! Great job of using a variety of techniques to recreate your vision.

Beautifully processed, Dennis. I could stare at the water for hours - it's magical:S3: And thanks for being so generous, as always, with your detailed workflow.