I don't know why, but transitions appeal to me. For instance, I prefer the look of leaves when they're starting to change color in the Fall instead of when they've reached their peak. I've had thoughts about doing a transitions photographic project. Every year when the oak leaves start to drop, there are some that don't make it to the ground. They start their journey in late Fall or early Winter but are still lingering there when the others have descended all the way and are under a blanket of snow. These were photographed in mid-February of 2012. (The original image, probably done soon after that, represented an earlier season in my image-processing development, and it was time for it to be replaced.)
Nikon D2X, eight exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, f/20, ISO 640, zoom at 240 mm
processing
- cropped for composition
- Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II
- Alien Skin Snap Art -- Instead of the preset I'd put together a month or so ago, I decided to move the sliders and come up with a radically different one, also based on their Watercolor preset but which would give the looser diffused effect I like so much in watercolors when it became part of the image. On its layer, it was large blobs of color, but I liked what happened when it was applied in Overlay blend mode at reduced opacity.
- Alien Skin Bokeh -- a heavy dose of the plug-in effect but at reduced opacity, freehand masked off the leaves with substantial feathering
- Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming 81, masked with reduced opacity beyond the leaves
- six black & white layers -- all at reduced opacities, two Fractalius at Multiply blend mode; two masked layers, each, of Snap Art Stylize Line Art and Simplify edges at Multiply and Divide blend modes (inverse masks)
- gradient vignette
