light beams

This started out as a single shot taken aboard a large boat heading upriver on the Rhone in France. I thought the boat was moving too fast to shoot a sequence of HDR exposures. Two longer exposures and three shorter ones were done later with the Exposure slider in Adobe Camera RAW. The light rays that broke through the clouds were pretty much like this; the fainter extensions on the frame were added separately and masked off the HDR image.

Nikon Coolpix P7000, ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/2000 sec (-2 exposure compensation), zoom lens at 8.1mm (35mm film equivalent is 38mm)

processing highlights

• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Color blend mode, 54% opacity
• photo filter adjustment layer -- Warming 85, masked off sky and river
• warm Flypaper Textures texture -- Linear Burn, 37%, masked off land
• photo filter adjustment layer -- yellow (at a high density)
• Fractalius -- two masked black & white layers: Divide, 83%; Multiply, 34%
• Snap Art -- saved Line Art preset, two black & white layers: Multiply, 20%; masked Divide, 17%
• Simplify -- saved edges preset, two masked black & white layers: Multiply, 61%; Divide, 51%
• gradient vignette to finish off the photo part of the image. The rest is for the frame.
• Snap Art -- a very abstract watercolor wash treatment applied in two layers: Normal and Multiply, both at 100%
• duplicate Belle Fleur texture layers and a Flypaper Textures layer -- various blend modes and opacities
• The masked Curves layers for the beams on the frame were blurred and treated with an Outer Glow layer effect; Normal blend mode, various opacities, masked off the HDR photo part of the image

Very elegant image!

Dennis,

Greetings. Wow, this is great! The light beams through the frame are inspired. In a different image I might find the highlights a bit much or the framing a bit off but here is works just so. Good show!

Cheers,

-Michael-

A simple scene, yet beautifully done. The beams coming out of the frame on to another frame give it a very appealing quality. You are really doing some creative work lately Dennis.

Very lovely, Dennis. I would love to see a video of the way you process your images and the way that each layer alters the image. It's very intriguing and would be quite instructive.

Totally love how the light beams travel through the image and out into the frame. I also like that the blues are in all three layers, water, land/mountains, and sky, PLUS on the frame. That really ties this bucolic image together and makes it so much more than pleasant landscape. Very inspired processing, Dennis!