I usually have a reasonable idea when I snap the shutter what the final image will look like. Or at least what I'm going to do in post-processing. When I took this shot on the Pequonnock Valley Greenway in Connecticut, my vision was nothing like this, however. It was a few days after Christmas and cold outside. Still, I was surprised when I came to these exposed rocks and saw icicles. The vestiges of the icicles are still apparent, and the colors are from the rocks, the moss growing on them, and a few fallen leaves. The darker orange on the bottom is more leaves.
When my usual workflow wasn't giving acceptable results, I did two things. Well, actually more than that, but two of them contributed to the final image. Because the usual stuff wasn't working, I applied some presets I normally don't use. As it turned out, the one that worked was in a program I use infrequently, and it was a preset I didn't know was there. (I do like the program, but I think its effects should be used sparingly.) The second thing, the one that often yields the best results, was to walk away from the computer with no conscious thoughts about the image and relax. Here's what happened.
Attachment 148653
Nikon D3s, ISO 1600, f/11, six-exposure HDR at 1 EV increments, zoom at 70mm
post-processing highlights
- flipped horizontally for composition
- Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode, 32% opacity
- Belle Fleur texture -- Overlay, 38%
- Alien Skin Eye Candy -- Swirl preset, Luminosity, 77%
- Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset
- three Fractalius saved black & white presets -- Multiply, 97%; Divide, 50%; Multiply, 66%
- Snap Art -- saved black & white Line Art preset, Multiply, 24%, masked
- Simplify -- saved black & white edges preset, Multiply, 74%, masked
- Eye Candy -- Swirl preset, duplicate layers, Normal 100%, Multiply 93% (The Swirl output is somewhat light. Multiplying a Normal layer with its duplicate darkens it and adds contrast.)
- background layer -- Linear Dodge, 7%
- Snap Art -- saved black & white Line Art preset, duplicate layers; Multiply, 20%; Divide, 8%, moved slightly left and up (The offset black lines from Multiply and white lines from Divide gives the 3-D look.)
- Simplify -- saved black & white edges preset, triplicate layers; Multiply, 100%; Multiply, 100%; Divide, 77%, moved slightly left and up
- uniform gradient vignette


