Of the nine shots that comprise this image, eight were taken the same morning as the columbine image shot. The columbine was in a sheltered area, but this tree was not, and a fairly persistent breeze off Lake Erie was intermittently swaying the branches. Nevertheless, I decided to try a focus-stacked sequence and waited for a lull in the breeze. Unfortunately, it started up again part way through the sequence and affected the more distant shots. I handled part of that by cropping and the rest by masking and putting another image in the background.
Attachment 159479
Nikon D3s, ISO 400, f/8, 1/200 sec, 105mm macro lens
processing highlights
- Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset masked off of raindrops
- Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode
- Nik Silver Efex -- The tree has been stressed, probably because of heavy pruning by the utility companies whose lines run through its crown. The result was a lot of reddish-orange in the leaves even before the shots were taken in early July. Advantage of this coloration was taken by adjusting the color sensitivity sliders in Silver Efex.
- Fractalius -- three black & white presets; Multiply, Divide, Multiply
- Snap Art Line Art and Simplify edges -- saved black & white presets, Multiply
- The upper right corner was heavily affected by movement of the branches. The image of rain in the woods is from a shot taken on Chincoteague Island in 2008, and there's likely not a maple tree in it. There also was no rain, so it was added using the Snow, Stars, & Rain texture by Belle Fleur. (On several previous occasions, I'd used the Add Noise feature and lots of additional steps in Photoshop to produce snow, but the Belle Fleur texture is so much faster, easier and very flexible.)
- flipped horizontally for composition
- gradient vignette


