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If you're tired of all my water images you're excused from commenting...but I just can't help myself. I've been going through images from the past year and this one turned out so nice I just had to post it. Sorry for the smaller size but these images are packed with data and make for some huge file sizes.
Curves adjustment, surface blur and Topaz inFocus sharpening.
My absolute favorite so far! The colors and the pattern are terrific.:) I could never get tired of these images.
Gosh Jules, I won't get tired of these. The colors and sharpness are super and I love the way the color highlights fade from gold to blue in the center of the image. Sweet! :cool:
Yes, this is the best of the series, Julie. The pattern and the colors are fantastic. Btw, you could try to use the save for web and the size option to limit the file size and yet have the pixel width to the maximum allowed.
Indranil, this was a rare occasion where I did use Save for Web and still only got it to around 64% with this dimension. The original file in jpeg was HUGE! Good thing I don't need to add a bunch of layers to the file or it would be gigantic. :o
Hi Julie, on the save for web dialog box you can first set the width of the image and then specify the size of the file. typically the original file should not matter except if the file is low resolution and one is trying scale it up where artifacts will start showing.
Thanks Indranil, I don't think I've ever used that box before. I'll take a look when I get home tonight.
Fantastic! This one is wonderful--bright, interesting, mesmerizing. Great colors and patterns. No changes needed! Keep them coming.
This is definitely the best of the bunch so far! Those colors are wild!
I was thinking about this wonderful image last night, and one word that came to me was balanced--the colors, patterns, light and dark are nicely balanced. :-)
Hey Jules,
I'm a huge fan of bold colors....with balance! this one does that! Did I mention I went ot art school....for graphic design......so the shapes/patterns and bold colors rock for me!!!
Julie, Would you explain "surface blur"?
thanks,
Cheryl
Sure thing, Cheryl!
Surface blur is used mostly to soften skin on portraits because it softens the texture but leaves the hard edges in tact whereas Gaussian blur softens everything uniformly.
I use surface blur on my water images for two reasons. Many of them have a bit of noise in them but a regular noise reduction program tends to leave the image too soft and mushy - it blurs the movement of the water in most cases. If I lower the NR enough to keep that from happening I barely get any improvement so I went on to try other things - and surface blur is what I found worked best in those cases. I also use surface blur because it tends to even out the areas between the light to dark pixels (as they do with skin) so it actually helps create layers in the water - especially when there are very subtle differences in the shading.
Sometimes NR works - sometimes I don't need anything at all - but a touch of surface blur has become my go-to-help when things look a little "grainier" than I am wanting without totally blurring those hard edges. I usually start with a very low setting of 3-5 pixels in the radius setting and 1-3 for the threshold setting and then move up from there depending on the image. 99% of the images I use this on just needs a bare amount to help smooth out the noise or grain or very small particulates in the water.
Does that help? :)
That explanation is a tremendous help, Jules! thank you, very much. I will have to try that next time.
