Lotus Glow

Soft glow image using various Nik Color Efex and Topaz Adjust filters and a PhotoFrame edge effect.

Hi Judy, I think this is one of my favorites of your lotus images so far. The soft glow and subtle frame seem to fit this photo well. Nice work!

This is beautiful, Judy :S3:

Very soft and pretty feel to this. The way the lotus is opening is very appealing. The Orton effect looks great.

Hi Judy. Lovely pastels and your treatment of the background helps to focus all our attention on the flower. Your frame works well here too. Very nicely done!

Judy, this is excellent! Love the soft glow and the color... it feels like the flower is opening up to light. Great effect and processing!

Thanks everyone! I later remembered some of the processing steps in more detail: I used one of the vintage film presets in Topaz Adjust that created the "look" without the diffusion and it added noise that I couldn't find a way to remove in the plugin. I then used Magic Bullet Photo Looks with one of my favorite presets, Green Pearl, which is quite diffused but also quite contrasty, and reduced it to 50% so it wasn't so contrasty. I then used Topaz Adjust with an HDR type preset that brought out detail on a duplicate of the layer below the Green Pearl and masked so it only affected the center to bring out more detail there, at about 50% or less opacity also.

Judy, I saw the thumbnail and didn't think I was going to like this but wow...it really works! It just goes to show you can't judge an image by the thumbnail!

Thanks Jules! Yes I get the same impression sometimes from the thumbnails.