Sailboat on Lake Erie

[Dennis Bishop]

The Marblehead Peninsula juts out from northern Ohio into Lake Erie. Kelley's Island is about two miles north of the end of the peninsula. The main photo for this image was taken on the return leg of my first ferry ride to the island a little over nine years ago. Every trip since has been with a bicycle and no photo gear. The lighthouse is from a different photo taken on the peninsula. It would've been far to the right of the line of sight of the sailboat photo.

Nikon D1, ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/50 sec, zoom lens at 300mm

post-processing

• Adobe Camera Raw -- Clarity and some Saturation and Luminance tweaking
• To raise the horizon, the canvas was extended on the bottom and cropped (I think -- have been working on this off and on for at least a couple weeks) at the top.
• Flypaper Textures -- a starting point for replacement of the cloudless blue sky in the photo
• The sailboat and its wake were moved down and to the left.
• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II preset
• dark blue gradient diminishing from the top of the image to the horizon
• Nik Color Efex -- Tonal Contrast
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- warming to tone down the blues
• Fractalius -- three B&W layers based on the old Sketch preset, Multiply blend mode. One preset was applied at different opacities above and below the horizon. The other was applied uniformly but mostly affected the water and boat.
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- two B&W layers of Stylize Line Art, one at Divide blend mode in the light part of the sky above the horizon; the other everywhere else at Multiply blend mode
• Nik Color Efex -- two layers based on the same stamped layers; one with Sunlight and Tonal Contrast, the other with Tonal Contrast
• The lighthouse was minimally processed, reduced substantially in size, trees were masked off, it was flipped horizontally (to put the small remaining tree on its right), and an Alien Skin Snap Art Stylize Line Art B&W layer was applied at Multiply blend mode to accentuate the major details.

[Steve Adkins]

Love the mood and tone of this image, Dennis. Composite of elements is very natural. Your texture results give me some ideas.
Thanks for sharing your workflow.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis, you are truly an artist! I love the scene and all the different tones and textures. Nice job

[Judy Howle]

I love the composition and your filter work is outstanding. Nice textures too.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Dennis, The composition, colors and lighting are remarkable. I feel the cross-hatching texture of the sky and swirling texture of the water are not as complimentary as a single texture might be. I'm thinking an overall canvass or like texture to the scene might be an idea. Your vision, of course.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I feel the cross-hatching texture of the sky and swirling texture of the water are not as complimentary as a single texture might be. I'm thinking an overall canvass or like texture to the scene might be an idea. Your vision, of course.

The cross-hatching didn't bother me, but thanks for your comment. Actually, it was something I really didn't try to achieve. After reading your comment, I did some detective work and found out that its roots are in the texture that I originally thought was a plain ol' sky. It turns out that there is a barely discernible cross hatch in it. The only reason it showed up was that I used Fractalius, which I apply primarily for detail and contrast.

[denise ippolito]

Dennis, This is lovely. The composition with the tall sail really draws you in. Love the water!

[Kerry Perkins]

Nice artistic work Dennis, the image really sings. I like the feeling of watercolor on fabric, a very nice look. Good one!

[Paul Lagasi]

A lovely work of art, thanks for workflow...well done

[Anita Bower]

Beautiful tones and processing. The subtle colors unify the scene. This image makes me want to be on the sailboat enjoying the gentle breeze and heading for the lighthouse. I might evict the building to the right of the lighthouse. Wonderful work!