dawn of a new day and a new life

[Dennis Bishop]

Lake Toxaway is in the foothills of the western North Carolina mountains. This shot was taken late this past September early in the morning. Early in the afternoon on a deck overlooking the lake, my son and his sweetheart were married. They both work at Disney World and the wedding theme was the Disney Pixar movie UP. I replaced the house that's partially hidden by the tree with the house that's so much a part of the movie.

Nikon D3S, 8-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, zoom at 35mm, f/22, ISO 640

processing

• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II preset, reduced opacity, partially masked from foreground tree trunks
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- warming
• Nik Color Efex -- Tonal Contrast and Foliage
• Fractalius -- two b&w layers, reduced opacity, one partially masked from foreground tree trunks
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize Line Art, two layers at reduced opacity, one Multiply blend mode, the other Divide blend mode
• gradient vignette

[Hazel Grant]

What a beautiful setting....and how thoughtful of you to put that house in...a great memory photo. Thanks for the steps. One note: The sky in the water looks brighter on my monitor than the real sky.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . The sky in the water looks brighter on my monitor than the real sky.

I hadn't noticed, but it looks the same way on mine, and we'd expect it to be darker. The first thing I checked was the layers in the psd file to make sure I hadn't done anything to make the sky in the water brighter. Nope. Then, I checked the series of photos in the HDR sequence. The image, below, shows the shot with no compensation, the middle one in terms of exposure in the sequence. I have ACR set up to show clipped shadows and highlights. Sure enough, the clouds in the sky were clipped, but not the clouds reflected in the lake. Other than converting it to sRGB, nothing was done to this image.

My guess is that it's the blue -- either on its own or because the white seems brighter next to it -- that's giving the brighter appearance in the reflection. In addition, much of the blue in the sky is hidden from our view by the foreground trees. There's just a bit showing in the upper right. Perhaps the sky would seem brighter if we could see it???

If anyone else has any thoughts about the reason, please chime in.

[Nancy Bell]

Beautifully done and very peaceful. Great composition with the 4 tree trunks in the foreground and the lake and shore spreading out beyond. The filters and HDR give a very nice clean detail effect throughout.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

This is beautiful, almost magical. I expect elves or hobbits to appear. Wonderfully processed, and a lovely serene feel to it.

[Anita Bower]

Outstanding work, as always! I love the look you create, bringing out details, making it look painterly, but not too much, with lovely light. So clever and thoughtful of you to change out the house! The reflected sky looks just fine to me--not obviously brighter. I also like the composition, with strong lines to hold it together.

[Mitch Carucci]

The house adds a lot. Great processing. Would love to move into the scene.

[Judy Howle]

This is a very inviting scene and your processing is spot on. I think the reflection looks fine. I used the SnapArt stylize filter recently in 2 images, at very low opacity. I really like the effect. I am going to post one today.