I'm not sure I like how I processed this image. I'd like your opinions.
Topaz Simplify Watercolor and Underpainting, CEP Contrast Color Range, Viveza, DeNoise.
Three Blue Poppies
I'm not sure I like how I processed this image. I'd like your opinions.
Topaz Simplify Watercolor and Underpainting, CEP Contrast Color Range, Viveza, DeNoise.
Anita I love the poppies with the beautiful colours and wispy lines. For my taste, I think a more complimentary BG, such as a pastel would work better then the heavy green that you have here. The framing and processing are very nice.
Good point about the green. Will work on that.Originally Posted by Jackie Schuknecht
Anita-I like the color palette, except for the BG (as Jackie noted)-though I'm not sure what would work best. (realize that's not very helpful, I frequently run into the same issue). Perhaps a darker texture for the BG only? I feel it's a strong composition and rendering worth playing with.
Good composition of the 2 poppies on the diagonal with the dominant lines in the poppies leading to the opposite corners. Those upper graceful waving purplish lines are exquisite and well balanced by the bit of extra detail in the lowest flower center. In addition to the bkgd color as mentioned above, maybe experiment with reducing the impact of that third flower center behind the top poppy. At first I wondered about the unusual glowing color of the centers, but it gives this image great impact. And I love the delicate blues & purples of the petals!
Anita, I've said it before you have a lovely way of showing flowers in your images, good advice given above, very nice composition...well done
Anita, lovely composition and use of filters. The background color has been noted although I'm not sure what I would suggest as a replacement.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly" - The Little Prince
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All that could be said has been. I did play around with backgrounds and thought a very deep deep blue tone wasn't too bad. Maybe even a textured blue? Anyway, have fun with your vision of this one.
Thanks, Hazel. How did you go about changing the bg color?
Anita-unsure how Hazel went about it, but one approach would be to use a loose mask on the flowers and then the bucket fill tool with color of choice. This won't get the transitions or blurred edges, but it will do the majority of a solid tone. You can then use the clone tool to blend in the edges of varying colors, or the smudge tool if hard transitions aren't what you're after. This was done using only the bucket tool and is very crude but it gives an idea for the tone.
Another option would be to create a separate document (same color range and bit depth settings as the file you're working on), create a colorized texture and then clone it into the areas you want.
Randall: Thank you for the explanation and example. Much appreciated. I realize that I tend to steer away from masking, not because I object to it, but because I'm not very good at it. What tool did you use for masking?
Anita, no mask was used on the rp, I simply used the bucket tool to fill the areas with a selected color. You could use a layer mask on the flower, by refining the edges it can give you a smoother transition-but I've been experimenting with the smudge tool @200-400% to blend edges by pulling the desired color toward the pixelated edge, which also shows promise for dealing with cut outs, contrast halos or chromatic aberration edge artifacts after the color has been dealt with. Doing so leaves a clean, softer edge than some of the other techniques I've tried.
Thanks. I'll try the bucket. Re. Smudge tool--I'd never used it. After reading your prior post, I experimented with it and liked the results. Many thanks!
The discussion has been helpful to me, but, in working more with this image I'm not finding a way to make it satisfactory to me.
Hi Anita, I understand your frustration and was wondering if you use Lightroom or Photoshop? I have a couple ideas if you do. :-)
Steve: I use Photoshop Elements 10. I'm OK with this image not working, but am open to suggestions.
Another way to create a Mask...
Anita,
I just played around in Photoshop to create a mask for these beautiful flowers and thought you might be interested in a neat Selection Method.
In Photoshop there is a Select --> color range, menu item that seemed to work well with this image since the green was quite different from the flowers. You can feather, grow or decrease the selection as you wish under the Select menu. It takes a little practice with the eye droppers and fuzziness scale, but it can be quite effective and quick.
Once I selected the green, I made an inverse selection (everything but the green) and used that to create a layer mask that just allowed the flowers to show.
Then I brought in a cream colored linen texture on a new layer and used a hue/saturation layer to make it blue.
With the layer mask active on the flower layer the linen layer only affects the old green areas.
I varied the opacity of the layers and also slightly blurred the linen layer.
I didn't do much with the hardness of the flower edges, but you could use the blur tool to soften them.
Anita-Here's a method I've used when cutting out images for composites. It's a slow process but I've found it easier and more accurate (for me) than traditional masking. Caveate, it won't work for ultra fine edges like hair, feathers, or fur. (for that you'd be better with Topaz remask or something similar). Anyhow- Open image, create a copy layer. introduce a texture layer (I chose a pattern but it can be solid color) and place it between the two flower layers. Use the eraser tool with a soft edge and work your way around the edges on the upper flower layer. Erasing the upper layer will reveal the texture layer as you progress. Working at 200-400% allows you to be very accurate, zoom out occasionally to review progress. I only did one section rather hastily for the example. Hope this helps.
Wow. I didn't know I could apply a texture using a selection. I just tried it and it worked. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this. I'm going to experiment. :-)
I just used the magic wand to delete old color and filled with blue. Just trying a quick fill for possible effect. But hey, I've learned a lot from all of you with your suggestions.
Thanks, Hazel.
We seem to learn a lot from posting poor images.
they are not poor if we can enjoy them and learn from them. My thought was never "poor", just unfinished.
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