Theme: Vintage Winter Clouds

[Judy Howle]

I threw everything at it except the kitchen sink! A little split toning in Lightroom, then on1 Perfect Effects added 2 gradients for glow and contrast and border, Exposure 7, Nik Analog Effex with another split tone, and last Nik Color Efex Glamour Glow.

[Diane Miller]

Worked well! Haunting vintage look!

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Diane! That's the look I was going for.

[Dennis Bishop]

Very nicely done. The small amount of water reflecting the sky was a good touch. I'm not sure about this particular border, though, for this image. Maybe blend it in gradually at the edges?

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Dennis. I can't change the border as it was not separate from lots of other filters in on1. Plus I rather like it.

[Judy Howle]

Dennis, I put another border over it after I cropped off half of the existing border and I like it.

[Nancy Bell]

I flipped back and forth many times between the 2 images. Fascinating that for me the single change of the border makes the 1st image brooding and the 2nd hopeful, like after a storm. A very interesting lesson. I think the lighter colored border picks up the lighter colors in the image, whereas the darker border downplays those lighter colors. Excellent images, Judy, and thanks for the comparison.

[Judy Howle]

Thank you for the comment Nancy, and you are right it does change the feel of the image.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Nancy is so right! I like them both.

[Dennis Bishop]

Thanks for showing us the difference. I agree with Nancy's observation that it's a good lesson. I'd not have guessed the lighter color would have such an impact.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Cheryl and Dennis!

[David Cowling]

Great use of clouds to create a wonderful image. As already mentioned it is interesting how the whole mood of the image is changed by the different borders.

[Anita Bower]

It is beautiful! Fantastic clouds. Love how they dominate the land and water. Beautiful colors and tones. Just lovely. The only little thing that bothers me in this image is the vertical line caused by the abrupt transition between light and dark in the water about 1/4 in from the right edge.

I, too, am amazed at the difference that the color of the border makes. It is something to think about when matting and framing prints.

[Diane Miller]

But it's more than just the border. The color balance is slightly more to yellow in the second one, and more to magenta in the first. Neither has an embedded profile. If you pull the image and open it in PS, you should get a warning of no profile. If you assume it had been converted to sRGB, and assign that as the profile in the warning dialog, you can stack the two images and compare the colors.

Both are lovely, but I do lean toward the second.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Diane. I thought if you did Save for Web it had a profile. However I took it back into on1 PE and it may have done something to it I wasn't aware of!

[Diane Miller]

There is a checkbox in Save For Web that needs to be checked to embed the profile. The setting should be sticky, but maybe something you did subsequently stripped the profile.

[Judy Howle]

OK, I will check it, thanks.