YCNH Fract for Dave

[Cheryl Slechta]

I wanted to do at least one fractalius for Dave's week although this turned out to be different from his style so I hope he doesn't mind. I used Fractalius Impression with luminosity blend mode, then added Nik - Contrast Only to change it a bit. I thought it ended up with an odd, kind of dreamy, illustration look to it.
Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

[Arthur Morris]

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The soft light is perfect and Fractalius did an amazing job with the foliage. What pre-set did you being with?

The top of the head and the eye socket could go a tad lighter.

Did you do any cloning right in front of the bird's upper chest?

[denise ippolito]

Cheryl, Beautiful and I agree w/ Artie regarding the eye socket. I really love the foliage-it's gorgeous!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Artie, Thanks so much. I used Impression I but blending with luminosity created a lot of the lighting effect. I know I cloned some branches to the right of the heron's back but on the front there was a slight halo and I cloned tiny areas to erase the halo. How did you know (I'll never forget one of my earliest posts of an egret on a post - I had done a lot of cloning in the foreground and had no idea what I was doing. Dave commented on the image and then said "but uh oh, I see repeating lines"):eek: I was devastated.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The soft light is perfect and Fractalius did an amazing job with the foliage. What pre-set did you being with?

The top of the head and the eye socket could go a tad lighter.

Did you do any cloning right in front of the bird's upper chest?

[Cheryl Slechta]

Thanks, Denise I should have cloned the little twig underneath his beak!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Cheryl. love the use of fractalius on this one. The soft use of it really works nicely. Agree with Arthur on the head and eye socket. Very nice work!

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, Thanks so much. I used Impression I but blending with luminosity created a lot of the lighting effect. I know I cloned some branches to the right of the heron's back but on the front there was a slight halo and I cloned tiny areas to erase the halo. How did you know (I'll never forget one of my earliest posts of an egret on a post - I had done a lot of cloning in the foreground and had no idea what I was doing. Dave commented on the image and then said "but uh oh, I see repeating lines"):eek: I was devastated.

YAW. Thanks for the pre-sent info. Denise and I were admiring the image while on the phone and she mentioned it. She has a much better eye for fine detail than I do.

Be happy :)

[Steve Adkins]

Beautiful image, Cheryl. Agree with others and LOVE the colors, shading and amount of detail. I am really attracted to the use of color and foliage to frame the subject.

[denise ippolito]

YAW. Thanks for the pre-sent info. Denise and I were admiring the image while on the phone and she mentioned it. She has a much better eye for fine detail than I do.

Be happy :)

What I also said is that it didn't detract from the image IMO and not worth the mention.

[Kerry Perkins]

Very nice Cheryl. I really like the depth of this image - good 3D effect. Nice colors and tones, agree with suggestions above. Good work.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Really really beautiful ! Very creative idea to use the filter to produce this effect. Liked the composition here. The dreamy green foliage compliments the bird so well.

[Richard Lovison]

Cheryl,

This has a wonderful dreamy look to it. It's one of the most beautiful images I've seen with the bird surrounded by its natural habitat. Excellent work with Fractalius.

I have a very minor suggestion... if it were mine I might try and bring out a bit more detail in the chest and stomach of the bird.

Well done.

Richard

[Christopher Miller]

Beautiful image, Cheryl! I love the softness and depth to it. Very well done!

[Indranil Sircar]

Fantastic composition, Cheryl. The effect on the green is phenomenal. Love it...

[Cheryl Slechta]

Thanks everyone