Rosedale

[Judy Howle]

This is Rosedale, my favorite of the many antebellum homes in my city. It was built in 1855 and is a fine example of Italianate architecture. It sits on several acres of land at the southern edge of town. It was recently restored and was on the fall tour of homes so I toured it in October. The furnishings are magnificent!

I used Topaz Adjust and Clean and HDR Efex Pro and 2 textures for a sort of modern vintage look - not your typical "old photo" look! The red metal roof is not that red of course but it's still an attention getter. The colors are supposed to be original though.

[denise ippolito]

Judy, I think this house is lovely and I can see why it's a favorite. I might take a sliver off the bottom if it were mine. Very nice clouds.

[Mark Fuge]

Nie image and application, Judy.

Like the tone of this.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Denise and Mark! I took Denise's advice and sliced some off of the bottom.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Judy, I like the effect and the repost. Do you have a little more room on the right so the one outbuilding isn't clipped?

[Dennis Bishop]

I love the clouds, just by themselves. The filter effects on the clouds, trees, and buildings are great. I'm glad the property was restored.

My first reaction in terms of composition was to crop some off the bottom in order to move the house down and to get rid of some of the brown grass. But no, this was a showplace. It should have a deep lawn. The house was important, and it should have a commanding position. Given those thoughts, I decided it was better to crop from the top (at the cost of losing some of those clouds, unfortunately) and add some to the bottom. Based on divine proportions, it seemed like a good idea to crop a bit from the left, too.

To spruce up the lawn, I chose a green from the tall grass, painted it over the entire lawn on a new layer with Multiply blend mode at a reduced opacity. I also used shadows/highlights to lighten the darkest parts of the lawn and the windows and porch of the house. I also lightened the house just a bit with curves to emphasize it.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Judy, this is a wonderful old home...love the filtering you have done. I like the repost with the crop from the bottom and really like how Dennis filled in the front lawn with the greens. Nice to see old homes such as this restored.

[denise ippolito]

Judy, I like the repost. To me the interest is in the clouds not the grass.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Cheryl. There was a tree close to the road between me and the house so that's why I had to crop it like that.

[Judy Howle]

I love the clouds, just by themselves. The filter effects on the clouds, trees, and buildings are great. I'm glad the property was restored.

My first reaction in terms of composition was to crop some off the bottom in order to move the house down and to get rid of some of the brown grass. But no, this was a showplace. It should have a deep lawn. The house was important, and it should have a commanding position. Given those thoughts, I decided it was better to crop from the top (at the cost of losing some of those clouds, unfortunately) and add some to the bottom. Based on divine proportions, it seemed like a good idea to crop a bit from the left, too.

To spruce up the lawn, I chose a green from the tall grass, painted it over the entire lawn on a new layer with Multiply blend mode at a reduced opacity. I also used shadows/highlights to lighten the darkest parts of the lawn and the windows and porch of the house. I also lightened the house just a bit with curves to emphasize it.

Thanks for the comments and the re-work effort. I prefer keeping the clouds and losing some of the grass and I like the lighter vignette that was added in the HDR Efex processing which appears to be lost in your version. I think I should tone down the lighter areas in the grass though, but not all the grass. The house looks good in your version. And the crop works for me.

[Anita Bower]

Wonderful house! I like the processing you did. Evening out the grass on your second version would be the way I would go.