This is the second image I've posted from the same shot taken at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge off the coast of Virginia. (The first was http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-Good-and-Evil) It started out just to become a backdrop for my previous post but finally turned into this. Most of what's there is from a shot taken in October of 2008. After saving the image for what I thought was the last time, I decided to put a bird in the tree. I really like mourning doves and had a photo of one I'd taken out the window on a snowy February day in 2012, so I added it. As that version of the file was being saved, I recalled that one of the reasons I like mourning doves is that they're often seen as pairs, so I composited a different shot of the same one and flipped it horizontally.
Nikon D2x, ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/20 sec, zoom lens at 17mm (DX format)
processing highlights
- original shot bracketed +/- 2 EV in Adobe Camera Raw for tone-mapping in Nik HDR Efex
- flipped horizontally and corrected in Warp mode for distortion
- Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset
- Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode
- Nik Silver Efex
- Fractalius -- three saved B&W presets; Multiply, Divide, and Multiply blend modes
- Simplify and Snap Art -- saved B&W presets, Multiply
- Field Blur applied to background
- Belle Fleur rain texture (On several previous occasions, I'd gone through all the steps of making snow in Photoshop, but Belle Fleur's collection of snow, rain, and star textures is my new go-to.)
- Alien Skin Exposure -- white vignette, partially masked from foreground