Posting this photo i took in Spain, i think its a kind of hibiscus...could be wrong...I thought you could do magical things with it.... :dizzy:

Kind regards
Patricia kay

Sending my effort of a dramatic effect....

Crop
add layer
then played with curves in photo shop
added text and border in psp9

Patricia kay.

gorgeous picture!!! lovely hibiscus!

I'm not at all artistic, but thought I'd have a play.

Hi Gary,
Everyone is artistic in one way or another and this photo art is addictive... :nod:
Like how you have made the flower stand out....how did you do it???
Being Yorkshire born and bred...do tell where you are from...

Kind regards Patricia Kay

Flower on a rug.

Steve

A lovely double hibiscus! I have these in my backyard and they really add a lot of color and attract bees and butterflies.

Object was to render a "product display" version.

Cut out the flower and stem and copied to another layer. Did a heavy gausian blur on the background and set a curves A/L to reduce the greens and bring up the red glow around the flower.

Added a soft bevel and emboss to the flower. And some smart sharpen to bring up the natural texture in the petals.

Changed the stamen to more yellow, since the ones in my back yard are more yellow.

Thanks for the lovely photo, Patricia!

Painted Hibiscus.
Simplified image first in Photoshop using facet filter. Used Impasto and Diffuse Blur brushes in Painter. Smeared background with smeary oil cloner. Now, I really have to get back to my paying job!
MargaretM

Pretty Margaret

Here's another painting but using the Impressionist Plugin with Danny Raphael's djroil24 style.
Alan

I like all of these, but I relly love yours, Margaret!

I used "Poster Edges", "Cutout", and then overlaid some edges.

-Jeff

Lovely Photo Patricia, Dont get to see many Hibiscus over here i expect they don't like our climate much.
Not too sure wether they are as pale as this i get the feeling it should be more vibrant.

Palms

Hi Patricia, I'm a Leeds lad, born and bred.

Below is my layer stack, which explains pretty much what I did.

There are some lovely and striking images done of this flower. Very nice interpretations all.

And for me, it was just too lovely to pass up.

First, I color corrected the background. I've noticed with some digital cameras that the backgrounds come out skewed to the blue. It was so in this case. From there it was just the AHB, smudge tool, and a couple of funky brushes painted on separate layers then overlayed and tweaked for the final result. My only problem was that I shouldn't have used the pinkish color on the edges. It's too much IMHO. But tis late and I'm not going to change it now.

Janet

Lovely, Janet! The background is perfect and I love the pink texture.

Palms, lovely watery effect, but I'm not sure about the texture, looks more canvas - I've never tried it but I cant see watercolours working very well on canvas.
Janet - beautiful, very evocative, not sure about the pencil edges, I live my wcs to run free heh, but thats just a personal preference.
Alcar - very vibrant and I'm always impressed anyone manages to do anything with that impresionist plugin :dead:
Swampy - very pretty, I noticed some 'dirty' greens popping through in the petals though
Steve - wouldnt have it in my house ;) But great rendering. What filters did you use?

Probably missed some people there - shame the preview when you're posting doesnt show the thumbnails ;)

Heres my rendition:

Used PWL to create a more expressive, vibrant base image.
Burned out the background.
Used the wet sponge Photoshop brush to smudge onto a new layer.
High pass overlay to give it a little more 'punch'
Finished off with a little USM

What do you tihnk?

Thank you Nancy I suppose the problem with the texture is i didnt give a thought to mixing looks (so to speak) :dizzy: I used a pastel rough textured brush, then on the background used the pattern washed watercolor paper but will have to give it more thought in the future, and that is a problem in itself "thinking" :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I like all the postings so far, including yours which is stunning

Palms

Hmm thinking about it - I could have been more clear in my description (its hard when you cant see the picture when you're posting ;) ) The background texture is fine looking at it again, its the white bits in the image where the colour hasnt taken - the size, shape and uniformness looks like a weave type texture like canvas, rather than paper.

You all have done such magical things with my photo...

Steve I like the flower on a rug...different...makes me think of wall hung tapestries..

Swampy Lovely,like how you have done the background and the flower looks so realistic. Lucky you having hibiscus growing in your back yard..i have one in a pot in doors, had it for two years but its struggling...

Margaret lovely painting, like the background and the flower really stands out..

Alan Like this one....i am playing around with impressionist too and like the chunky chalk strokes...how can i find Dannys style???? Might get back to you on how to put it into impressionist...

Jeff poster edges work well on the hibiscus too.

palms 1 I cant grow this lovely flower i my garden either...love your really soft pastel colors and its nice without the background..

Gary Interesting i am also from Leeds...Thanks for the layer stack...i will give it a try.

Janet Your picture is so pretty, love the colors..pink edges too...Although it would be interesting to see how changing the edge color would alter the look of it...

Nancy Your rendition is lovely and bold...think you have done a perfect job on the flower and i love dark backgrounds as you will see from the one i posted...

Thankyou one and all your work is amazing :bigthmb: ...must go and practice...practice...practice...

Basically used an Impressionist preset by Ikroll. Then did my usual playing with layers and blends.

Thanks.

Steve

Steve - wouldnt have it in my house ;) But great rendering. What filters did you use?

Probably missed some people there - shame the preview when you're posting doesnt show the thumbnails ;)

Heres my rendition:

Used PWL to create a more expressive, vibrant base image.
Burned out the background.
Used the wet sponge Photoshop brush to smudge onto a new layer.
High pass overlay to give it a little more 'punch'
Finished off with a little USM

What do you tihnk?

Nancy the white bits in the picture is from the brush it leaves little white dots which i presume is meant to be either the pastel or texture part of the brush, if you go over the "brush marks" again you loose the dots but it makes a heavier look, i tried the brush out as it was a bit different i am 50/50 as to wether i like it but will carry on experimenting with this one and others.
How i sort of get round the thunbnail problem is to open reply in another window and also the picture if i want to look at it then toggle between them all
! ! ! ! !

Palms

Used my Thread preset (not Thread2) for Impressionist to create this effect. I did do some preprocessing using Amphisoft's Xylograph LE on a separate layer set to Dodge. Attached is a lower quality crop; here's (http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7964/10000012rl.jpg) the complete rendering (over 340K). :)

I like all of these, but I relly love yours, Margaret!
jch71566 - thanks so much. Wonderful variations, as always.
MargaretM

some excellent renditions here!

had a go also. this uses a new filter which i requested from the code guys. Stroker wrote the base model. i extended its function just a bit with the help of Ro, Cameraken and Stroker. yeah, it takes 3 people to help me when i need help :) this was written with Filtermeister, the plugin maker. great little program if you guys want to check it out.

i call this filter '32 band gray', or 'Gray map' (similar to 'hue map' in Paint Shop Pro), or 'Stroker's gray bands'...whatever you like :)

basically, what the plugin does is convert any image to grays, not grayscale, but just desatured colors. and then you can manipulate ranges of grays using sliders. Stroker wrote this with 6 bands. my contribution, besides the original idea, was to simply add more bands/ranges based on Stroker's work. so, it's sort of like a gray 'curves', only without each range being tied to the others. you can manipulate one range without it affecting another.

ok, had to explain that so you'd know how i got what i got. using this new filter, i altered the bands in a staggered manner, the odd ranges being moved up, while the even ranges i moved down a bit. this gave a very variegated looking grays image. this was on a separate layer which i then added the blend mode of 'dodge' to, giving the final image.

if you guys are interested, go to the software forum, the 'filtermeister' thread and you can see the discussion on this on page 3 and 4 so far. Stroker's base code is listed there. i havent posted my version of it yet as i still want to refine a few things. you have to have Filtermeister installed to use this, currently. if i get decent at writing these things, i may register it so i can convert the filtermeister code to a normal plugin .8bf type.

i also had to cut the size of this image down as it was taking some pretty big compression to get it to post here. so the final is only 640 x 480.

this is pretty cool stuff, folks. why be limited by other folk's plugins/code? make your own! :)

craig

Wonderful interpretations on this one everybody. I enjoyed working on this beautiful flower. My painting turned out quite dramatic and I am pleased with the results. I color adjusted and masked in Photoshop, went to Painter and freehanded the flower. Back to Photoshop for text and adjustments.

Click HERE (http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3020/2003/1600/Hibiscus%24.jpg) to view painting.

Hello..

Ikroll.... Stitching..very nice, could gather all my hibiscus photos and maybe you could design a colorful rug???

Craig... fun to do your own filter, thanks for the explanation. Your hibiscus looks like fabric, maybe you call it material in your part of the world. I think it could be used for clothes or furnishings...i like it..

Photomaster....
I am also really pleased with your result from my photo..the painting on the flower is 1st class and the black background makes the flower and text stand out beautifully.....

Thanks to all of you, I am impressed by all your varied interpretations.
Kind regards Patriciakay.

patricia,

thank you :)

i like yours as well. almost looks like fire, which is quite a trick to get from a flower.

and yes, making the filter was fun. Stroker, byRo, and Cameraken helped me along, with Stroker writing the initial code and Ro and Ken guiding me along when i'd get stuck. it's now finished, by the way and posted over in the software forum. i originally wanted this for retouching difficult black and white images, but i'm finding quite a nice use in photo art as well. give it a try.... it's free :)

craig

Craig,

Glad you like mine too...going to try your filter and see what i can do..isnt it great to have so many talented people to help you???? Free sounds good to me... :nod:

Patricia.