Guidelines? Give 'em a rest!

Since I'm going on vacation and won't be back for a week, let's give providing the detailed steps a vacation, too. As a reward for so many fine writeups so far the how-to detail will be optional for this mini-challenge.

Still, limit your submissions to no more than two (2).

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #149 – Great Blue Heron

Here’s another “mini-challenge” to play with in the Photo-based Art category until the next major challenge is posted here (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/index.html).

The base image can be downloaded by clicking the link below the legal verbiage.

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This image, which I'll acctually attach this time [thank you, Cheryl], begs for the Trimoon watercolor technique. You can use any technique you please, of course.

Enjoy.

Danny

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LEGAL VERBIAGE
K.Darling retains the U.S. and international copyright © not only for the original image, but also for any photo-art versions of it. Unauthorized distribution or use of this image without permission are prohibited.

He's broken free...

Ooooooo - CJ, that's wonderful! :bigthmb:

Jeanie

That's gorgeous, CJ! Very nicely done. You inspired me to go dark with this one. Here's a version done mostly with dark strokes...

Pam

Hi all - this was fun. I went for the first Herons.

Roger

EDIT> Somehow I got 2 duplicate posts, so I deleted one of them. Now I have half an image, so this edit is to replace the half image with a full image .... keeping my fingers and toes crossed:cool:

CJ, it is very spiritual one .. like "shaddows of the forgotten ancestors"..
No word to discribe it......

Pam, Very good work and well balanced...

Roger, good work, glimphes to the outer world...

thank you....

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vijayan

Glad you liked it! The original image is wonderful, and inspired me to think of Liberty.

Pam -- quite lovely!

Roger -- You've captured the prehistoric feel beautifully!

A Golden Heron is mooving to an opposite direction...

since the source of images are so clear I am not going to write it down..
All the submissions have turned in to the way of CJ, and it sparks well.
thank you CJ,
but this is very traditional....

thank you all

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vijayan

vijayan -- I've never before seen a golden heron. I am glad that I have now seen a beautiful one. I like the contrast between the golden tones and the blues of the sky and the water, as well as the golden city.

I can see this has been a great image to work with. The images posted so far have been fantastic. When I first saw this one, I knew I was saving it for the Trimoon tutorial. I was right--the soft look is great on it. I was also wrong--the stronger, more vibrant versions posted here that I would never have tried are also stunning.

Sometimes you just have to play. :D

Cheryl,

You're right -- your soft look is great, and your vibrant look is stunning! :)

I appreciate those of you who have learned to put Trimoon's techniques to good use.

Chery , both of them are very good , But that Heavenly one with Electric Blue is Great....
CJ, thaks for your kind appreciation..

thankyou

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vijayan

vijayan

Wonderful golden heron, perfect balance to the blue colors and muted tones. Very striking with great composition! Congratulations.

Roger

Hello everyone!
This is my first try and post......so please go easy on me :)
I had lots of fun!
Artfully yours,
sweetmango

We won't have to go easy on you ... it is beautifull

The bird has the feeling of floating - the angle and the depth you have given to the bottom are probaby responsible for that. Love the mood.

Roger

many thanks roger for your kind words...appreciate it!

i must take the time and read thru all the wonderful offerings this site has available...you guys are just so darn talented!!! :)
and one is never too old to learn.......right?

artfully yours,
sweetmango

Hey all,

I used two filters to come up with this. Hardly worthy of the original, but it was fun. :)

LQQKER--I'd guess fantasic machines paint engine for one, but what's the other one? It's a nice combo.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make you guess, I was in a hurry. :)

I used paint engine for the water. Played with it until I got something that looked correct for waves and shadow.

For the bird I used Adapt.equalize at a low setting.

Sweetmango,

The colors you chose are excellent. The bird does appear to be floating over the blurred background.

Although this is subjective, being art. I thought the eye was a little "too" pronounced. everything else looks very nice.

Hi everybody,

Every entry looks great! It is such a beautiful starting point too.
I tried to capture the glistening of water and that seemed ok but I'm not quit satisfied with the heron. Perhaps it doesn't stand out enough from the background. Not sure, I'll try another approach.

bye

Roger, many thanks for the nice compliments...

Sweetmango, yours is a very good work.. It gives the feeling of the bird floating just above a lagoon..

LQQKER, feel very artistic...

gina, Good texture and good patterns..very good..

thank you all

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vijayan

I used Sabers Modula Painter filter which gave it a bit of purple/pink tint, gaussian blur with ampisoft simplifier applied twice, applied leather resurface in Splat and Texturized in Photoshop.

Version 2 .....

Some of the things I did to this was to seperate the heron from the background and worked on them seperately. I reshadowed the shadow over the origianal but made it more distintive and although reblurred the shadow was more shaped to the bird. Some filters that I used were ..... Fantastic Machines Paint engine, Xero Lithograph, Amphisoft simplifier, PS7 Accented Edges

Cathy

Cathy

Both of those are beautiful. The second is even better than the first. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Tenneysmith, the second one is very good. something like Pastel works..

regaards..

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vijayan

This pales in comparison to the other work here, but it was so interesting to see how everyone made the original his or her own that I wanted to join the fun!

Annadarling, very good Brown tone and it make the Heron as something like a hunter.... good work.
thank you.

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vijayan

One Flair Bird.

Contains , Noise, light effets and lense flair...

thank you..

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vijayan

vijayan-
I really like the effects you created in Flair Bird - the colors and composition are ethereal! Well done!
annadarling

This guy was done with buzz simplifier, Xero's lithograph and Flaming Pear's Aetherize.

AmyHutton
Photoshop: My favorite is Roger's version. But I love them all.

Not really had much time for this one so kind of a rush job, so excuse the sloppiness of this piece.

May provide details, but alas off to work I go !!

Found this image and had to have a go, used the ah brush and the history brush and of course flipped him

Palms

Sketch on a wall.

Steve

CS2/AHB here.
Palms, I like your AH version better.
dc

Thanks dc, Yours is fine though not a lot of differences, Steve like your wall sketch are you perhaps a former graffitti artist ?

Palms

Nah...just a Bible-method, (seek and ye shall find), computer junkie.

But Thanks.

Steve

Steve like your wall sketch are you perhaps a former graffitti artist ?

Palms

How do you all get in here and do so many renderings before I even see the thread? LOL

Great stuff, folks

I wanted to put this heron into my backyard or lakeside setting. They are very common here in south central Florida.

very nice Swampy your part of the world seems very appealing

palms

dee dee,

i like it, but i think there's something a bit off on it. the plants in the foreground look like they shld be OVER the heron, not behind. something about the depth and relative sizes of the plants and heron there that makes me think so. otherwise, pretty incredible.

yup, we have great blues here in kentucky also. the folks have a regular fisherman on their lake that comes in and wades the shores.

craig

You're right, Craig. The perspective is off, but If I made the bird smaller he wouldn't get his glory. LOL...

Artistic license!!! :heul:

hehehe, ok, i wont tell if you wont :)

craig

Abstract attempt... Duplicate layer (1), rotate canvas, add blank layer and apply filter texturizer (set blending layer to linear dodge), duplicate again layer (1) and add a layer style (drop shadow, inner shadow, color overlay), duplicate layer and apply a layer style (drop shadow, inner shadow, color overlay) and set blending mode to soft light.
Enjoy!

Staying with the abstract theme... :)

Layer rendering (see attached Layer Palette screen shot):
* Mike Finn's Executive Toy Photoshop action was used on another copy of the Background.
* Background duplicated. Blend mode = Luminosity
* I recently acquired the NIK Photo Abstract plugin, that has some funky filters. One filter, Pop Art, renders a unique effect similar to Photoshop's Posterize command, but more like looking at a contour map. This filter was applied to a copy of the Background. Blend mode = Linear burn
* Photoshop's Texturizer > Sandstone applied to a layer filled with 50% gray. Blend mode = Overlay

~Danny~

Oltenius, Danny I think the abstract theme both of you have done is excellent must get braver and try it myself


Palms

Palms1, Thank you very much.

All Photoshop CS 2.

Done with Photoshop CS2 Only


since the bird is over the ocean, i just put a fresh layer of water under the bird.

Hi, All
Another heron added to impressive collection.

Pavel

I try to re-post the prevous image to make it larger.

Pavel

Try to re-post the image again, this time with a different background

Pavel

I know I haven't been posting much lately due to the fact I haven't seen very much of anything new to work on in this forum.

Today I decided to have a look around and run across this image I hadn't done anything with yet so I decided to have a go at it and this is what I've came up with, I know it isn't much but hey you can't always come up with a master peice now can yah? LOL

TwoLaidBack

Figured I would give it the ol' Noob Try.

Simple motion blur on just the water, then a kaleidoscope filter.

I rather like it.

Just fooled around mainly in Photoshop. I tried it in Painter to begin with but the lack of color contrast was causing problems. Many good versions here!
MargaretM

very nice! i like that, margaret :)

craig

Thank you Craig.

Tweaked and textured

Peter

Stunning...

I see these guys feeding in the streams a few times a year. I made three flying away. The smaller one I did a re-paint on.

Just getting my feet wet. First post. Great site.

Joe

Welcome aboard, Joeven! Wow, you are off to a fast start. Excellent rendering!

Welcome aboard, Joeven! Wow, you are off to a fast start. Excellent rendering!

Well thank you very much for the kind words Miss Swampy.

Joe

Very nice Joeven. We are glad to see you aboard and hope that this first one is just the beginning of a wonderful association.

Janet

I might have to quit. How can I beat such a beautifully well done rendering. Really looking forward to seeing more of your stuff Joeven. :)

Thanks everyone for the nice welcome. I used an underwater background that I made for both pics. Different results.


Joe

Thanks everyone for the nice welcome. I used an underwater background that I made for both pics. Different results.


JoeBrilliant concept and great execution, Joe.

Welcome aboard.

Brilliant concept and great execution, Joe.

Welcome aboard.


Came to this website after reading Katrin Eismann's 3rd restoration book. I've been reading the tutorials and checking out the site for a month. Learned a lot! You might not be able to get rid of me now. Viva La Retouch Pro!

Joe

Nothing too artistic here... just tried to make this a bit less harsh. I used the following 6 filters:
1. Pog's blurrinator
2. Nik/skylight
3. Rosenman/diffuse glow
4. Redfield/bas relief
5. Lighting effects/omni
6. Xero/caravaggio

Also adjusted the colors a bit.

First timer here. Went a little nutzoid and envisioned a Hawkwind album cover; went from there. Just doodling and tweaking layers, playing with filters and effects. I couldn't retrace my steps if I tried...