PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #23 - Reed Point Marina

[tom c]

Phyllis
You got a surreal effect alright...pretty colors...not silly at all
tom c

[Leah]

Beautiful colours, Phyllis, and I really like what you've done with the water. And I've made a mental note to try playing with the anisotropic filter in future...

Leah

[siodhach]

At the end of the day ... beautiful ... I wish I had your vision.

Don

[tom c]

Tom c

[DannyRaphael]

VE:
Again, an especially nice job on this one.

Lisa:
Your version gave me a very relaxed feeling. Subtle application of effects comes across well.

Leah:
Your eye catching colors are simply vibrant as well as striking.

Tom:
You devil you! The 'Showoff' was cute. Reminded me in my (considerably) younger days. You outdid yourself with "The Squid." Exceptional work with the above/below water effect.

Don:
The texturing / oil-painting look really works in your rendition.

Phyllis:
Just gorgeous work on the sky and capturing the reflection in the water.

- - - - - - -
Since you may not know how much I enjoy looking through th images you create, let me tell you again: It's Great! YOU ARE AWESOME!

~DannyR~

[darkstar]

I started out trying to imitate VE's amazing effect but ended up with something entirely diffrent. I put a pencil-sketch layer on top of a blurred original, set to value. Or something like that.

[Cheryl H]

I really liked the lines in this photo. I used the impressionist filter again, but the general results could be duplicated with a number of plug-ins or native photoshop filters.

1. Make 5 duplicates of the original
2. Turn off all but the bottom copy.
3. On the bottom copy run a filter that gives you a very vague shape (blobs of the right color in the right area).
4. On the next layer up, find a filter that gives you a more defined shape, but still vague (edges are starting to show but no detail--shapes are still loose)
5. On the next layer up, pick a filter that only gives mild distortion. You want to be able to recognize what you're looking at--still no real detail.
You have 2 copies left at the top at this point.
6. On the next to the top copy, I like Filter--Stylize--Find Edges. Try it in color first, but it may be better desaturated.
7. On the top layer I like the soft gaussian blur sketch.
a) desaturate
b) duplicate
c) invert top copy--set blending mode to color dodge
d) Filter--blur--gaussian blur (4-6)
e) merge down and duplicate
f) set blending mode to multiply and run gaussian blur again (4-6)
g) merge down

General notes: On the color layers I usually use blending modes to mix the layers--most often soft light or overlay. I do sometimes reduce the opacity of a layer--just to taste.
On the sketch layers I usually try all the blending modes to see what appeals. I also usually use the top 2 layers at either 100% or 33%--rarely in between. It depends on if I want a hard or a soft look.

[lkroll]

Used Impressionist and Flaming Pear's Zephyr filters to create much of the effect that you see. Other steps are too numerous and subtle to outline here.

[cazubi]

Ikroll, you are doing some nice work. I really like the light, artistic effect that you have done on this piece.

Cathy

[lkroll]

You know that I try to only use layer properties and filters (that's the challenge to me; let the computer do all the work; I'm just the puppet master), but I did have to do some selective erasing and smudging. Usually this is the case. I will, hopfully soon, get a Wacom and learn how to really smudge.

[Peter S]

Loads going on here, There's definitely a bas relief overlay, a texture and obviously a frame added. Like LK I used Zephyr, to add some colour effects to the sky, that didn't turn out as I liked, I could not get the reflections in the water to look right, so blended it with Luminosity, this added some more depth.

Peter