Flower Girl

[Peter S]

I found this at Sockvault and immediately thought of you.

Enjoy

Peter

[Sweetlight]

This was a nice one to work.
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[0lBaldy]

1. Cleaned a bit in the first one
2. Richard Houtby Dragan Effect in the second with bright flowers (influenced by Sweetlight)
3. Impressionist

[Sweetlight]

Nice Baldy,
You got the tut for the Dragan thingy??
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[Edalisse]

http://edalisse.smugmug.com/photos/5...74_Vjtid-L.jpg
Thank you for sharing the image.

[Sweetlight]

That's beautiful Eda

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[Edalisse]

Thank you!

[lkroll]

Excellent result Eda. I went for a heavy oil on mine (thanks to DAP and a few other tricks).

[0lBaldy]

Edalisse, Excellent! Very impressive!

[geepee52]

Topaz Clean and a texture.Thanks for posting

Grant

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

Nice Baldy,
You got the tut for the Dragan thingy??
c

Used an action "Richard Houtby Dragan Effect",

[Sweetlight]

Thanks OB.
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[oltenius]

Thanks! Very nice picture.
Dan

[Steve Conway]

"Little lady with flowers"

Steve C.

[amica999]

Some beautiful results here. I tried a fake smudge and some Topaz Clean on this

[Edalisse]

Originally Posted by amica999

Some beautiful results here. I tried a fake smudge and some Topaz Clean on this

Wow, that's impressive! What do you mean by fake cuz it doesn't look fake at all?

[amica999]

Originally Posted by Edalisse

Wow, that's impressive! What do you mean by fake cuz it doesn't look fake at all?

Eda, you did such a beautiful rendition that I am sure you don't need my advise. Anyhow here you go: I opened the pic and adjusted it a little bit in ACR, took it into photoshop and rotated the canvas to the left - Filter-Diffuse-Anisotropic, rotated the canvas all the way to the right - same filter again. Rotate image to normal view, same filter again. Smudge some of the hard lines which have been introduced. Than I took the image over to Topaz Clean 2 and choose Crisp result or something like that - added a layer mask on the result and masked out the hair at 50% or so, as I didn't like lost definition. Put a grey filled layer on top to dodge and burn some, not much, mostly on eyes and blend shadows and highlights. Finally picked a color from the sweater for the frame. That's it. This technique - fake smudge - was introduced by our member Joeven (thanks joe)

[palms1]

a little bit of ahb from me

Palms

[Edalisse]

Originally Posted by amica999

Eda, you did such a beautiful rendition that I am sure you don't need my advise. Anyhow here you go: I opened the pic and adjusted it a little bit in ACR, took it into photoshop and rotated the canvas to the left - Filter-Diffuse-Anisotropic, rotated the canvas all the way to the right - same filter again. Rotate image to normal view, same filter again. Smudge some of the hard lines which have been introduced. Than I took the image over to Topaz Clean 2 and choose Crisp result or something like that - added a layer mask on the result and masked out the hair at 50% or so, as I didn't like lost definition. Put a grey filled layer on top to dodge and burn some, not much, mostly on eyes and blend shadows and highlights. Finally picked a color from the sweater for the frame. That's it. This technique - fake smudge - was introduced by our member Joeven (thanks joe)

Thank you! That's a neat tidbit actually. Some people prefer a more natural look than what I usually offer. I had tried lightly smudging on over-sharpened images and that did not work. The rotating canvas plus a very light smudge is perfect for skin. I just tried it on a few photos and it works great. Thank you Amica, and thank you Joe!!!

[Sweetlight]

I'm sorry Eda, what do you mean by "rotating canvas". I'm probably over thinking it but I am bread dead.

[amica999]

Sweetlight, "rotate image" actually

Stupid me, forgot to point to Palms Blog, she generously made an action. Go have a look if you will

[Edalisse]

Originally Posted by amica999

Sweetlight, "rotate image" actually

I duped the layer and rotated the top layer. Then painted sharpness back into the eyes with a mask.

[Sweetlight]

Okay, Eda, I know I am being thick here but your image is the same orientation as ours so what did you do when you rotated the layer? I am sooooooo confused........

[Edalisse]

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

Okay, Eda, I know I am being thick here but your image is the same orientation as ours so what did you do when you rotated the layer? I am sooooooo confused........

Hi Sweetlight,
Here is what I did...

Duped the photo layer.
Took the top layer and rotated to the left 90 degrees and ran the Filter-Stylize-Diffuse Ansiotropic.
Rotated that same layer 90 degrees to the right twice. Applied the same filter again.
Rotated that same layer 90 degrees to the left to bring it back to the center and applied the same filter.
I then smudged lightly ( 15% strength ) with smudge tool all over the skin.
Added a mask to that same top layer and painted with black on the mask to bring back details in the eyes.

That's it. :-) Hope this helps :-)

[lkroll]

Not quite happy with my previous effort; went all pencil on this one.

[Sweetlight]

Okay so I assume the ansiotropic effect differs as your image rotates, this is the purpose?

PLEASE everyone excuse me I am not normally so dense, in public anyways.
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WOW, THAT ACTUALLY IS A VERY, VERY NICE TECHNIQUE. THANKS.

[Sweetlight]

Okay, sorry I followed your instructions and got the effect. Good stuff. Thanks for your patience.

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[Sweetlight]

Here is a quick stab at it although you still seem to have more of a smoother kind of touch. Maybe it takes more smudge than I am doing.

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[Edalisse]

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

Here is a quick stab at it although you still seem to have more of a smoother kind of touch. Maybe it takes more smudge than I am doing.

c

Now I'm confused. The technique I was referring to is Amica's rendition of the Flower Girl. Amica did a very impressive "Fake" smudge. That is the one we're talking about, right? In any event it is a great way to smooth the skin.

[Sweetlight]

HaHa, I can't breathe now from laughing. Nope, I was talking about yours

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