Texture Tuesday : Light House Study in Topaz

 

Here's the image worked up in PSE and Topaz Impression :
Layer 1) Background image with minor fixes
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - Hard Light Blend Mode - 100% opacity
Layer 3) Jai Johnson's Peach Kiss Canvas Texture - Multiply 100%
Layer 4) Nancy Claeys Just Peachy Texture - Multiply 22%
Layer 5) Kim Klassen's Flourish Magic Texture - Screen 31%
Layer 6) Merge Layers (as opposed to flattening- this way I don't lose the layers)
Layer 7) Topaz Impression - Chiaruscuro filter (played with settings, and moved the glow point to behind the lighthouse tower, lessened the vignette effect, among other things)
Layer 8)  Kim Klassen's Flourish Magic Texture - Screen 59%

I only have a few days left of the free trial, so I thought I should play a little more.  I had this worked up in PSE alone, and I have to say, Topaz did improve the overall image.  I might have to purchase it afterall.  We'll see ...  I'm working out a workflow for

Here's another play at it [Sheila, this one's for you--It's as close as I'll get to actually sketching this subject!] :

Here's what I did on this one for a much different feeling :
Layer 1) Background image > Topaz Impression - Soft Sketch 2
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - Soft Light Blend Mode at 63% opacity
Layer 3) Original Image - Multiply 34%
Layer 4) Nancy Claeys Kimberly Texture - Soft Light 100%
Layer 5) Copy Layer 4 - Multiply 29%
Layer 6) Jai Johnson's Peach Kiss Canvas Texture - Soft Light 17%
Layer 7) Kim Klassen's Flourish Magic Texture - Overlay 29%

Here's the Georgia O'Keefe version (above).  I left it large so you can see the smudging especially on the tree branches.  It does a nice job of creating a painterly effect.  I let Topaz do most of the work on these last 2. 

Here's the Turner Storms 2 filet in Topaz.    It's really neat to look at these close up.  They do look like built up layers of paint.  It's pretty neat -- if that's the effect you're looking for.   I left these images large so you could zoom in and see the differences close-up.  Ok--I'm "this close" to purchasing Topaz Impression.  Just waiting for the coupon that I let pass me by so far.

By this time, I worked out the workflow for using Topaz :

Layer 1) Background Image (cleaned up a bit)
Layer 2)  Copy Background Image > Topaz Impression > Turner Storms 2
Layer 3) Nancy Claeys Just Peachy Texture - Multiply 20%
That's it!

Here's the original image, not far from my house.   Nice sunset that night with a little haze across the water.    Many evenings while we're walking the dogs, we see photographers set up to shoot  this scene at sunset.  It's a favorite local subject.

I cleaned up a few things  on my original (I love the spot-healing tool in PSE!  It's a miracle worker!).  I removed the stop sign.  Yes--it's such a popular photography spot, the owners had to put up a sign to warn about their security system and no-trespassing stop sign to keep people out.  It's situated at the mouth of a River as it empties from a large Lake.  A suitable place for a Light House, but it is a private residence.  Once in a while, we get to see the Fresnel lens doing it's work--but not this night.  Perhaps it was too early?

And now for the musical portion of today's meditation on Light Houses :

Yeah--This song never fails to make tears well up in my eyes.  A sad story--even the Light House was affected by the tragedy.  Yeah for anthropomorphism!

And then I think of how happy Una was living with her Aunt and Uncle at the Light House in Ahab's Wife -- a much happier Light House Story.   Still one of my all-time favorite novels.

Here's another song (a happier one this time) : Vienna Teng's Harbor
(I am so glad she decided to follow her bliss in music and not computer science!  Enjoy!)



"The Light in me will guide you home." -- Vienna Teng

How's that for a day's "light" work?
Thanks for joining my on year-long study of Light, my one word for 2015.

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light.
Visit my Flikr Photo Album on Light (my stuff).
Visit my You Tube Play List for Light (mostly music).

Thank you for sharing my Light Journey.  ;-)