Twin Falls

[Brownbear]

Hi Frank,

Thank you! Yes, your versions fit my vision! Please do send me the steps you took I would love to give it a try!

OK Christina, I don't want to disappoint you but I'm going to take a chance. Andre's images are different, his scene is significantly simpler and has different lighting involved. Your image is busier making it more difficult to control. I may not be able to get close enough for discriminating tastes.

If this move in the right direction for you, I'll send you the PSE file so that you can see each of the steps I took. I actually made two copies. One with the silky water and one with the water a bit more natural by merging with another image you had posted where you said that you liked that one. At the time I thought that you were referring to the water but now I realize that you were referring to the colouring of the foliage.

Thank you for letting me have some fun with your images!

This is the second one I tried. This one I softened a bit:



And this is the one I did while waiting for permission to play and before I had a clearer idea of what you were shooting for:



I hope these move the images closer to your vision!

[Marie Hass]

Christina, I love the commentary and involvement your threads engender.

I really like the last image you are working with. A stunner.

Marie

[Brownbear]

Hi Marie,

As do I, so a pleasure to hear.

Thank you. I will be giving it one more try this weekend.

PS Today, almost one year later I came across another slug... If you recall the silly slug image I posted a long time ago - I'm sure this one is much better (I know I shouldn't say that until I upload the image) nevertheless watch for it.

Christina, I love the commentary and involvement your threads engender.

I really like the last image you are working with. A stunner.

Marie

[Marie Hass]

PM me when you have posted him. I would not want to miss it.

Marie

[deetheturk]

Keep at it Christina,i'm sure that with all the help that's been given you will come up with an image that you are pleased with,good luck

David

[Brownbear]

Frank kindly sent me detailed instructions for post processing this image.

The exercise in post processing was a great one for me to see all of the small things that make a difference to an image, as well as the use of multiple layers.

Post processing involved using brightness and contrast layers to bring out the detail in the water, plus my own curves adjustment to bring out detail in the water, burning highlights in the falls and dodging shadows on the canyon wall, selectively increasing the green of the foliage and keeping just a wee bit of this green on the water as the green foliage would be reflected in the water (as it would be naturally), and adding a little contrast of the image.

Burning and dodging was a great exercise because it forced me to think about what details I wanted to bring out in the image.

Note for Frank... I didn't apply any filters because I don't have the same program, or Gaussian blur because it looked very odd when I tried it.

Following are two version of the processed image. Two because I experienced some confusion using multiple layers and I ended up doing the exercise twice. I'm just learning to use Photoshop CC so while my images don't look as fine as Franks they are much closer to what I was hoping to achieve, and I'm sure that when I take another look at this image at a later date I will be able to tweak it so it is what I envisioned. At this moment I prefer #2 which is lighter than my original version but a little darker than the vision in my head.

1.



2.



Thank you Frank!

PS

Marie.. Will do!

Thank you David!

[FootLoose]

It is looking really good, Christina. I prefer the 2nd one, too.

[FrankMi]

Excellent results Christina! My final result doesn't matter. Your final results matters very much as it shows that you are developing considerable skill using tools that are new to you and that you can achieve the results that you want. I am tickled pink to see how far you have come with this image.

Don't worry about the Gaussian Blur to create the Dreamy Effect. The resulting change should be very subtle and often only subconsciously noticed if at all.

[Polar01]

Christina just for your info, your have that blur, just go to the filter pull down, down to blur and you will see it, as you state that your have Photoshop CC.

cheers: Allan

[Brownbear]

Frank... The guide you provided along with the how to and useful why's was immensely helpful. A dreamy look sounds like something I would like to know how to do, so I will try it again today. Thank you.

Allan... Thank you. Truly appreciated

[FrankMi]

Frank... The guide you provided along with the how to and useful why's was immensely helpful. A dreamy look sounds like something I would like to know how to do, so I will try it again today. Thank you.

Hi Christina, if you are going to try the Dreamy Look, think about it this way and it may be easier to visualize; You want to blend a little bit of the image that has been blurred with a lot of the original image that is sharp. The goal is to introduce a slight softening to the image without loosing any of the sharpness from the original layer.

1. Copy the original image
2. Blur one of the copies anywhere from 10 to 40 pixels.
3. Using the top layer's Opacity setting in the Layers Panel, change the Opacity to about 85% if the Blurred image is the bottom layer or to about 15% if the blurred image is the top layer.

The result is a sharp image that has soft overtones. Depending upon the image at hand, you may want to increase or decrease the percentage of blur.

This works very well on subjects that have a lot of high contrast detail such as foliage but not very well on large hard objects such as buildings.

In addition, you can use your newly learned masking techniques to apply the Dreamy Effect only to those areas that would benefit such as the foliage around a cottage in the woods, but not apply the effect to the cottage itself.

Hope this helps!

[Brownbear]

Hi Frank,

Thank you for advising on the how-tos. Here it is...

Hi Christina, if you are going to try the Dreamy Look, think about it this way and it may be easier to visualize; You want to blend a little bit of the image that has been blurred with a lot of the original image that is sharp. The goal is to introduce a slight softening to the image without loosing any of the sharpness from the original layer.

1. Copy the original image
2. Blur one of the copies anywhere from 10 to 40 pixels.
3. Using the top layer's Opacity setting in the Layers Panel, change the Opacity to about 85% if the Blurred image is the bottom layer or to about 15% if the blurred image is the top layer.

The result is a sharp image that has soft overtones. Depending upon the image at hand, you may want to increase or decrease the percentage of blur.

This works very well on subjects that have a lot of high contrast detail such as foliage but not very well on large hard objects such as buildings.

In addition, you can use your newly learned masking techniques to apply the Dreamy Effect only to those areas that would benefit such as the foliage around a cottage in the woods, but not apply the effect to the cottage itself.

Hope this helps!

[FrankMi]

Hi Frank,

Thank you for advising on the how-tos. Here it is...

Excellent Christina!

Folks, if you open the image in Lightbox and use the arrows to switch back and forth between this image and the previous one, you can more easily see how the effect has changed the image. The change should not smack you between the eyes but rather add a hint of softness without sacrificing any detail. That's why they call it the Dreamy Effect.

Once you get to this point Christina, you can vary the percentage based on the image you are working with to give just the right amount of softness for your personal taste.