Pictures with Santa

[cliffmccartney]

Hello all,

I've been away for a while - life's been crazy.

I had my first Santa photoshoot yesterday. He was looking for some images for his marketing collateral and web site. I took a couple of them and converted them to paintings in Topaz Impression.

As always, C&C welcome and appreciated.

Thanks for viewing!

Cliff

#1


#2


#3

[bnnrcn]

Hi Cliff, I especially like #1 and #2 I didn't know it was possible to do this kind of images with Topaz .

[Shadowman]

Nice images.

[rpcrowe]

Great captures and excellent PP! I like #1 and #2 the best. On #3, I'd like to see a bit more separation between Santa's head and beard and the column in back...

[cliffmccartney]

Thanks Binnur, John, and Richard!

Binnur - Topaz Impression is a very nice package. They have another plug-in called Simplify, but IMHO it's not as "real" as Impression. Impression has a great set of presets, and you have pretty fine grained control over the image. I'm really a Nik guy, but they don't have an "art" plugin.

Richard - thanks for the comment - I see what you mean. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do about that. Any tips?

Thanks again!

[Manfred M]

Cliff - I like the first image the best (in fact I like it very much), the other two, not as much.

The second image seems a bit cold and contrasty; perhaps not the usual view of a warm and happy Santa, and Richard sums up my thoughts on the third shots. Not enough separation from the background around the head and hand.

[Brownbear]

Hi Cliff,

Just to say that I think these are especially beautiful. Indeed they look like paintings. The 2nd is my favourite of the set.

[IzzieK]

1 and 2 are my favourites here. I didn't know either that Topaz is capable of doing a painting effect like so. Beautifully done.

[rpcrowe]

Richard - thanks for the comment - I see what you mean. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do about that. Any tips?

During World War One, Will Rodgers, the actor and comedian, said... The way to get rid of the German Submarines is to biol the Atlantic Ocean, then all the subs will have to surface and you can pick them off.

When asked how he would boil the ocean, he said, "I have the ideas but, I'll leave the details to you."

However, I tried selecting Santa's face and head with a Viveza control point and that did not work. Then I just burned in the column and dodged the face and hair with the Photoshop burn and dodge tools. I don't know if this works any better.