topaz impression | Susan Bailey Photography

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The original image (below) was very busy and the light was backward of what I wanted. In simple steps, this is what I did.

Cropped image.
I used the Content Aware Fill tool in Photoshop to remove the pipe on upper right. There were other little spots to fix with this tool and the Clone tool.
Added a 50% gray layer and low opacity dark brush (8%) to darken the foreground.
Used the 50% gray layer with low opacity white brush (8%) to lighten the water. You could also achieve Steps #3 and 4 with the Radial Filter in Lightroom.. thanks to Tony Sweet for sharing that tool in his recent ebook. I do most of my work in Photoshop but this is a super option and easy to use.
Finally took the image into Topaz Impression and used Impressionistic by Erin Applebee Photography.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA This is actually a tiny waterfall in a beautiful woodsy area.

With so many special lenses and techniques along with unlimited software possibilities available, I can have fun all day with just one image. Here is what I did to create the ones below.

I bought a couple of bunches of flowers at Trader Joe’s for $3.99 a bunch. I placed the vase on white foamcore and used a neutral wall as the background. I did use studio lights for faster shooting and greater depth of field, but you don’t have to. Each caption states the software effect I used.