What Would You Do (#36)

[Nathan deGargoyle]

In GIMP:

Duplicated the layer then used colour>threshold and select-by-colour to copy the tree and foreground and paste it on a seperate layer.

deleted the threshold layer.

Used seperate colour curves on the two layers to icrease the contrast.

Duplicated the complete layer and did a gradient map with a dark blue to light blue gradient.

Set mode to soft light and adjusted opacity.

Dramatic?

[Teewinot]

GOAL: I also decided to go with the drama route (it works well with this image!) and I also wanted to give it a bit of a vintage/antique look.

What I did (in PSP XI):
-Added a black border to the bottom of the image to add to the ground...it was a bit to narrow for me.
-Cloned out some of the top branches so there would be some sky space above to open up the crop a bit.
-Desaturated 100%
-Unsharp mask (radius 75, strength 30)
-Histogram midtones adjustment (-25)
-Curves adjustment
-Added 2 new layers (some textures from my collection) and blended at 100% Overlay
-Merged all 3 layers
-Added a pinch of color (sepia) to the final image

[windrider86]

I used two different programs to create this, I thought this image was a perfect candidate for hdr but because there was only one image I decided to create my own images with different levels of exposure.
First I went into PSP and lowered the brightness -25 and saved, Next I brightened up the image to +25 and saved. Then I used an hdr program and combined the 3 to create and hdr image, I played with the brightness levels until I found what i liked and then tone mapped the image using a red filter.
Saved that image and went back to psp and did a noise removal to smooth out the grainyness. Brightened up the image just a little bit more and here you have what i came up with this week.

[Sandie]

These are all so cool! I went a totally different route. Since I am still having trouble with layers, it is all in one layer.

1) I cloned out all the 'scrubs' in front and on the side of the clump of trees.
2) I did some curves until I got something, I liked color wise---although I would have like a bit more red and purple I think.
3) Then by accident I found the smudge tool and played with it a bit. It started looking kind of Van Gogh to me so I went with it.....

[windrider86]

Sandy, I really like what you did, its very deco!

[photofun]

I thought I'd have a go at it since I downloaded GIMP a few weeks ago and have been playing with it. I forget everything I did with it but I adjusted the curves, levels, hue. I'm sorry I can't be more precise but unless I'm following a tutorial I just start trying everything. I'm sure once I get more experienced I'll have to start paying better attention so I can reproduce things if need be.

[Sandie]

Windrider86: Sandy, I really like what you did, its very deco!

Thank you. I just love the threads like this because I see and learn so much by reading what everyone has done with the same image. There is not a 'bad' one in this bunch!

[Nobie]

Originally Posted by Teewinot

I really, really like this. Great job!

[Teewinot]

Nobie, thanks!

[FocalFrenzy]

Cloning, mirrored, cropped and "Ripple" effect applied with "Photo Explosion". Tint applied in Picasa.