Category: landscape photography

Photo Editing – Adding Texture with Oil Paint Filter

processed photoProcessed Photo – no filter

Many times when I am finished processing a photo, to make it pop I add a little bit of texture. In my opinion, the best way for me to do this is to use the Oil Paint filter in Photoshop. It can be found in the menu bar under Filter; Stylize. After texture has been added the settings can be changed in the side menu bar to Screen or Soft light, etc. along with the Opacity to achieve the desired effect. Shown below. Very fun to experiment with! If you are looking to add texture to just a part of the photo a mask can be added to the oil paint layer to brush out the effect in different parts of the photo.

oil paint

soft Light

finished photo

Flower Photography – backgrounds

sunflower sun-wpSony A6000; Canon Macro 60mm; 10mm extension tube; f/2.8; 1/100 sec; ISO 125

Always trying new things…I discovered creating backgrounds can be very easy with a little thought put behind it and an element of surprise! To create this shot, I picked a large marigold and placed it in my homemade clip holder. I positioned it so that the sunflower that was in the background was just off to the right.  Initially my thought was to pick up a splash of yellow from the sunflower to compliment the marigold. But to my surprise, the extension tube on the macro lens created enough blur that it added an artistic illusion of the sun.

Simple set up shown below.

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Flower Photography – Getting Creative

Center Lily05151

              “Lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is.”                        Jiddu Krishnamurti

Can’t count the number of times I have taken photos of lilies, nor the number of times it was like any other photo out there. Soooo, today I decided to get creative and focus on parts of the lily that photographically are not that common. This is what I came up with. These photos were shot with a Sony A6000 using a Canon 60mm Macro Lens. f/2.8; 160 sec; 60mm.

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Inserting An Object into A Photograph

SkiffA skiff inserted into a photograph of Lake Michigan.

Capri (107)The photograph of the skiff was taken in Capri, Italy. I loved the skiff’s simplicity and faded colors, but the surrounding area left a lot to be desired to capture a good photo.

One day I was looking at some photographs that I took of Lake Michigan and decided to see if I could insert the skiff into a beach photo and make it work. I first processed the skiff to pop the colors, then I cut it out. I brought both the cutout and Lake Michigan photo into Photoshop and combined them: adjusted colors, luminosity, and cloned sand around the bottom of the skiff. I decided to add some texture by using the  Oil Paint filter under Stylize. Then to finish the composite I created a mask and lightly brushed the filter out in different areas. I did not want a lot of texture in the skiff. Finally I went into Photoshop Elements and added the border.

This exercise is a really excellent way to experiment and use tools that you don’t often get to use in normal photo processing. I must say I learned a lot!