Connie Reinhart
About the Image(s)
A dogwood tree lives in our backyard. It has grown almost three-fold since we moved here 52 years ago. It fills our view with soft blossoms in the spring and red berries in fall. It is now so large that squirrels and birds can explore its branches without disturbing each other. We have many photos of this marvelous tree in every season of the year. This particular shot was used as a thank you card after last Christmas. In the drab dreary weather of January we could all use a few dogwood dreams. It was entered in the digital art category of a local art show last spring and won honorable mention. It was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II, set on auto (I was being lazy). The jpeg was opened in Camera Raw, but essentially processed in Topaz Studio as a plug-in for Photo Shop. I never recorded the steps, but most likely used AI Clear, Precision Contrast, and Precision Details. I wanted it to look like a watercolor with pen-and-ink details filled in. This was probably accomplished with either a pre-set or a combination of adjustments.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted
One thing that I did find distracting was the two branches on the upper left side of the picture. I found their blurriness distracting, and while I understand why they're blurry, they stand out because none of the other branches are that blurry. My eye unfortunately goes right to them.
I would suggest that if you can't sharpen them up, then you might take them out of the image.   Posted: 11/11/2019 12:24:33
(Group 43)
I too would remove the blurred twigs and also just the bright blue spot on the upper left.
I like the texture in the background, it all works really well together :)   Posted: 11/26/2019 18:53:19