Hi Bob, I love it! I think it is a good sign that you got so wrapped up in creating this wonderful image that you can't reproduce it. To me, that's the sign of an artist lost in thought. I see the image as very airy and uplifting--a good way to start the New Year, and certainly a far cry from the bullet-riddled train. So you made the swirl in Topaz Studio? I haven't tried that yet. I knew that it's possible in PS. Is there a "swirl" filter or some such in Topaz?

  Posted: 01/03/2022 16:31:55

Bob,

The first thing I saw when I looked at your image was a car (two headlights) about to run over two flowers. I shook my head a couple of times and looked again. This time I saw two large fans blowing the petals off the flowers. At that point, I almost gave up drinking!

But, more seriously, when I see a "created image" that invokes different thoughts whenever I look at it, I know that I've found a wonderful abstract. The symmetry in this image is wonderful. And, the whole photograph speaks loudly of your creative mind. I can't offer any suggestions for improvement. Well done!

  Posted: 01/03/2022 16:41:02

Thanks Bunny for your positive words. Yes, the Swirl filter in Topaz is hid as one of the "Motion" filters. I did use the Ps Twirl filter, but I haven't found a friendly way to combine.. masks of the flower and then creating the Swirl which makes a non masked (or another masked) flower and move that mask in swirls, spins or others in order to get the effect I wanted.
I think of forgetting as more of a senior citizen issue vs a great artist.   Posted: 01/03/2022 17:28:33

Bob

You started '22 off with nice visual impact from your swirl processing. Well done

Emil   Posted: 01/04/2022 12:07:42

I love your photo, Bob, this is amazing! Very creative and a side of you that's new to see. Your symmetry is spot on, there are lots of lines to help the eye navigate through the image, and the histogram shows a broad tonal range for black and white.

I had to try my hand at an idea for you. I edited the photo in LR with these adjustments.

Highlights +37, shadows -16, whites +24, clarity +48, dehaze +18. In the Tone Curve, I selected Strong Contrast.

My editing style typically leans toward darker tones so that is a major difference.

Keep up the great work; I look forward to seeing what you come up with for next month!

LuAnn

  Posted: 01/14/2022 11:29:20

Hi LuAnn. I have meant to be disrespectful with ignoring your comments. It's just that I can't reconstruct my settings. In the BW version I had Hilights@-49,white@-8 and nothing in any of the other settings, however, when I look at the colored version I have a whole bunch of settings with nothing matching yours. Then there were the unknown settings in Topaz but I probably did't make Hilights,shadows,or whites in Topaz, but I regularly used precise details micro and small @ 15-20 and sometimes precise contrast. I generally use tone curve in LrC but use the 4 sliders and don't remember every seeing a selection for Strong Contrast. Like we hear all the time there are multiple ways for users to come up with similar results in Ps & Lr. I like your version but I didn't find it necessary to download it and put it in Lr next to my version to see what the differences might be. I just accept that all versions are different and leave it there. I do think that you might of used less Radiance in Topaz than I did, but that's not important. As of now I plan on using a hi-contrast landscape for Feb.
Bob   Posted: 01/24/2022 16:03:21

Well LuAnn you taught me something new. Going back to photog that I had Lightroom lessons with, Dave Kingham, and we were addressing tone curves for color. I have established presets based on using tone curves, that's the button with curves on the left of tone curve adjustment. I had to click the gray ie: BW curve button to find that linear window. I have not been using that feature when developing BW. I might of just forgotten it because his toning doesn't use contrast much at all. After I just went crazy with the strong contrast tone curve (making Flat to very bottom and to top on my subway car) the Contrast slider on the tone adjustments didn't move off of 0. Just another example of making edits differently with same or different results. Thank you.   Posted: 01/27/2022 11:19:57