Adding Life to an Image.

There are times when the scene before you looks much better than the picture you just took.  Sometimes it is an issue of field of  view.  Other times your camera isn't able to capture the dynamic range of the scene as well as your eyes and brain can.  This scene looked flat and uninteresting straight from camera.

This is the merged HDR file.  You'll note the numerous dust spots in the sky.  I realized after this trip that my camera was in desperate need of a good cleaning.  Processing of the merged file consisted of cleaning up all the dust spots, minor straightening, and running through PixelBender's Oil Paint filter.

The oil paint filter is my go to when I'm looking for a more abstract look.  It has several sliders that are very useful in determining how you want the final image to look. 

I knew from the start that this would end up being more of a digital painting than a photograph.  The term digital painting is used very loosely when it comes to this because there are people with the talent to actually paint a scene like this instead of applying a filter.

With an abundance of dead space in the sky it felt like the perfect opportunity to add a poem or verse. Choosing Psalm 119:105 was obvious as the lighthouse provides guidance for ships.

By choosing to stray from reality a little I felt that punching up the colors wouldn't take away from the overall image. 

Technical data for this image. Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 180mm, iso 200, median exposure 0.8 seconds @ f/14.0

Creating something artistic

We have all had times when the scene before us looks better in person than it does through the camera.  Rather than deleting those images try applying an artistic filter to add some interest.  Photoshop has many built in and some free available for download.  Depending on your needs and budget there is a myriad of plugins available for purchase.  I've purchased the photographer bundle from Topaz Labs.  Among enhancement filters there are artistic filters.  The best part is the effects are customizable.  The following image was a panoramic HDR of the forest that surrounds the Gull Lake timeshare our family enjoys every fall.  Initially the panoramic didn't really have the interest that I was looking for.  After using a couple different filters the final image was much more to my liking. 

For the final image I used a plugin that gave it the look of an oil painting.  If you go to my SmugMug site and look at the image full size (original size) you will see it even adds brush strokes.  I had it printed as a 10x30 and am quite pleased with how it turned out.  It would look even better on canvas.

Next time you have an image that didn't capture quite as you would like, try getting creative with the processing and you may find that a dud image turns into something great.