"Leftovers from the 2013 Dream Cruise" Collage - Picasa - Corel

Vintage Tidbits Collage

I had some more photographs left over from the 2013 Woodward Ave Dream Cruise, I opened Picasa 3.9 and selected four, two with headlights, two back ends, of some of the cars I had photographed.

I picked build Collage in Picasa, made some appropriate selections for the Digital Collage and had Picasa make it. Being that the overall collage was a large piece I opened Corel PhotoPaint and resampled to a workable size.

Once in PhotoPaint I applied the Adjust, Local Equalization tool for texture and an HDR look. Getting back color depth and punch I used the Tone Curve Luminosity curve and pulled it down in the center of the graph. Then I selected Effects, Filter Forge's Photo Effects, Vibrancy for additional punch to the colors.

I saved that iteration and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I applied the Sharpen High Pass Sharpen Overlay. Back in PhotoPaint I added my signature in white, and saved again with some compression for display.

"2013 Woodward Ave Dream Cruise V" Corel PSP Pro X3

Ford Fairlane 500

Vintage Custom DeSoto

I have two more photographs I wanted to share with you from the Detroit Metro Woodward Ave Dream Cruise of 2013.

I shot a Red Ford Fairlane 500 Convertible as well as a Vintage Custom Blue DeSoto. I opened the photographs in Corel PSP Pro X3 and made a few adjustments.

1. Digital Camera Noise Removal
2. Smart Photo Fix
3. Saturation Vibrancy for punch to the color
4. Sharpen High Pass Sharpen Soft Light
5. Backlighting light setting
6. Image Information - Title and Copyright information
7. Visible Watermark for my signature

This is the basic workflow I used on both photographs for enhancing them in PSP Pro X3. I have been relying on PSP more for my basic adjustments and try to keep them to a flow that works to make the photographs appear better. Sometimes the original exposures need a little help.

I hope you have enjoyed the photographs of the 2013 Dream Cruise.We saw many cars speeding and peeling out and the noise was amazingly loud as they did. We took a little trip a further down South on Woodward but hit a huge back up of cars and decided not to wait in the jam of it all. So we did not make it down to the MoPar section of the Cruise.

"2013 Woodward Ave Dream Cruise IV" Picasa HDR - Corel PSP Pro X3

Vintage Convertible with Leather Boot

For today's images I return to my selection of Custom Car photographs from the Dream Cruise. Using Picasa 3.9 I selected a Convertible Hot Rod with a Leather Fender Boot on the front.

I Cropped the image to focus on the Convertible. Then I used Picasa's HDR tool lowering the Radius and Strength. I then used the Punch tool and adjusted the colors for the punch. I saved that iteration and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I increased Saturation only a bit and applied the Sharpen High Pass Sharpen tool. I added my signature using the Visible Watermark and saved again. Then I resized for the blog posting.

Short on time today I only did one image, and I have only a few more to select from, I hope you are enjoying these posts about the Dream Cruise and the Custom Cars. Click on the image for a larger view.

"More 2013 Dream Cruise Custom Cars III" Corel PSP Pro X3

55 or 56 Custom Chevrolet

Vintage Lafayette

Custom Pinstriping

Lastnight I used Corel PSP Pro X3 to enhance these photographs from the Detroit Metro Woodward Ave 2013 Dream Cruise. I used a number of similar steps on each image:

• Digital Camera Noise Removal
• 
  
• Smart Photo Fix
• 
  
• Saturation adjustments
• 
  
• Sharpen High Pass Sharpen
• 
  
• Backlighting

These were the basics I used with some other adjustments on each. I used PSP Pro X3 exclusively for these images adding EXIF copyright info and titles and using the Visible Watermark for my signature. Each image was saved as a large iteration then resized for display here. Click on each image for the larger view. Enjoy!

"2013 Detroit Metro Woodward Ave Dream Cruise II" Paint.NET - Corel PSP Pro X3 - PhotoPaint

1957 Chevy Bel Air

Vintage Chevy Pickup Truck

Vintage Custom Carmel and Brown

I opened Picasa 3.9 browsing to my Dream Cruise Car folder. I selected my next Photograph, a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Cropping it I focused upon the Chevy, I saved that crop. I then opened with Paint.NET where I applied the Effects Artistic Ink Sketch with full color and lessening the Ink pen.

I upped the Saturation and I Sharpened the image a bit. I then saved it again. I reopened with Corel PhotoPaint. Using the KPT Collection's Lens Flare to add a flare touch. I Inverted my signature to white and added it and saved the large iteration.

I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and I Sharpened with High Pass Sharpen. I also added the title and copyright to the EXIF image information using Image, Image Information.

My next photograph, Vintage Chevy Pickup Truck, I opened in Picasa and applied the HDR tool. I decreased the Radius and Strength. I saved that iteration and opened with PSP Pro X3. I applied the Digital Camera Noise Removal. Then I used the High Pass Sharpen tool on the image. I increased the Saturation by a third. I added my signature with Visible Watermark tool.

From the Organizer in PSP Pro X3 I next chose a close up of a Carmel and Brown Coupe, of which I know little. I cropped this as I took the photograph because the owner had a McCafe cup on top of the roof. But I really liked the Harley Davidson Eagle parking lights.

I used the Digital Camera Noise Removal, Smart Photo Fix, and High Pass Sharpen on the image. Then I applied the Saturation Vibrancy for a punch to the color.

I hope you enjoy the photographic images I have from the 2013 Dream Cruise. I have more to post and will be away from the Guitar motif for a while yet. Thanks for looking! Remember to click on the images for a larger view!

"2013 Woodward Dream Cruise, Various Cars I" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Paint.NET

1979 Monte Carlo

HDR Wine Coupe

Chevelle SS

I was able to attend the Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise for 2013 and garner some photographs of automobiles. I used our Canon Rebel XTi camera with a tripod for the photographs.

I will be sharing sets of these images, after my working on them for differing effects in my next number of posts. I will try to explain that workflow.

With this 1979 Monte Carlo, belonging to my Brother in Law, I used Corel PSP Pro X3 for some adjustments. I used the Digital Camera noise removal, and the Smart Photo fix. I also boosted the Saturation with the Vibrancy set at about a third.

The Wine Coupe I also did in PSP Pro X3. I used two exposures to create one HDR image. I also used the Noise Removal, Smart Photo Fix and the Sharpen High Pass on it.

The Carmel and Black Chevelle Super Sport I opened in Paint.NET and applied a light Ink Sketch to the image. I adjusted the Curves for depth and increased the Saturation a bit. I applied KPT Collection's Lens Flare for some color as well.

As I took quite a few photographs of the cars in my area I will be posting more Automobile images in my posts. I hope you enjoy them!

"Digital Painting 12-String and 6_String Guitars" Corel Painter - Plus

12-String and 6-String Guitars

I browsed my guitar photographs and opened this one in Corel Painter 11. I digitally painted it there and used the following steps. I used my Wacom Tablet to paint with.

• 1. Corel Painter 11
• A. Brushes
• 1) Two Airbrush variants
• 2) Two Digital Watercolor Brush variants
• 
  
• 2. Picasa 3.9
• A. Warmify
• B. HDR 
• C. Cinemascope
• 
  
• 3. Corel PSP Pro X3
• A. Fit to window
• B. Effects
• 1) Speckles Brushstrokes
• 2) Texture - Hatching
• C. Adjust
• 1) Saturation - Vibrancy

I added my signature in Corel PhotoPaint in White, resizing to display size for this post.

Artists in the Plus "In The Spotlight with Nicole Monroe" Picasa - Corel

In The Spotlight - Nicole Monroe

I missed the live show but caught it on YouTube. This Singer Songwriter can sing and play! I took a Picasa 3.9 full-screen capture and did some editing there.

I cropped the image to fit, and applied Warmify for color. I used the HDR tool with a slight radius and no fade. I then applied the Museum Matte framing to the image and saved it.

From Picasa I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 applying the Smart Photo Fix and boosted color. I used the Skin Smoothing tool and the Digital Camera Noise Removal tool as well. I added my signature and saved again. I then resized for display and saved that iteration.

If you, too, missed the live show, here is the link to YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIQdQQ3txiw#at=256

I want to apologize for not posting as often, Things have been busy this month! As I am certain it has been for others as well. Thank you for your patience.

"Yellow Floral with Ground Cover" Corel - Plus

Yellow Floral with Ground Cover

From our Garden another floral photograph. I browsed to the folder in Picasa 3.9 and then opened with Corel PSP Pro X3.

I applied the Smart Photo Fix feature, increasing the color. Added some punch to the color using Saturation Vibrancy at about a third. I then applied the Sharpen High Pass Sharpen Soft Light.

I saved that iteration. I resized for display and saved again under a differing name. Then I reopened with Corel PhotoPaint to add my signature in white, something my PNG files haven't let me do yet in PSP Pro, my fault no doubt.

I saved for gatzkART! and did this blog post for your enjoyment.

Guitar wise I was playing my 12-String Seagull and had it tuned in Open C Tuning. I made up some chords and rhythm and "Nonsense Words" and titled the song that.

Even though my amplifier is shot I can reroute my headset line through my PC Stereo Speakers; into my Line 6 Toneport UX1 and I recorded it in Audacity. I recorded the guitar first and then the words and made up the melody as I went. I saved as a project for further adjustments and exported as an MP3. I may put it on SoundCloud, but it was just for fun.