"The Simple Sunrise" Canon - Corel

Simple Sunrise

I was up very early just the other day and the Sunrise was very pretty, I put on a light jacket and grabbed my Canon Rebel XTi. Out the door I went. We have new stairs down to our lower deck, I transversed them keeping an eye out for a good shot of this Sunrise.

I took a number of shots simply in Landscape mode and Auto Mode, as it was a bit chilly. I had included the lake, Bald Eagle Lake, in a couple, but it wasn't reflecting enough of the sun and clouds in the water.

I took this Simple Sunrise, composing the clouds and tree tops surrounding it.

Later I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 and upped the Saturation Vibrancy by 33. I saved that large iteration after I added my signature. I then Opened it in Corel PhotoPaint to use Filter Forge's Frames adding a Film frame to the image. I resampled to display size and saved in JPEG format.

I kept my approach simple to this image. I like it very much without more processing. I hope you do, too.

"Grunge Guitars and Guitar Player" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Grunge Guitars

Phone Capture of Projector Movie

I am continuing with Grunge Guitars as subject matter today. I took a close up of my Seagull 12-String and a Lyon 6-String with my Canon Rebel XTi. Using Corel PSP Pro X3 I cropped and rotated to fit a texture. I had taken the texture and auto painted it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 with the Illustration feature. I had it set for Random Circle Brushstrokes.

First I imported the auto painted texture into PSP and then opened the Guitars photograph in the same. I then used Effects, Edge Detect, Find All for that layer. I adjusted the color depth with Curves. I then used the property Multiply to create the transparency to show the background texture.

I Merged with Flatten All layers. Using Filter Forge's Frames plugin I added a small Film frame to the piece. I then added a black Picture Frame with that feature. I saved that iteration and resized for display.

I am including a Phone camera photo taken of a concert DVD from a big screen projector. It is John Mayer Playing Guitar. I ran it through PSP to enhance it a bit. I also used Picasa's HDRish feature on it. You can see a little movie icon in it. I only enhanced it a bit so no signature on this one.

Listening --- The Boats on Bald Eagle Lake

Post 952 and counting!

"Beauty and Decay II" - PSP Pro X3 - PhotoPaint

Beauty II

Decay II

Browsing in Picasa 3 I found these two photographs, the first one taken by myself and the second by my Son, Keir M. Gatzka. I opened the sunrise over Bald Eagle Lake with PSP Pro X3 and used the Brushstroke effect for a painterly look. I also applied the Vibrancy tool and upped the saturation a bit.

I browsed through the Picture Frame section and selected a frame, which I later added a border to while adding my signature in PhotoPaint.

This second one received much the same treatment in PSP Pro X3, the only difference is that it was posterized prior to my enhancing it more. I used the same frame and border tools as I did with the first image. With this one I applied Local Equalization and the Tone Curve for depth in PhotoPaint, then used PSP.

I saved the larger files and then resampled for sharing here and saved those iterations.

Listening --- The Beach Boys --- Good Vibrations

New PSP and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 Images

Bald Eagle Lake Sunset

Washburn Lyon 6-String Guitar

I'm having an enjoyable time using Corel's PSP X3 and Painter Essentials 4 (which was a bonus prize along with PSP X3.) The images you see above are new ones that I did using these products. I did not keep track of all the steps I took as these are new programs to me and I need time to get used to them. Once I have I will be again explaining my techniques in detail.

As you can see I used an effect on the first image that created a 1960's like photographic image. The second image I used painterly effects in Painter Essentials both Illustration and Colored Pencils for this result.

I highly recommend these programs for your arsenal of Digital Photographic tools.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- Evening Jam DADGAD

Within Walking Distance - High Contrast - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

Click for Larger Image

Click for Larger Image

Click for Larger Image

Click for Larger Image

Less words and more images, all these photographs were taken today. I grabbed my Canon XTi Rebel DSLR and took a walk. All of these images were a short walk from my studio. I applied my High Contrast images workflow to these, as has been described in previous posts, if interested look for "High Contrast" in the tag cloud and select it.

Listening --- Children playing, boats and jet skis on the Lake --- Wonderful day

Grass Along the Lakeshore - Painter 11

This photograph is of Bald Eagle Lake in Michigan. It was taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka, not far from our house, at evening time. I found this photograph browsing with Picasa 3 through my large collection of images.

After selecting it with Picasa 3 I Opened With PhotoPaint, I applied the Image> Transform> Posterize> set at 7 colors. I also lightened the image using the Tone Curve. I saved this file and opened it in Painter 11.

Here I began using the Digital Watercolor Filbert brush on the sky, after doing a quick clone. I set the clone button on for the brushes. I also used a Dry Bristle brush and the soft cloner at the end to add back in the wild grass.

Back in PhotoPaint I added the Watercolor frame, using Filter Forge, and a 10 pixel sky blue border, saving the large file as a jpg. Then adding my signature I resampled the large file for sharing on the internet to 1200 x 801.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Draw Closer - DADGAD
via FoxyTunes

New Song above is on my Acoustic Guitar Community song listing if you want to listen to it. Go to the link on the right side of the page and click on My Page listing.