"Silence After the Storm" C & C please

After the Christmas Day 2010 snow storm in North Carolina. C & C, please.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'

It looks like a really great Christmas card! Love it! Good job.

surrealistic!

Love it.....I definitely see a Christmas card in this. The only thing I see that bugs me just a tiny bit is that the gazebo seems to be tilted slightly to the right.

I love this shot, nice capture, especially working in the snow --

does this have an oil painting effect done on it? I'd really like to see what it looks like before you add that effect. I think this would have more awe factor if it can still be identified as a photo instead of a painting. I love the composition of it and wish I was standing there.

Thank you all for your kind comments.

MommaBird80 wrote in post #11538552
It looks like a really great Christmas card!

sarch99 wrote in post #11542191
Love it.....I definitely see a Christmas card in this.

I LOL'ed when I read this. Didn't even cross my mind. But now that the idea is out there, thanks. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that next november I'll be adding some colored ornaments to the tree at right and using this as my 2011 card!

cameronrinut wrote in post #11543564
does this have an oil painting effect done on it? I'd really like to see what it looks like before you add that effect. I think this would have more awe factor if it can still be identified as a photo instead of a painting. I love the composition of it and wish I was standing there.

Bless you. The fact you want proof this was a photo means I accomplished my goal of moving an image from photo to art (and with apologies to the photo purists.)

For all you doubting Thomas's, here is the original. I even left the exif intact (and yes, a 5D2 is a digital camera, not a type of oil brush ).

You may notice I had original intent on a correct WB. The shift to blue in processing was totally accidental, but I like it so left it.

(Edit: hmmmm, that's interesting. When reducing the size of this in PS to post here, it was perfectly white. It now looks blueish to me. Wonder why. Did pbase do it or potn? Strange).

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'

Very cool, it looks like a painting.

Great job. I really love it. Do you care to share your processing?

I think its a little too blue to look real. Maybe thats what you wanted tho. Does look like a good composite.

Nice shot. This technique has become one of my favorites too. I really like how it pulls out the colors.

Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions. And yes, I may quickly remove some cyan/blue from the snow to see how it looks.

rhomsy wrote in post #11546803
Great job. I really love it. Do you care to share your processing?

Sure, no problem. I've been helped by others here, glad to pass it on. Encourage others to do the same.

I can give you about 90-95% of it. Not dodging the question - sometimes I just sit and piddle with pics. Good therapy - removes stress. I used to take notes of all steps, but no longer. A PITA.

- The image started with 3 faux-hdr's, 3 exposures each (9 pics)
- 1 for main with correct WB... (more later)
- 1 processed with a blue lake to mask in lake
- 1 with reds, yellows, browns for gazebos and bare branches in tree
- layered lake pic on main, manually masked in lake only
- layered red pic, created luminance mask for bark, wood colors, masked in
- picture was too busy - inherent in winter landscape pictures because of stick trees and bushes.
- used buzsim filter to reduce business. However, because buzsim creates as many problems as it solves, I created multiple buzsim layers, each with differing degree of effect.
- manually brushed in different buzsims (mask) with different opaque brushes. You can see evidence in the tree at right. I wanted the closer tree and bushes to be brought up, so I restored detail but left the larger background tree with more effect.
- manually brushed detail back in on dock, gazebo, etc. which you cannot see here because of image size.
- noticed that somewhere along the way my perfect wb had gone askew. examined and decided I liked the coolness which goes well with snow, so I let it be.
- cropped a tiny bit off right and left.

That's about it. Hope it helps.

my first impression woooooooooaaah !! if this was a painting i wud have bought it

Thank you all. I appreciate your encouraging comments and constructive criticism.

Lots of time investment in your post and it shows. I really enjoyed this capture.