Reign of serenity, Work-flow

"Reign of serenity", one of my favorites that I want to explain the work-flow:

   1.Background is one of my Zoom-Work captures has taken from the picture above on laptop LCD using a tripod.

   2. Importing taken image to CS5 in TIF 16 bit format.

   3. Applying a rotation.

   4.Then a crop.

   5. And non linear resizing to 4700*3000 pixel.

   6. Creating a misty Sun by Some low opacity soft brushes in different sizes. 

   7. These two lovely birds come from a picture of my friend "Dorel F." in this link:

(Click here)

   8. actually the right flying bird was duplicated and rotated to approach a lovely flight together!! you can see completed layers by now.

9. Recently in my works I usually use a texture for abstraction in details & atmosphere.  next step is using this texture photo.

   10. For a better result I decreased the layer opacity to 9%.

   11.The last step, applying a Levels adjustment layer; in this layer, for best performance, I did some changes in "RGB", "Red", "Green" & "Blue" channels:

   12. In RGB Channel.

   13. In Red channel.

   14. In Green channel.

   15. And in Blue channel.

That's All and the final result:

Afternoon, Work-flow

In this post I want to explain work-flow of one of my works, "Afternoon" .

   1. RAW file converted to TIF 16 bit in ACR & imported to CS5.

   2. Non linear resizing as many of my works for exaggeration in dimensions into an abstraction look; output size is 4700 pixel in width and 3000 pixel in height.

   3. Applying vertical Motion Blur effect that removed on the path area by using a layer mask and brushing with a soft low opacity brush (foreground color set as black).

   4. applying horizontal Motion Blur effect on the path and using a layer mask again.

(As a tip for applying an effect with brush stroke by stroke, apply the effect, then add layer mask, press Ctrl+click on layer mask to select it, press Shift+f5 and fill it with black in normal mode & 100% opacity, layer mask will be black completely, set foreground color as white, start with a soft & low to mid opacity brush for applying effect!!)

   5. Adding Levels adjustment layer.

I usually do some changes in this adjustment layer for approaching surreal colors. in this work:

In RGB channel, blacks & whites clipped for best contrast;

In Red channel, mid tones set in 1.1;

In Green channel, output levels clipped between 11-237; 

In Blue channel, output levels clipped between 63-195 (Blue channel is very important & effective.)

These values vary depend on colors of photo but as a whole order, for Red channel mid tones in 1.1, for Green channel, output levels between 30-230 and for Blue channel, between 60-190 would be great.

   6. Applying horizontal Motion Blur effect in some areas as you see in layer mask.

   7. Applying  Glamour Glow effect with Nik Software Color Efex 3 plug in for increasing saturation & brightness in colors.

   8. Applying Polarization effect with Nik Software Color Efex 3 plug in for more  exaggeration in saturation & brightness of colors.

   9. Applying Skylight Filter effect with Nik Software Color Efex 3 plug in for more & more exaggeration in saturation & brightness of colors.

   10. Adding a low opacity texture with using above picture for more abstraction in details. 

(As a tip for better performance of texture layer, duplicate low opacity layer using Ctrl+J, merge layers, set opacity to best performance & use details as well!!)

And final image.