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Photo posted by Harry Lichtman in the Photo Art gallery on 11/29/17 at 10:45 am EST
Registered on 09/17/10, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments
Post last edited by Donna Erhardt on 12/10/17 at 11:04 am EST

Large Version Included

A foggy summit scene atop Mount Major in NH's Lakes Region.  Sunrise broke through the mist and created some great lighting and atmosphere.  I posted the original in Landscape Gallery, reduced the details in the foggiest portions of the image by reducing clarity in those areas and adding a slight Orton.  Hopefully these emphasized the foggy mood, though may be difficult to tell the differences compared to the original for this image.

  
Harry Lichtman
Newmarket, NH

www.HarryLichtman.com
Harry Lichtman Photography

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Comment posted by Kathy Snead on 11/29/17 at 5:45 pm EST    
Registered on 04/06/17, 104 Posts, 397 Comments

Hi Harry

OK , so cool you did this with Orten.  I am a big Orten fan.  Anyway, I went and looked at your landscape one where you decreased clarity.  I think I prefer that one better as it seems more mysterious.  But , both are very nice.  Maybe on this one try to blend your layers differently, adding in more of the blur layer??  But that is what I would do, all in the eye of the artist.

BTW, I was just doing an Orten yesterday and I am curious what you used to get your blurred layer?  I had tried several techniques in photoshop in the past , but yesterday, I tried blurring the layer through Topaz using a couple of the blur techniques through lens effects. 

Best
Kathy

Kathy Snead
Golden, CO

http://KathySneadPhotography.com
 

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Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on 11/29/17 at 6:28 pm EST    
Registered on 09/17/10, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

I used TK actions which has an Orton mask that I played with the opacities to see which looked realistic and not too over the top.  But for Photo Art, I guess over the top can work too, just not my tendency.  I haven't tried doing this in PS, so not idea.  Must be something on the web about this.

  
Harry Lichtman
Newmarket, NH

www.HarryLichtman.com
Harry Lichtman Photography

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Comment posted by Mark Seaver on 12/01/17 at 10:54 am EST    
Registered on 01/23/11, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Harry, to compare this version with the landscape version, I opened two windows and then went to the larger view in both.  Switching between the two windows, worked great in that the image snapped from one to the other without moving on the screen.  That type of viewing shows how subtle your blurring and slight brightening is.  I like how your blur amount softens the leaves while leaving the trunks decently clear, which got me wondering about how more blur on the leaves and less blur on the trunks would look.  A way to do that in PS is:
  1) duplicate the background layer (I click and drag to the "new layer" icon on the properties panel).
  2)  apply a gaussian blur to the new layer
  3)  Add a black mask and then paint in white with a moderate opacity (I like 25 - 30%) to adjust where and how much blur gets applied.  With a very soft blur brush, you should be able to get only a little blur on the trunks using the brush edges, while controlling the amount of blur in the leaves with the number of brush strokes.

  
Mark Seaver
Burtonsville, MD & Emigrant, MT
seaverphotos.com
Weekly Challenge Moderator
Macro/Close Up Moderator
   

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Comment posted by Kathy Snead on 12/01/17 at 11:09 am EST    
Registered on 04/06/17, 104 Posts, 397 Comments

Hi Harry

My method is identical to Mark's, except that I am recently using Topaz to generate the blur layer and the mask.  The lens effect filter in Topaz can produce various types of blurs and then you can play with both the opacity and masking.  There are several ways to create the masks, both through luminosity and reverse luminosity, and through brush.  

Kathy

Kathy Snead
Golden, CO

http://KathySneadPhotography.com
 

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Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on 12/01/17 at 11:16 am EST    
Registered on 09/17/10, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Mark - That is essentially what I did to retain the trunk detail in the nearest trees. I duplicated the original sharper image (Landscape Gallery), and placed the blurred image in between, then erased selectively so as not to blur too much. To bring out more trunk detail, I could have done so in a similar way with a higher clarity layer created in ACR,  but didn't want to overly sharpen, especially when web viewing.  Thanks!

  
Harry Lichtman
Newmarket, NH

www.HarryLichtman.com
Harry Lichtman Photography

Personal Website    Online Portfolio NPN Member All Photos and Comments by Harry Lichtman Gallery of Harry Lichtman

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