Thursday, February 14, 2008

Sundown Sailing

This photo is more surreal than real. I thought the photo needed just a little touching up and then a little more and a little more.... until it because this.

If you interested in what I did: The photo was a broad daylight shot, or at least late afternoon. The reflection on the water darkened the sail on the sailboat so I pulled it up in Gimp and used the scissor to select just the sail -- I like that tool because of it automatic form fitting alogrithm means I have to click on fewer points.

Next I used the "Color| Curves" tool to lighten up the sail. Next I used the "Select | Invert" tool so that now I had all but the sail selected. I used the "Color| Desaturate" to take the color out of the the rest of the picture.

Then I selected the sky using the "Scissor" and then used "Filter| Render| Clouds| Plasma" to put a brightly colored sky in the scene. Then I used "Color|Desaturate" to take out all that color but leave the cloud-like effect.

Next came the "Color| Colorize" tool to change the sky to a blue hue and darken it down. It looked great now, but the reflection on the water looked out of place with out a moon. So I used the Airbrush tool with a fuzzy circle brush and a low opacity setting ( so I could make several passes and paint the moon in). I also changed the setting of the brush from "normal" to "overlay"

I went to town painting the moon using several different sizes of the brush first a large bright area, then a real bright center. Then using a very large brush I took quick passes around the moon to better blend it in. When I had what I wanted the moon still did not seem to blend it to well -- too much of a contrast difference. So I got a royal-bluish color on my brush and made a few passes -- I liked that so much I made some random passes around the sky with it --it added a better texture to the clouds.

While I had the brush like that I made a few passes over the water to add some blue.

Voila -- sundown sailing

--steve buser

10 comments:

Kate said...

What a romantic scene for Valentine's Day! Thanks for the instructions, but I'd never get around to all the different levels.

ben wideman said...

awesome image! so striking.

Oh, and your crawfish picture is making me salivate.

Marie said...

That's a lot of work but the result is great!

Happy Valentine's Day to you, Steve!

GMG said...

Hi Steve, I’m back after a short break… and lucky to get here on time to see such a beautiful picture! And the lobsters...
But the Mardi Gras pictures made my day!
Thanks for your comments at Blogtrotter
Wish you a happy Valentine’s Day!

Wanda said...

Thank you for taking so much time and work to create the perfect Valentine Scene for us!!

Happy Valentine Day friend!!

Marcin said...

Amazing shot!!! Congratulation and we wish more like this ;)))

S-V-H said...

This photo caught my eyes the best! I like the composition and the colors of course.
It makes the picture interesting now!

I like your blog!

btw, thanks for commenting on my blog today.

Jerry in Tampa said...

I think you created a very compelling image Steve! EXCELLENT work!

Jerry in Tampa

Anonymous said...

It is like a fantasy photo, its look amazing

clippingimages said...

Excellent and marvelous.Thanks to show this..............