A Sprig Of Lilac

Little still life of a sprig of Lilac with textures and Topaz Labs* Impressionfilter.

The Photograph

• Canon 7D with Canon 60mm Macro lens
• Natural Light
• 1/8 second at f/8.0
• Tripod, cable release, mirror lock-up.

Here's the photo Straight Out Of Camera.

Post-Processing

Topaz Labs Clarity* Flower III setting is pretty much my go-to filter for post-processing flowers!

Textures

This little sprig of Lilac in a vase uses 3 textures.

1. The crackled texture, Nougat, comes from the Craquelure Texture Collection.
2. The colored vignetting is from combining 2 Artistique Edge Overlays in 2 different colors, purple and blue with a blend mode of multiply.
3. I've also used a touch of the texture, Torrent, from the Autumn Rain Texture Collection.
4. I grouped the textures, added a layer mask to the group and gently brushed some of the texture off the lilac and vase.

Topaz Labs Impression

• On a merged layer copy, I applied the Impasto II filter in Topaz Labs* Impression.
• On an additional merged layer of the textured Lilac, I then applied the Oil Painting by Jim LaSala filter. (Note - this is not a copy of the layer that I applied the Impasto filter, but another merged layer of the textured photo - with no filters.)
• With the Jim LaSala Oil painting layer above the Impasto II layer I used a layer mask on the Jim LaSala layer to reveal parts of the Impasto II layer - mainly to give more of an Impressionistic blurring to certain areas like the vase.
• I usually write this on the layer, but didn't this time, but both of these Impressions effects were at probably 50%. I rarely use full-strength Impression filters.

Resources

Textures Used:

Nougat from the Craquelure Texture Collection.

2 Edge overlays from the Artistique Edge Overlays.

* Topaz Labs Filters is an affiliate link. I get a small commission from any sales resulting from a click from this site (at no extra cost to you.) I really do love these filters. Nearly all of my own images use one of these filters. Thank you for supporting the site!