Lilac Love

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Leslie Nicole | 2 Comments

This Lilac still life uses a painterly texture, a vintage overlay, and Topaz Labs* filters.

Lilac photograph by Leslie Nicole using a texture from the Tableaux collection.

Here is the original photograph straight from Lightroom.

Lilac still life by Leslie Nicole before processing and textures.

Photo Notes

Canon 5D MKIII
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L (I used 60MM)
Tripod, Mirror Lockup, cable release
ISO 125, f/11, .3 seconds
I need to get a new backdrop so I just taped together some large sheets of paper for the background and table top.

The Post-Processing

I first did a little clean up of areas where there were seams and gaps from the paper background using the clone tool and content aware in Photoshop.
Next, I used the Topaz Labs* Clarity filter to give definition and vibrancy to the flowers overall. (I used the Clarity, Cityscape II at around 40%.)
Then, I added the Windsong texture from the Tableaux Painterly Texture Collection. This I used with a blend mode of multiply with opacity around 50%.
Then, I used the Topaz Labs* Impression filter. I'm not sure which I picked. It came up on Impression Workflow and I liked it and just reduced the opacity of the effect to around 25%. I also made another version at around 45% and applied that version selectively to the background using a layer mask.
Finally, I placed the Overlay from the French Photo Studio Overlay Collection and used a clipping mask to change the color. The overlay was used with the multiply blend mode. (See this tut for changing the color on overlays.)

Resources:

Tableaux Painterly Texture Collection

French Photo Studio Vintage 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!

Posted in Example, Floral, French Overlay, Tableaux Collection

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2 Responses

Digigal

May 24, 2019

Your pictures just confirm that you have to start out with a beautiful, well composed photograph to get the lovely results you end up with.
Thanks for your tutorials. Great inspiration