Baby Killdeer

Gallery: Photo ArtPosted June 25, 201164 views3 comments

I just posted the photograph of these two baby killdeer in the Avian Gallery.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=175622&CGISESSID=556b4d7625e102826c4d41a26ccf1dcb&u=9934

This image is my very first attempt to use Corel Painter 12. This software has some similarities with Photoshop. It seems to be used more by artists than by photographers. However, it certainly offers an incredible array of tools for creating a painting based upon a photograph. In particular, it provides plenty of room for inserting our own creativity in the result. In this case I used a workflow based mainly upon that described by John Derry (http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Content/1171405215200). It's a fairly long procedure that took me even longer than normal since I had not previously used the program. Also, a minor issue is that Painter 12 is so recently released that the info available is based upon Painter 11.

I'm not so sure that I obtained a very good result. I rather like it....but after all this work I'm no longer objective. At least the mud looks prettier here than in the original! To be continued!

All comments most welcome.

Original photo (slightly cropped for the painting):

1D Mark IV, 400 mm f/5.6, 1.4x TC, hand held: ISO 1250, 1/1250 s, f/14, 0 EV, 16 MP (full frame), NR, exposure adjustment, sharpening.

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on June 26, 2011 at 8:52 PM

Steve, I like the painterly textures and the swirl of water behind these two. I think this looks good. If you can, I think adding some more room on the left would improve the balance, but my wife claims that I'm a symmetric nut.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on June 28, 2011 at 9:05 PM

I like this. Even in the thumbnail I could see the texture. The water is excellent

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on July 1, 2011 at 2:36 PM

Thank you, Mark and Nancy. Mark, it's interesting that the question of balance was also brought up in comments on the companion posting to this one in the Avian Gallery. I had not noticed it previous to seeing the comments! Nancy, I'm glad you liked the water. That look resulted from using an over saturated "clone copy" to insert specific additions to the canvas in Painter 12. So, the colors that you see were actually present but were emphasized in this Photo Art. The texture that you see is a combination of a superimposed final texture and texture imparted by the brushes in Painter 12. I have so much to learn about this new software....

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments