I couldn’t resist participating in Stacy Fischer’s ABFriday. We were given an image and asked to process it, so this is what I came up with. The original image we were given is at the bottom. My goal was to make it completely different from the original image. I think those of you who follow me know I LOVE to be different! A fun time was had by me going crazy in Photoshop.
How I Did It:
Generally, I adjusted the exposures and contrast of the original image, reduced the noise, ran it through Nik SEP2 to create a sepia look and then ran it through Topaz Impression using the George O’Keefe filter with some adjustments.
Hmm..ok…I got the basic look but something is missing. (There is ALWAYS something missing lol.) The sepia only look just didn’t “zing” enough for me. Ah ha! Nik CEP4 was in order and there I added the Film Nostalgic filter (Film 2 to be specific) and adjusted things there. For the finishing touches, I added the black thin frame, a vignette, and voila! Well sort of voila…there was some masking here and there but it’s was really boring after typing it out so I deleted that part.
Perhaps I did too much, but it was fun! Check out the entire ABFriday Challenge and also Stacy’s Post too!
Created From Original by Emilio Pasquale (see image below)
Original Image
Laura Macky Photography 
Pingback: ABFriday Week 31: One Photo Focus | Visual Venturing
January 9, 2015 at 5:26 am
Looks great, like how you did it.
January 9, 2015 at 7:37 am
Thank you! I went crraaazzzyyyy!
January 9, 2015 at 5:38 am
original
January 9, 2015 at 7:37 am
Yay thank you!
January 9, 2015 at 5:41 am
Beautiful artwork! What fun it must be to have this skill.
January 9, 2015 at 7:37 am
Thank you so much Beth 🙂 I went crazy with this one!
January 9, 2015 at 5:51 am
I just love it!!
January 9, 2015 at 7:38 am
Thank you so much! It was fun to do…kinda like doodling.
January 9, 2015 at 6:00 am
very nice
January 9, 2015 at 7:39 am
Thanks Nelson 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 6:19 am
I like that you made it look like a painting 🙂 You are skilled, as Beth says 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 7:39 am
Thank you so much. 🙂 It’s fun to goof around in photoshop.
January 9, 2015 at 7:43 am
IF you have the talent 🙂 But yeah, It’s fun to play around with photos 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 7:44 am
lol 😛
January 9, 2015 at 6:31 am
I love this! It made me think of the old TV program The Waltons:)
January 9, 2015 at 7:39 am
OMG! I thought the same thing Nato! That is so weird!!!
January 9, 2015 at 7:57 am
That is funny! Well, that must mean your editing sent that vibe:)
January 9, 2015 at 8:05 am
G’night Mary Ellen 😛
January 9, 2015 at 8:35 am
Love that show!
January 9, 2015 at 8:50 am
Me too 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 6:55 am
I like what you did… I must try this
January 9, 2015 at 7:40 am
Thanks Raj 🙂 I know how you love to do things like this too. Fun isn’t it.
January 9, 2015 at 9:53 am
It is fun indeed!
January 9, 2015 at 7:25 am
Love that look. I had to go check out Google NIK. May have to invest.
January 9, 2015 at 7:40 am
OMG YESSS….I can’t live without it! By the way, I have no affiliation with Trey Ratcliff but he’s a photographer that promotes Nik and if you use the coupon code STUCKINCUSTOMS you get a discount. 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 8:24 am
Oh cool. I will check that out
January 9, 2015 at 7:53 am
Wonderful post processing job. 🙂
January 16, 2015 at 7:30 am
Oh my goodness…I just found this in spam. Thank you for your comment! Sorry I didn’t see it sooner.
January 9, 2015 at 8:36 am
Excellent interpretation!
January 9, 2015 at 8:50 am
Thank you! I went a bit nuts. 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 8:50 am
Very cool effect Laura.
January 9, 2015 at 8:53 am
Thank you Beth 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 8:58 am
I’m interested in all the results from this challenge – as I told Robyn, I’m not sure if I would put one of my own images up for others to work on – I usually have a very specific thing in mind when I’m shooting. However, I do wonder what I might do with this one. I like all the work you did on this one.
January 9, 2015 at 9:51 am
Thanks robert. Yeah i wouldnt my image wirked in either but i did enjoy working on someone elses 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 10:01 am
That I get 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 11:26 am
or *worked* either, lol…darn iPhone! 😀
January 9, 2015 at 11:36 am
I can fill in the blanks…
January 9, 2015 at 10:44 am
great work Laura, I love the final image. I also use Nik Software occasionally and love the results!
January 9, 2015 at 11:27 am
Thank you 🙂 It was fun!
January 9, 2015 at 10:53 am
Hi, Laura. Looks like you and I had similar thoughts as you indicated in your comments on mine. I like your variation with the sepia and the vintage photo look. Should be interesting to see if we end up in a similar place on the next one.
January 9, 2015 at 11:27 am
It was humorous…I got a kick out of it. 🙂 Great minds…..
January 9, 2015 at 11:24 am
Great image Laura! I really liked the texture of the old rusty trucks, so never would of thought about smoothing the surfaces (also wouldn’t know how!) but how you have done it looks brilliant. They look a bit like the old cars in a 1950s comic, I mean that in a good way! 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 11:28 am
Thank you so much Katie 🙂 I’m glad you like it!
January 9, 2015 at 11:53 am
Nice!
January 9, 2015 at 12:39 pm
Thanks Alex 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Bravo, good synchronization between all !! the result is excellent !! topas good refernce and I my very interested !! Thank you,
January 9, 2015 at 12:40 pm
Thank you Pat 🙂 Glad I could share a filter. 😉
January 9, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Original and very creative! Loved it.
January 9, 2015 at 12:41 pm
Thank you so much Tiny 🙂 My goal is definitely originality so mission accomplished!
January 9, 2015 at 12:41 pm
LM>>>eye catching effect.Nice work…en theos…jim
January 9, 2015 at 12:59 pm
Thank you Jim 🙂 O.O
January 9, 2015 at 1:44 pm
Reblogged this on S.O.U.L. S-P-A-C-E.
January 9, 2015 at 2:05 pm
Interesting processing. Very antique
January 9, 2015 at 3:24 pm
Crazy processing on this one lol. Thanks. 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 2:46 pm
I’m enjoying looking at all the different interpretations. Love this.
January 9, 2015 at 3:27 pm
It’s fun isn’t it. 🙂 Thank you!
January 9, 2015 at 4:29 pm
rather cool.
January 9, 2015 at 5:24 pm
I love to doodle in photoshop. Thanks Gav. 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 5:06 pm
Wow! A huge improvement.
January 9, 2015 at 5:26 pm
Really? Thanks! I kinda went crazy lol.
January 9, 2015 at 5:58 pm
I love what you did! And Norman Rockwell is grinning ear to ear. Such cool art!
January 9, 2015 at 7:20 pm
LOL thank you!
January 9, 2015 at 6:00 pm
Crazy is good fun Laura – stop when you’re happy I say 🙂
Love your edition of Emilio’s image… there’s a friendly warmth about your version. Perhaps it’s the old time feel.
Anyway I LIKE it 😀
January 9, 2015 at 7:21 pm
Thank you so much Robyn 🙂 I”m glad you felt “warm”.
January 9, 2015 at 7:22 pm
😃😃
January 9, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Hey Laura (love your header image BTW) thanks for taking us thru the steps of your process, I love the combination of the sepia and the oil paint effect – Im a sucker for the oilpaint any day but the huge range of creative variations on this challenge has been really interesting to see 🙂
I particularly like how the grass under the main truck now looks like it is tongues of fire reaching up from the ground!
January 9, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Thank you about the header image! I’m glad you liked the steps I wrote. I was thinking of removing those tongues but I thought the same thing so I left them there. Thanks for your comments!
January 9, 2015 at 7:27 pm
Its a lovely image, im a sucker for a great sunset and thats a lovely one 🙂
Im glad you left the tongues in, they made the image for me:)
January 9, 2015 at 9:24 pm
I really need to explore my topaz filters more as I just use the basic filters and have not experimented with their artistic filters. Really like the way you have edited this picture with the sepia and the painted effect.
January 9, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Thank you Ben. They are fun once im awhile. I hope you have fun with them. 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 9:35 pm
I have fun with the forum every week. A great place and community.
January 9, 2015 at 9:40 pm
Oh my, Bridges of Madison County! 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 10:09 pm
Loved that book 🙂
January 11, 2015 at 9:29 am
Me too .. Spent all my time crying 🙂
January 11, 2015 at 9:57 am
yup! sounds familiar!
January 9, 2015 at 10:08 pm
Now I understand editing is a craft that one has to master!
January 9, 2015 at 10:10 pm
Thank you! I love it 🙂
January 10, 2015 at 11:33 am
Reblogged this on Amazing Fine Art.
January 10, 2015 at 12:17 pm
I really like what you’ve done with this, Laura. It’s given the image a completely different energy!
January 10, 2015 at 12:54 pm
I’m so glad! I know you can appreciate what fun it is to play with images…I went nuts! lol
January 10, 2015 at 12:55 pm
And thank you 🙂
January 10, 2015 at 6:18 pm
I love everything you did. The paint effect on the trucks is subtle enough not to bother me. I love it on the ground and on the vegetation. And I love the sepia and the nostalgic filter.
January 10, 2015 at 6:40 pm
Yay! Thank you so much Emilio. I really enjoyed this challenge a lot and it was a great image to start with. Thank you for allowing us to twist it all up!
January 10, 2015 at 7:13 pm
This one was fun. fun. fun. Love what you did. Great imagination.
January 10, 2015 at 7:55 pm
Thank you so much! It was so fun to just go wild!
January 11, 2015 at 5:58 pm
I love the sepia look on it. I also used Topaz Impression on mine. I don’t have a Georgia O’Keefe filter – I wonder if I missed an update somewhere. I need to check that.
I like the detail and cropping though – very nice.
Nancy
January 11, 2015 at 6:13 pm
Thanks Nancy. Up at the top of the program when it opens the image, do you see the box where it says “featured”? You can change that there and display more if the presets. Maybe that’s it?
January 11, 2015 at 6:14 pm
And thank you! 🙂
January 11, 2015 at 9:23 pm
Laura, I LOVE how different your image is from Emilio’s original 🙂 I love Nik Efex – they’re my go-to filters. I’m wondering, though, where the sepia filters are that you used? Are they in Color Efex, ‘cuz I can’t find them … Thanks so much for participating. I do agree with you that it’s so much fun to work on someone else’s image – it seems to give a much broader creative license than I would otherwise use on my own images 🙂
January 12, 2015 at 7:22 am
Hiya Stacy 🙂 Thank you so much for the compliment! That was my goal….to take it in a complete different direction. I love Nik too…I’m a plug-in junkie. The sepia filter is in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. I ran it through there to get the sepia look here. Let me know if you can’t find it. It’s near the end of the preset list.
January 12, 2015 at 7:34 am
Thanks for the info, Laura. I only have the Pro version – didn’t know there’s a pro 2. Is that a recent update cuz I just purchased the suite and didn’t see that option.
January 12, 2015 at 7:41 am
The sepia isn’t in Nik Silver Efex (before 2)? That’s weird.
January 15, 2015 at 3:19 am
Gorgeous, the trucks are on fire! I like to convert images into “paintings”, I feel more free to tinker about many other things, adding a texture or a frame. You did that so wonderfully here.
January 15, 2015 at 8:30 am
Thank you so much. And they are! I love to doodle as well. 🙂
January 19, 2015 at 4:19 pm
I like it. Very cool. 🙂
January 19, 2015 at 4:40 pm
Thanks Sue 🙂 Dang…you only have 20 more to catch up! 😉
January 19, 2015 at 5:56 pm
Ha ha. I’m over a week behind.