Bumblebee in the Purple Flowers (HDR, Stamp Filter)

Image processed three ways: First is the black and white stamp filter, second is the colorized stamp filter, and third is the HDR Photomatix. Of the three, I like the HDR of the bumblebee and flowers the best. Thanks for stopping by!

Pink and Green Foliage (Stamp Filter)

I really liked the little pink leafy flowers (?) in this photo. I think they appear best in the first image, which is the least processed image of the group below. 

When I processed the image in Photomatix for HDR (works better for the stamp filter,) the veins and spots became really pronounced on the pink leaves. Some of the leaves were unaffected, almost having a butterfly-like appearance to them.

The black and white stamp filtered image improved the blurry background leaves, and I like how the little berries become pronounced, but there was too much light for some of the middle-ground pink leaves, whiting them out completely.

The blended (layered with opacity) regular image and HDR image makes for something of a happy medium, at least in terms of bringing back some of the pink flowers that the light whited out in the original image. However, we still have those unflattering spots on the pink leaves that are darkened by the HDR process.

I think my vote is still with the first image.

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Black-eyed Susan (Stamp Filter)

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White Flower, Green Background (Stamp Filter)

In working up a stamp filtered image, I again found that processing the image first through Photomatix for the HDR effect gives Photoshop something more to "grab on to" when it stamp filters the image. The second image is darker and has lost much of the color of the original. However, I think that the pistils in the stamp filtered image stand out better than they do in the original. Thanks for stopping by!

Red/Pink Flowers (Stamp Filter)

Here the same image file of reddish/pink flowers has been processed three ways: HDR, black and white stamp filter, color image layered into the bw stamp filter. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly in the Garden (Stamp Filter)

Here is a picture of a butterfly in gardens that I had visited. I like the image both in the black and white and in the colorized version. In black and white, the grayed-in butterfly stands out from the background, and in the colorized version... the butterfly still stands out from the background, this time the greens and the reds of the garden behind the butterfly. Thanks for stopping by! 

Bee on Purple Flowers (Dry Brush Filter)

My guess would have been that this was a bumblebee, but there was something about the wings on this bee that just did not look right for a bumblebee. (Otherwise, well, you can guess what I would have thought that it was.)

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Flowers on Leafy Bushes (Stamp Filter) (Black and White)

When I tried to process this image directly through the stamp filter, the leaves came out great but the flowers were all outlined clouds floating through the leaves. So, I took the image over to Photomatix and processed the image for HDR. Then, on Photoshop, I pulled in 5 images (11, 22, 33, 44, 48) at varying levels of opacity (100, 75, 50, 25, 15) and came out with the above image, with which... I am pleased. Thanks for stopping by!

Pink and White Flower in the Green

I tried editing this photo in Photomatix, and I tried processing a stamp filtered version of this image in Photoshop, but it turned out that I liked the quick and easy edits (smart tone, levels, contrast, color) of this image best. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Filter with and without HDR

Today I'm posting two images that are virtually identical, except that one was processed with Photomatix for HDR effect and the other was not. The first image is the HDR-free version, which came through the stamp filter with far less detail as compared with the the second image, the HDR-version. Of the two, I prefer the first, as the extra detail in the background foliage of the HDR version seems to swallow up the purple plants in the foreground. The end result here reminds me of the difference between an image shot at a low F-stop and a higher F-stop, in terms of the amount of background detail carried over into the image. Thanks for stopping by!

Tall Grass (HDR) (Stamp Filter)

Grass is kind of a weird subject (and actually, these are more the grassy weeds that grow on the edge of a pond,) but grass works really well in the stamp filtered images. (The stamp filter seems to work really well with defined lines.) The first image is the Photomatix HDR image processed from a single image file. 

The next image is the black and white stamp filtered image. I really like the crisp, defined lines in this one.

Finally, I layered the colored HDR image above into the black and white image. In these images, the color is quite muted from the original color image. What's interesting in the image below is that the back blades of grass are almost black and white, while the grass in the foreground is green (though not quite as brilliant green as in the original.)

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Ocqueoc River (Stamp Filter)

I thought I would try the stamp filter process out on a river. It turns out, from the picture that you see below, that a river has a lot of lines and texture to it. In the black and white stamp filtered image below, it may be difficult to tell that the river is... a river. (Unless, of course, I tell you that it is a river before you look at the image.) Anything that might be unclear in the BW image is cleared up in the colorized version below, in which I layered my original image into the stamp filtered image, giving it something of a graphic novel/comic book effect. Thanks for stopping by!

Colorful Broken Tree Redux

The image below is a broken tree image that I posted a while ago. What really struck me about this image was the deep orange-brown color of the wood on the inside of the tree. 

For the redux, I processed the image with Photoshop's stamp filter with the following result:

The black and white rendering lost my favorite part of the image, the orange-brown insides of the tree. Layering the original back into the stamp filtered version, the colors in the following image came out muted, though perhaps more realistic.

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Walk Along the Riverside (Dry Brush Filter)

This was a pretty landscape with a little pontoon boat on the river alongside a landscaped sidewalk. With the dark trees on the left and the bright river on the right, I think this is one of my new favorite pictures. Thanks for stopping by!

Stone Wall, Leafy Plants, Trash Can (Dry Brush Filter)

With a title like that, why not click to see the picture, right?

For all that you get in the odd title, my favorite part of this picture is the stone wall, made with... stones (I like the red ones.) I also like the big, leafy plant that is peeking over and around the wall. And... well, I guess I like the trash can, too. As far as trash cans go, it has a certain kind of designed elegance to it... as far as trash cans go.

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Leafy Plant (Stamp Filter)

I liked the looks of this big, leafy sidewalk plant beside the road. Some of the leaves were a little bit wilty in color, but in black and white, I think it turned out ok.

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Covered Bridge (Stamp Filter)

The first image here goes back a couple of years, touched up a little bit in Photoshop. I thought that this image would make a great candidate for my stamp filter, as I wanted to see what the process would do with the grain of the wood. The grain in the floor came out well; the left side of the image has too much light and the right side of the image is too dark! (lol - how did I manage to pull that off?) It's a fun image, anyway. Thanks for stopping by!

River Landscape (Stamp Filter)

I had processed this river landscape a number of years back in HDR in black and white. The image came out dark, especially in the sky (which is cool, if you're into that kind of thing.) Below, the stamp filtered version lost much of the dark sky, while still retaining something of the reflection of the trees in the river. Thanks for stopping by!

Bumblebee on Flower (Redux) (Stamp Filter)

This is a stamp filter redux of an image that I posted a while ago (the color version is posted below) of a bumblebee on a yellow flower. I really like the original, but the stamp filter version is cool, too. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Filtered Leafy Plant Redux

This is another plant photo that I edited in HDR a few years ago. I applied my stamp filter process, and I like how it came out. Thanks for stopping by!

Black-eyed Susans... in Black and White (Stamp Filter)

This is a redo of a photo from a couple of years ago. Thanks for stopping by!

Small Pic of Finch in the Grass (Stamp Filter)

Processing a smaller image through the stamp filter gives thicker lines and not as much detail. I took the following image:

(which is a little out of focus when you look at it up close)

and I processed it through Photoshop Elements' Stamp filter:

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Juvenile Bluebird, Perched

The image below was editing using Photoshop elements. The bird's breast got a little too much light in the original image, which I tried to tone down in the editing here, with only limited success.

Here is the same image, processed first through Photomatix. The white problem is not nearly as bad, but I like the colors in the image above better than in the HDR one below.

I tried layering the two images together, only to find out that they did not line up exactly. I do like that the color is a little bit brighter than the darkest image above. It also adds a little warmth to the tonemapped HDR image. I'm still not sure that I got the bright spot quite how I would have liked it...

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Bluebird Looking Over its Shoulder (Stamp Filter)

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Bluebird Hiding (Dry Brush Filter)

Here's a little bluebird hiding behind a plant that's growing in the concrete stairs. HDR effect this time courtesy of DxO Optics Pro 8. Thanks for stopping by!

Finch - House or Purple?

To identify the bird in today's post, I was looking at an article that talked about how to identify the differences between a male house finch and a male purple finch. If I had to guess, I would say that the bird in these pictures is a house finch, because from what can be seen of "the area on the bird's side below the wings to the tail," it looks to be more brown than white streaked with pink. I processed the image in red with the stamp filter, and then I also layered the color image back into the stamp filtered version for an interesting effect. Thanks for stopping by!