Winter Daydream at Long Hill

Winter Daydream at Long Hill
Originally uploaded by randubnick

This is a digitally modified photograph that began with the picture of the main road at Long Hill Gardens that I posted here yesterday. I took the photo with my iPhone camera, and before I transferred the image to my computer, I made a duplicate and used the Camera Bag app to apply the Colorcross effect. I liked the crazy colors, but when I saw the image on my computer screen, I knew I had a problem: the photo was much too dark. I lightened the image as much as I could and I still had some interesting color, except for the sky, which had turned white. So I opened the image in Painter, intending only to fix the sky with a color overlay. But after I did that, I continued to experiment. (One of my painting teachers taught me that being forced to solve a problem is a good way to make art -- maybe because it gets you to think creatively.) In Painter, I could see that adjusting the lighting had meant losing definition along the road and in the tree branches. I tried an overall digital woodcut effect, but didn't like the result. But I realized that I could use the selection tool to apply the woodcut effect only to some of the tree branches, and that helped. Then I used the selection tool to add definition to some areas of the road with a combination of posterizing and woodcut effects. Finally, I hit some dark areas in the snow with digital airbrush. I liked the result, and here it is. Thanks, Prof. Daigle, wherever you are. You were right. I learned a lot tonight.