Green

This is an old photograph that I took out and dusted up.

I had gone to Dogmersfeld to meet Shire Pharmaceuticals, and stayed back for a day to enjoy the English country side

As the sun’s rays started to think about sinking below the horizon, I sat out in the verandah and took this photograph.

This was, originally, processed using simple curves and adjustment layers.

This time around, it was a bit more complex. I wanted to create a hazy, dreamy atmosphere. As we age, we look back a little more often, and the looking back and the going forward go hand in hand with ever increasing intensity.

I started with, what I will call a ‘Ryan Dyar’ kind of Orton effect. Duplicate the base layer, Apply a Gaussian blur, with a radius of 33 (in this case), reduce opacity to 20% (in this case), apply the Nik Tonality to it.

Then, increase contrast using a succession of curves layers, filtered through luminosity masks (please follow Tony Kuyper – http://www.goodlight.us), a vibrance mask.

Then, I grouped them, and applied some burn and colour dodge layers (please follow Ryan Dyar – http://www.ryandyar.com)

Finally, I used the sponge tool.

Oh, and for good measure, I ended up with a second Orton effect. This is not something I usually do, but I liked it in this photograph.

It all depends on what you want.

I wanted a bit of a dreamscape.

Did I achieve it?