Let’s use this scene of a boat tied up at a pier in Morro Bay California to describe the steps that I take (called a workflow for true digital darkroom aficionados) and tools that I use when creating images. This is meant to be an overview of my process. Anyone interested in learning more about the programs I refer to can find many excellent reference books at Amazon. 

Lightroom/Crop & Adjust

After returning from a shoot I transfer the images from the camera onto my computer using a program called Lightroom. Lightroom helps me catalog and adjust the appearance of the images. Looking through the camera’s viewfinder at this scene, what I saw was the white boat decked out with some colorful gear, and its reflection on the water. Looking at the image on my monitor back home, I saw all the distracting objects surrounding the boat. Using Lightroom I cropped the image from rectangular to square, to get rid of some of the distracting elements, and adjusted the color and contrast of the image.

Photoshop/Topaz Lab Filters

After using Lightroom, I opened the image with Photoshop where I tweaked the colors some more and took the first of several steps to make the boat stand out from its surroundings. Photoshop has a feature called Filters. Filters are predefined adjustments that can be applied to an image to alter its appearance. I use a set of filters made by a company called Topaz Labs that integrate seamlessly with Photoshop. These filters simplify the image by removing most of the details present in a photograph. Using the layers feature in Photoshop I can apply different filters to the same image, and by using layer masks I can control which parts of each layer will be visible in the final image. In the before/after comparison below, the after image (on the right) is starting to look more like a painting than a photograph, and the colors behind the boat have been muted to help the boat stand out.

Corel Painter/Wacom Tablet

I don’t always work on my images with the Corel Painter program, but I do whenever I am trying to achieve a real hand painted appearance. The Wacom tablet I have connected to my computer allows me to use a pen like stylus on a pressure sensitive tablet, in order to smear around the colors with a variety of brush sizes and styles. In fact, the Corel program also has a pretty good auto painting mode, that allows it to automatically apply brushstrokes for me. For this image I used Corel to create two versions of the image, one using big bold brush strokes, and the other using a smaller brush that brought out more detail on the boat. I used layers and layer masks to combine the two versions in a way that presented the boat in greater detail than the background and foreground parts of the image. 

Photoshop/Final Touches

Whether or not I have used Corel I will always apply some finishing touches in Photoshop. Usually this will include a final color adjustment and what I like to think of as the signature element of all my finished images. As you move the comparison slider back and forth across the image below, you will see what appear to be pencil thin lines in the final image. This is achieved by using another Topaz filter and layer masking. There are two reasons why I add this minor detail to all my images. First, I think the lines add structure, making it a little easier to interpret the image. The second reason is a bit more personal. If I could actually paint an image like this, especially using watercolors, I would start with a pencil sketch. The pencil lines wouldn’t be covered everywhere, especially under a thin coating of pigment. My finishing touch is a reveal of my secret desire to be able to draw and paint like a real artist!