Because of the low light, my white background turned out gray.  I seriously didn't think I was going to be able to do anything with this, and was fully intending on masking away that entire gray background.  I placed the photo on top of the texture, and just started playing with layer modes.  To my surprise, when I clicked on the hard light layer mode, the gray background almost completely disappeared!  I just had to mask away the edges, plus I masked away a little more of the image, such as the end of the stem on the flower, to make it blend better with the background.  Everything was looking pretty good at that point, but that grain in the photo was still horrid.

Just on a hunch, I opened the Topaz module "Topaz Clean".  I've never really messed with this module, but I decided to see what it would do.  There's a couple of different choices in there, some which create some pretty odd results.  I ended up choosing "Flat Style", which turned my rose and teacup into a sort of computerized watercolor look.  I noticed the strength was all the way up on #7.  I took that down to a #2, and I REALLY liked the result.  I brought it down to #1, which ended up still showing some grain in the darker part of the flower.  So I moved it back to #2 strength.  After merging the two layers, I brightened the overall image just a little.  I'll have to remember this Topaz Clean feature again...as I have a LOT of photos with heavy grain from times past, and using this feature in the software definitely helps to remove it and create a pleasant image!

​I don't know about you, but I get really tired of sifting through my photos looking for skies to add to my images to make them more interesting. Whether it's a landscape with a blown out white/gray sky, or a lake scene with a boring blue sky, or even an animal or bird which needs a sky background...it seems I'm always needing a SKY! So I've created this new collection of 44 amazing painted skies, which all can be used to add a sky where needed, replace a bad sky, give more interest to a boring sky, add unique color and tone throughout an image, or give a dramatic background to a simple subject.

The new Dramatic Painted Skies Collection contains a beautiful array of skies, from old world, to simple, to bold and colorful. The price of this amazing collection is $75, but from now until 11/01/2015, it is being made available at the introductory price of only $60!  And remember, you can use your code DT4040 to receive 40% off on the collection as well!  Click here to purchase the Dramatic Painted Skies Collection.

And here's a new free texture for you, too.... :)  This one is called "Soft Pink Glaze".  Click on the texture to add it to your cart and download it!

This texture is a brilliant gold one, perfect for providing contrast for a variety of subjects, or for changing color tones in other photos.  I paired it with this brilliant Indigo Blue Bunting songbird first, using it as a background, and also placing it on top in soft light layer mode to add richness and a color boost.  Then I used the texture as an overlay on a summer landscape scene, which was full of brilliant green leaves.  By using it on top in both overlay and hue mode in different opacities, I was able to transform this summer pathway into an autumn one in just a few clicks!

I'm catching up on blog posts today with a group of three Simple Field textures.  You know, I can only photograph so many deer in one location so many times before things all start running together.  By using different textures, I can give each one of my deer their own special place in the art world!  Here I used each of the Simple Field textures with three of my recent deer photos.  For each, I blended the texture with the subject photo first, then overlaid the texture on top in various layer modes/opacities, then merged.  After merging, I took them all into Topaz Impression to create a painting, using the same preset layers and opacities on each to keep their tones and style the same throughout.  Now I have a mini series of deer art!

Today's Daily Texture is filled with the glorious colors of a sunset glow over a country field.  Rich browns and golds, and a little of that old masters style yellow-green, along with a splash of light near the top make this one a keeper. :)  I used this texture with a barred owl photo I took last night.  The owl was almost in complete darkness and it took some serious editing to bring out her detail.  Once I did, however, I noticed this lovely golden glow in her feathers, which came from the remnants of a rapidly setting sun and the illumination from a nearby street light.  She worked perfectly with this texture, which I used as a background, and also placed on top  in multiply mode at about 30%.  I masked off the multiply layer on top, leaving it only on the area under the electric wire, where I wanted things darker.  After merging, I took this image into Topaz Impression to give her a more painterly look.

Just released!  The Lavender Roses mini texture collection, which features four fabulous textured backgrounds, all created with the same color tones to help you to create a cohesive body of work for a series.  I used these textures with some of my white Peony flower images to create the collection shown below.

Today's Daily Texture celebrates the colors of the changing season, as we move from the greens of summer into the warm tones of fall.  I used this texture with an image of a wildcat I photographed at the zoo.  The texture blended beautifully with the warm tones of her fur.  I used the texture only as a background on this one and did not use it on top of the photo at all - just underneath.  After blending and merging the two images, I enhanced the saturation of her eyes to bring out more of the yellow-orange tone in them, which tied her in just a little bit more with the background.  Just paying attention to that one little detail made all the difference in the final image of this beautiful wildcat!