In my last blog post I talked about the new Topaz JPEG to RAW AI. Through tomorrow, February 8 at midnight, you can save $20 off the normal $99.99 price AND use coupon plugsnpixels to save an additional $12, for a final reduced total of $67.99! After tomorrow our standard 15% discount will apply to this and all other Topaz products.
Today I’d like to revisit an example image I used in the last blog post, where I took a last-minute iPhone grabshot through my car’s window and used Topaz products to turn it into a nice art piece. First, here is the original sequence of three photos I shot while waiting at a stop light (reduced). The blue classic car against the yellow vintage building on SoCal’s Route 66 was what initially caught my eye:
As you can see, the first two photos were no good, mainly because of the bad angle and/or obstructions. The third was the charm! The angle was better and there were no cars or other unwanted elements blocking the view. For the revised artwork I decided to take a bit more time and do a better job.
First, since this was not only an iPhone photo but one badly shot due to the circumstances as well as one where the main subject occupies only a small part of the frame, I needed to prep the material for further work. I used Topaz Gigapixel to enlarge the tight crop of the Richfield gas station 6x so I could then cleanly isolate it from the background (which included sign posts, telephone poles, electronic billboards, wires, ugly walls and buildings). Here is a 100% detail crop of a section of that 6x Gigapixel render:
Look at the detail recovered from that tiny fraction of the overall iPhone image! Now I was able to work at a larger size and begin cleanly isolating the gas station and car, delivering them from their original surroundings:
I wanted to remain somewhat true to the original location for the new artwork, so I dug into the archive of stock photos I shot over the years and found some taken nearby. The mountains are the same section of the San Gabriels seen in the original grabshot, and the park in the foreground not too far from this Route 66 location:
The sky in this park view was bland so I pulled out an appropriate sky and clouds file photo. The empty lawn worked well enough when placed against the gas station cutout but it looked too sterile, so I found some other “foreground-type” foliage that would create a bit of separation and provide some distance perspective:
With all layers turned on, the result is a much more pleasant rendition of this vintage era-inspired scene:
That’s quite nice! Never leaving well enough alone, the artist will seek to explore other types of creative expression and presentation. Topaz Studio is a great place to experiment with scores of potential artistic treatments, starting with 1-click presets and making any desired modifications from there. Here is a “retro” 1950’s Giclee print finish (one of the Duotone presets):
Here’s an example of a whimsical, more interpretive Impression preset art style:
Now I wait for the owners to contact me about their upcoming calendar…! 😉
Reminder: Through tomorrow, February 8 at midnight, you can save $20 off the normal $99.99 price of Topaz JPEG to RAW AI AND use coupon plugsnpixels to save an additional $12, for a final reduced total of $67.99! After tomorrow our standard 15% discount will apply to this and all other Topaz products.