The Hedgerow – Week 4

Robyn hosts the one four challenge at Robyn’s Fine Art – take one of our own photos and edit it four ways over the course of the month.  My photo for this month – a shot of our hedgerow in the winter and my intent is to explore the tools in Sagelight to change my photos into painterly images.

Last week I used the oil filter in Sagelight to help me towards an oil painting effect.  I made adjustments to it but nonetheless I did apply that filter to get me started.  This week I refrained from using it and tried to make my own way.  I started with adjusting the colour and setting the grey balance,

I used the clone tool to take out the back line of dark trees because it tended to come up worm-like in subsequent changes.  I wasn’t too fussy with this step, just wanted to open up the right side.

Next I applied a plastic filter to give the lines a somewhat brush-stroke appearance.

It might have been beneficial to stop the quest for a painterly feel with the plastic filter (above) but I continued and applied a glass filter.  At some point I might go back to the above image and proceed from there, but not today.

I used the undo brush to lighten that effect in some areas.

Then I did further adjustments to the vibrancy and blended the tones.I made some final adjustments to the cloning on the right side, the contrast and tone (again) and this is my final result.  I’d prefer a better cloning job but that’s me being a bit sloppy, not the program.  No actual brush stroke effects like when using the oil filter but … who knows, maybe I’ll get better at it. 🙂

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These are my four results for this month.

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