Hi - how very interesting to see both versions. Did your editing program have a "watercolour" filter to use or did you manually change it? I like the way you have lightened it, but the dinghy still seems to have a few too many defined lines for a water colour effect. Maybe you could try defocusing or blurring the lines on the dinghy? Also, to me, the pale vignette seems to be a bit too much and a bit intrusive. I don't know if any of this would help with the water colour effect but it's always fun to try things.... Cheers Rob
@robz thank you for the feedback it is very much appreciated and valuable. I agree with everything you have said. I’m using Ps cs6.
I used a “watercolour” filter the effect was not noticeable, maybe I need to take a look at the settings to make it more effective! I did apply a blur filter but based on your observation I need to be a little more aggressive. I now notice the strength of colour in the yellow buoy is quite strong so another levels or saturation layer to selectively washout the colour a little might help. I also applied a textured layer to try and replicate the paper effect, I may need to try and find a more coarse effect (this might also help soften/blur). I was always unhappy with the vignette, “too strong” (and shape wrong) so a change of brush and more horizontal washout strokes and additional copy layers with varying opacity. I got to the point of having a dozen or so layers with varying blending modes, opacity etc. That I was struggling to know what to adjust next.... I think next time I work on this technique I’ll go away and comeback to get a fresh view. Thank you again for the feedback it is extremely helpful and appreciated.
Hi again Steve. You have been having so much fun playing with this! It's one of the things that I love about this hobby. I didn't recognize the name of the program that you used but I did notice your comment that sometimes the filter you choose isn't doing what you want it to. On my program when you apply a filter it gives you an instant result - which is often quite awful. But you can then modify it by a series of different adjustments, and when you've done that you can then modify the "transparency" of the image. These two steps really give you a lot of options to modify the filter that you chose.. I did wonder if your program might allow either of these? Cheers Rob
@robz hi Rob, I’m using Photoshop CS6 (the last stand alone version) sorry I guess my abbreviation didn’t help?
Yes there are so many variables within the tools that it’s easy to get lost with an adjustment counteracting and losing the effect of an earlier adj. no right or wrong keep on experimenting. Thanks again
I used a “watercolour” filter the effect was not noticeable, maybe I need to take a look at the settings to make it more effective! I did apply a blur filter but based on your observation I need to be a little more aggressive. I now notice the strength of colour in the yellow buoy is quite strong so another levels or saturation layer to selectively washout the colour a little might help. I also applied a textured layer to try and replicate the paper effect, I may need to try and find a more coarse effect (this might also help soften/blur). I was always unhappy with the vignette, “too strong” (and shape wrong) so a change of brush and more horizontal washout strokes and additional copy layers with varying opacity. I got to the point of having a dozen or so layers with varying blending modes, opacity etc. That I was struggling to know what to adjust next.... I think next time I work on this technique I’ll go away and comeback to get a fresh view. Thank you again for the feedback it is extremely helpful and appreciated.
Yes there are so many variables within the tools that it’s easy to get lost with an adjustment counteracting and losing the effect of an earlier adj. no right or wrong keep on experimenting. Thanks again
Steve