This is an old photo of a lizard in Jamaica. The original image had a low resolution and was heavily compressed. Not much good for anything except it did have good outline of the lizard on a plain background. I started by doubling the resolution of the image. Normally this would not get you anywhere but then I used Fractalius which effectively redraws the image with new detail. I ran it several times to get the different parts of the lizard to look right. I then used masks on each layer to build up the final image.

This is a statue of Hathor in Egypt. To process this image I used a new technique I discovered last night. I saw it used with great effect on this image of an Amur Leopard taken by Thomas A. Statas. Like all photographers I have met online he was happy to share the technique. He used a Photoshop Plug-in called Fractalius. The effects are based on extraction of hidden fractal textures. For the artistic types it adds cool lights to your pictures.

This is the river Nile in Aswan, Egypt. I wanted to create a spot colour effect with the Blues and Greens. Instead of making a mask I used a black and white layer with a duplicate image above set to Lighter Colour blend mode. Then all you need to do is move any of the six colour sliders to fade that colour in and out of saturation. It is far quicker that creating a mask and I think the results look more natural.

I had a phone call today telling me this image has won the Cambridge Folk Festivals Reward My Ride photo competition. The brief was to submit an image of green transport to the festival. I did not think the image was good enough for the photoblog but as its won me £300 to spend at my local cycle shop I think it has earned its place.

This is Dahab in Egypt.  To process this image I applied a separate curve for the sky and the sea. I wanted to add some vignette so I created a new layer with a Radial Gradient Fill and set the blend mode to Overlay. This darkened the edges nicely but it put the focus in the middle of the shot and not on the subject. To fix this I adapted the Radial Gradient Fill Layer. I used a soft brush set to 3% and painted black or white as on the layer as if it was a mask. Finally I used a bit of split toning to add some more colour.

This is Normanton Church on the shore Rutland Water. I used low opacity split toning, desaturation and various blend modes to get the dramatic sky without too many unnatural colours. As all thing are possible in photoshop I added a bit of lightening too.

These are the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Lightening is hard to shot during the day. You need a very long shutter speed to stand a chance of catching a strike. But when you point at the sky it does not take long to overexpose even with the smallest aperture. This shot was taken through the window of a moving bus so I relied on this technique to get my lightening.

Since posting this image has been accepted for stock.

If you look closely I’m the one in the white T shirt. I took this shot of the Oakham Parade in Rutland. To process this image I did my normal trick of selective desaturation to draw the eye to the coloured area. I then did a similar thing with focus. I created an extra blurred layer and added a mask to it. By painting on the mask you effectively paint the focus back into the image in the areas you want it. The Reflection needed a different exposure from the rest of the image so I applied inverse masks to two curves and adjusted them to look how I wanted.

This was taken in Cuba. This building is typical of the design and condition of houses in Havana. I like this shot as despite being taken with an early digital compact camera it had a natural HDR look about it even before I started work on it. To process this image I started be removing the cables in front of the building with the Spot Healing Brush Tool set to Content-Aware. I then added Vignette, Viberence, Selective De-saturation and the Orton Effect. Then I gently lifted the pastel shades of the buildings using individual channel curves. I tried to submit this image for stock but it was rejected by Shutterstock and Dreamstime for copyright. I guess Art-Deco buildings count as Art.

I shot this hidden bay on last weeks cycle around Rutland Water.  The image did not need much work. A little vignette to darken the edges, Clarity increased to boost the mid range contrast and Sharpening. Once in photoshop I used the Spot Healing Brush Tool to remove the odd distracting element. Finally I used photoshops new quick leveler. You use the ruler to draw a line along the horizon and in one click It rotates and crops to maximum available image. Below is the view of the bay behind the shot.