MONOCHROMATIC MONDAY #20 PLUS #6

 

The finished picture.  I call this, The Ghost Tree.  Local stories have it, that  in the 1800s, a man was hung here for a crime he did not comment.  And on certain days,  just after sunrise, when the sun is still low on the coastal hills, his shadow can be seen in the cattle pond.  But then, that is just a story.

 

Step One, the original picture, taken at The Frog Pond preserve in Del Rey Oaks, CA.  I also used this picture in last weeks Picture Perfect / Foto Friday challange.  (For info on joining in the fun at PP/FF follow this link ------>http://fotofriday.multiply.com/  )

 

 

 

 

Step Two:  I  used the Mirage tool at 6, to find which setting I wanted, and to find a reference point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step Three: removed the Mirage, and using the reference point, I made the bottom half transparent with the Touch Up Brush tool. 

 

 

 

 

Step Four  I replaced the Mirage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step Five was a whole lot of Cloning Tool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Why is it a male will not look at Maps or Read Directions?  I played with the tints and color settings, then remembered that The Gator had a blog that we should read, which I finally did, and realized we were returning to Monochrome, with the option of a Plus project.  What to do What to do?  One thing is read directions first, but doubt if that is going to happen. Old Dogs and New Tricks and all that.  So a lightbulb went off, perhaps a bit dim, but it did go off!!!  On our Dear Cherie's page we were talking about movies we would like to see again, and The Ox-bow Incident is one I would like to see, so with that in mind, I proceeded.

Step Six, after the Cloning Tool work was done,  I played with the Exposure Settings, and the Brightness and Contrast tools and then added Sepia tones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But something was missing, so I added a little something special in, played with exposure and transparency again,  and I faded it to make it look like a very old photo, and so that the picture would tell more of a story,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Plus for this week, I just started playing with tools, settings, tints, exposures, etc, with no thought of what it was going to look like, just followed what appealed to me.  Is that chasing the Muse Gator?  I call this Blue Hearts.  Reminds me of a fractual art.

 

This was the original I started with, I cloned waves over the seals, more waves were cloned from the top of the pic into the bottom to make the waves move balanced.  Then just played and played with tints, mirages, swirls, ripples, polarizing, cropping,  rotating, Smart Colors, and who knows what else.

 

 

 

 

For More information on joining in, having fun, meeting people and learning all at the same time, click on the link   ----------->    Monochromatic Monday PLUS