307/365: "The true method of knowledge is experiment." ~ William Blake

3 more pictures in notes above ! :)

Steve and I went into town today for groceries and I brought my camera with me. After shopping, we stopped for gas and I saw a tree covered with beautiful berries and pretty red leaves. I hopped out of the car and spent a few minutes taking pictures, two of which I've posted tonight! :)

When I looked at my berry pictures, I decided that I liked this one the best, but the color was not quite to my liking. A perfect opportunity for me to experiment with my trial download of Topaz Lab's ReStyle! This enormous suite of filters is filled with literally hundreds of color palettes that you can scroll through, and each selection shows a preview of how your picture will be altered. In this case, all the colors that you see were much more drab, but with the selection, "Blue Skies and Cherry Blossoms", the picture instantly turned into what I'd been hoping for! (I've included the non-filtered version above so you can see what it looked like before.) Decreasing the opacity to 57% was just the right amount for the finished image.

I think that one of the secrets to a long life is continuing to learn and grow, and keeping an open mind. Part of that includes experimenting and trying new things! When it comes to Photoshop, I love trying out filters and different methods of doing things because the results can be surprising and often quite wonderful! (If you would like to try this suite of filters, here's a link! www.topazlabs.com/downloads)

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he lived in London for all but three years of his life, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself". Wkipedia: William Blake

Explore one November 4, 2013. Highest placement, page 2.