Do you ever revisit your old images? I do on occasion and probably should do it more often. I took this picture almost 10 years ago. It was a truck in the woods on my grandfather’s farm. As a kid I thought I had been just about everywhere on that farm, but never saw this truck. After the farm was sold to a developer I decided to make what I thought was one last visit, but in truth I ended up going back several times. The developer had cut a road through the woods and this truck was visible from the road. I think many years ago it was probably left parked at the edge of a field and over time the forest kept growing and eventually encompassed the truck.
When I shot this truck I knew that I needed to take more than one picture, but this was before I had learned much about HDR. So I took a few brackets and it was enough to keep the sky behind the trees from blowing out.
Skip forward to today. I loaded the 3 bracketed images into Photomatix and then moved the HDR image into Photoshop where I applied a little contrast and then used Topaz Impression for the painted look.
With today’s technology I can achieve a look that exceeds anything I thought possible at the time of capture.
Photomatix is my favorite tool for creating HDR images. It is available as a free download and is fully functional for 30 days. If you decide to purchase use the discount code “RRPT” for a 15% discount.
Topaz Impression is a fantastic tool for creating that “painted” look. Use the code “roadrunner” and click here for a 15% discount on Topaz products. Topaz products are fully functional for 30 days, so give it a try.
Mike Kropotkin
18 Dec 2014Cool! I had wondered what you used for “painterly” images and Topaz is on my Christmas list. 😉
Mike