Topaz Labs Black Friday Sale

Readers of the blog might have noticed I often like playing with the various Topaz Filters Plugins. Guess what? If you’re thinking you should splurge for an early Christmas Gift for yourself or your favorite photographer, Topaz Labs is having a SALE.

As an incentive (in case you need one), here’s me playing with a few of my recent photos. Don’t worry, you can look even if you’re not in the market for the package. 

BUT WAIT!! . . . as a bonus, a rare selfie! I don’t like photos of me floating around out there in the Interweb. Scary they be. Don’t believe me? Check THIS (don’t forget to look in the comments). 

I won’t identify the individual plugins because in many of these instances the result is obtained by applying a succession of plugins. 

As I said, all of these are recent photos, but a few have not appeared before on the blog. 

The above is a good reason to remind people that WP doesn’t show the photo at its best. While I don’t have a SmugMug gallery for this post, you can click on the individual photos and a larger version will open up in a new tab or window. I’ll also add a gallery at the end and that has the option to see the photo at the size that it was uploaded (1280 pxl for the longest side).

I seldom show a straight conversion. Often I’ll “boost” the photo in Lightroom after I get it back from Topaz. I could do it in Topaz — they have a gazillion adjustment levers — but I like to get in and out of processing a photo without fretting over the minutia of the filter. 

For instance, this is a modified photo of a teal-color VW at the Wal-Mart parking lot. I didn’t use the photo because I didn’t like the shadow across the hood. But . . . 

That has a number of filters stacked up, including a fisheye lens effect. Once I get back to Lightroom, I might be tempted to do this . . . 

Some will recognize this and perhaps agree that the “ancient” processing fits.

People who actually read my posts — as opposed to just glance at them and move on — might recognize the original photo that was the source of this abstract conversion.

Same for this final product. 

But, the plugins are more than just a way to create weird stuff . . . 

Occasionally, I use the plugins to “punch up” a photo. These next few illustrate the process taken way past what I would normally do. 

Sometimes what I get out of the program surprises me, as this next conversion did. 

And I mean “surprise” in a good way. 

Well, we have arrived at the end, so . . . What? Selfie? What selfie? 

OH, RIGHT! . . . the selfie. Well, this came about from me putting the phone down on the car seat after snapping the photo of the rocks (the second photo above). Here’s the selfie, although, technically, it’s not a proper selfie because I didn’t even know the phone had taken this shot. I damn near screamed as I scrolled through the day’s photos. 

Here’s the randomly arranged gallery for this uncharacteristically short post.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website.  Could be they also torture small mammals.

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Please, if you are considering bestowing me recognition beyond commenting below, refrain from doing so.  I will decline blogger-to-blogger awards.   I appreciate the intent behind it, but I prefer a comment thanking me for turning you away from a life of crime, religion, or making you a better person in some other way.  That would mean something to me.

If you wish to know more, please read below.

About awards: Blogger Awards
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Note: to those who may click on “like”, or rate the post; if you do not hear from me, know that I am sincerely appreciative, and I thank you for noticing what I do.

. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.

Finally, if you interpret anything on this blog as me asking or wanting pity, sympathy, or complaining about my life, or asking for help and advice, know you’re  likely missing my subtle mix of irony, sarcasm, and humor.