Photoodling Holiday Art

The Making of My Holiday Art for 2022

There were a number of candidate photos for my holiday art for 2022. Pine trees have symbolized the season for a long time, and I wanted to stay with that tradition.

As I had been working on photos from a visit to Smoky Mountains National Park I had several images to choose from. Some of them I had composited into a panoramic view.

Two others seemed more like what I was after.

There were possibilities in all of them. I picked the one with the two trees on a slope to work up into my holiday greeting image.

That dead tree in the third image obviously was not acceptable. The tool for cutting out an object in PaintShop Pro worked fine but the background had a problem. Notice that in the photo you see fog coming in from the right. That resulted in too sharp a transition. Rather than painting that out, I decided to clone out the tree. That was a lengthy process, it resulted in this:

If you look closely, you will also notice that I added a branch to the tree on the left where that had been a disturbing “vacancy”.

Topaz Simplify is one of my favorite tools for “art conversions”. I used it to create “Fog on the Mountain”.

Fog on the Mountain

Now back to the panorama. Is there something in that image that can be brought out?

.:. © 2024 Ludwig Keck

2 comments

  1. Those are all interesting in different ways. And I can see what a creative process it can be. I simply wouldn’t have the patience or inclination. But I’m glad there are people like you who find it rewarding so we can enjoy your efforts.

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