03 scotland Flowerdale forest

I have find on Photo.net some photographers showing photos with a treatment that they call "defocusing method", or "impressionnist method". They don't seem to reveal in what consist this method but I think (I hope) I have discovered it and I have applied it on some of my Scotland shots. What do you think of this ?

Regards, Henri

Excellent manipulation.

Nice. Maybe burn it in a little on the bottom? Nice use of the filters. The effect is good and not overly done

I love the dreamy atmosphere you created here. How's it done?

Never mind my question... when I asked it I hadn't read your remarks!

Thank you Peter. Your question is legitimate, and in the meantime I had an answer to my own question to one of the photo.net members who use the "defocusing method". He is Fernand Hick and here is what he says : "The principle is to make two exposures on the same frame (thus without film advancing). The first one is sharp and the second one is defocused, that means blurred. And the superposition of the two exposures gives this effect. The difficulty result in the fact that you cannot appreciate the result before developping the film. That means try and try again...". This is not what I have done here but the principle is similar. I have made only one exposure, sharp, and after scanning I have stacked a copy of the same with Photoshop, with a transparency of 70%, on which I have applied the gaussian blur filter (20 points in this case). After this, I have enhanced the colour saturation on the sharp version, then adjust the levels differently on both versions. However, the result is not exactly the same

Regards, Henri

I have tried this PS technique. It is very good for portraits but for landscapes I would not use it often. Anyway here it works as the scene is like from fairy-tales. Keep trying. Regards, Michal.

Nice one, i've tried this once with less than desirable results but none the less. Nice saturation on the greens , good work.

Nice shot. There is a difference when you try this method with PS : When you defocuse with a camera, the blurred second exposure is greater that the sharp one. That means that in the final result, the white blurred parts are coming on the black one. It's not the same with PS. Look at the picture p103 in my landscape portfolio. Regards, Fernand.

Thank you Fernand. You know, it happens the same thing with the Photoshop method. That is why the contrasts are less marked : the dark parts are more or less faded by the whites.

Thank you Don and Michal. I have recently tried the method on portraits. Sure, it gives a very good result. I will post some of them soon.

Dreamy Indeed

Nicely done!

This is very fairytale-like. Gorgeous. And thanks for sharing your exchanges. I learnt something new reading them. Now if only I know how to apply the experiment.

Thank you Eileen. I am glad to be useful to you. I will try to describe the way I do. It is not very complex to do but it will perhaps be complex for me to explain it in english.

First, I duplicate the photo which is applied upon the original as a (tracing paper ? The french word in photoshop is "calque"). On this copy, I apply a gaussian blur with a value of 30%. It can be less or more. This done, I adjust the transparency to a value between 20 % and 50 %. Here, it is 50 %. If the result suit me, I (flatten the tracing paper ? In french, "applatir le calque"), that is to say that the blured image is merged with the sharp image. But if I think it necessary, before to do this operation, I adjust the levels, contrasts and colours on one or the other of the images, or on both. I am sorry to not be abble to explain this in a good english. I hope you will understand even though.

Regards, Henri

This technique is marvelous! The choice of imagery that you have applied the technique to is superb. I really love the entire section utilizing this technique and am very glad that you shared the technique with all of us. This is truly an exhibition worth creating in the physical as well as the virtual. Hope you will show these to lots of people. Simply stunning. The most painterly style for image-making I have seen in quite a while. This is what the original converts to photography were after, a technique that could render images like a painting but could be done in a fraction of the time!

I really like your technique. This new PS work that you're doing is really very aesthetically pleasing. This walk in the forest looks SO appealing! :-) A lot of forests don't come with a carpet of green on the floor. You've done so nicely here!

Thank you Philip and Lou Ann, your comments are very nice for me.

Lou Ann, I think that the reason of this grean carpet is that we are here at the edge of the forest. And furthermore, "forest" is perhaps a great word, for this is a very little area, near the Victoria falls and the loch Maree, which remains of a larger forest almost entirely cut in the XIXth century.

this is excellent. truly a great one and loved reading the "how to" get this effect with PS.