You always have an artistic eye. I see a beautiful model with excellent lighting and a skillful blend of an image that would work on many backgrounds. I like the fact that it is art instead of in your face graphic nude. While looking at the image and thinking about others comments I was only looking through half open eyes and it occurred to me that a softer focus on the model might also work well to make a pleasing visual. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work.

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Maybe there is a button in Topaz where need to accept the process to lock in the change before you save it.

I think R.G. nailed it. Differences are very subtle. The topaz image looks more natural and the Nik image simply has punched up the contrast which made me at first consider that the Nik sharpener did a better job. It might be better to use masks to selectively raise contrast and focus locally on the Topaz image.

Thanks for presenting the demonstration.

A pleasing composition from something most wold have just discarded. Thanks for sharing.

A very artistic set of images. I am curious what lens you used. The finished images are excellent.

Great capture. I wonder how it avoids collecting clutter on the spikes.

Technical perfection. Thanks for sharing. Kind of raises the bar for most of us.

I disturbed this little character several times trying to get various angles or light and finally just settled for what he wanted to give me. As soon as I quit bugging him he returned to this exact location each time. Guess who is coming for supper?
A little creature with a big voice.

The day lily is a dark treasure I found in Hawaii years ago and carefully washed all the soil off to get through inspection. Now there are many varieties and colors available but this one has a story for me.

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Thanks for the kind comments.

Lynn

Thanks for the comments. I am wondering what it looked like new and what it might pavement to a family.
Lynn

I am always amazed at the different ways each of see. I like your black and white a lot and the drama fits the scene. I have a lot of curiosity as to the presence of the lilac bush and location of the rusty frame placed in the bouquet of flowers.

Lynn

I actually like all there images for different reasons and I appreciate the tip on blending. Beautiful model and skilled photographer. Did a flash off to the right make the water so bright??

Thanks for sharing and raising the bar.

I saw this scene as I headed toward Portland along the Columbia R. I returned at the wrong time of day, and made sure no one was close behind me because the scene is on a blind curve with no way to park. Just as I was nearing the location a car pulled out of a driveway and was pushing me and I had the camera set to shoot in auto focus and took the picture on the fly. I felt the scene had a story

The image is processed in photo shop with an added preset from Topaz. I used four different gradients with selective masking to balance some of the Topaz color to my satisfaction.

Feel free to explore the image with any program that would put your twist on the image.

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I recently watched an interesting approach to working up the color of an image as suggested by Blake Rudis. 1--get your color balance the way you like 2-look at the effect of the sliders in the camera calibration. Each slider actually affects more than the color listed on the slider as for example red is composed of more than just red. It is my understanding that these four sliders, red primary, green primary, blue primary and shadow adjust your pictures in the way the camera program did automatically to make the jpg. You can be creative or use the various camera profiles listed above the sliders. The third step is to use your color mixer which has a great but complex of possibilities and then the fourth step is to use graduated filters to color grade after all photoshop work is complete. You may not have the latest awesome photoshop browser, so the last two steps my not be easy but the camera calibration should be there for you and I find it useful. Blake has a blog which promotes an excellent F64 program and delivers free information outside of F 64 on that blog. Check him out as he is an excellent artist, photographer and teacher. I try never to miss Friday lessons. Between Blake and UHH I have learned a lot about how programs help us.
I had a three terabyte system crash recently so I can't test your image, but if I were trying to match a raw file to a jpg I would start with the camera calibration-and maybe you will find a combination of color that looks more like what you saw without matching either

Bottom line comes down to the fact that you are an artist and you just use what you like. I admire what you do for all of us on UHH.