You did a really good job with that rookie effort! Birds are such good candidates for artistic processing with textures, and your cedar waxwing is a nice bird image to work with because of its clarity, positioning and its simplicity. I love working with textures, and can bet that you'll quickly get hooked on it.

My own favorite free resource is Shadowhouse https://shadowhousestudio.blogspot.com/2015/01/single-texture-posts-mega-bundles.html but a Google search for "free textures" will generate a lot of results. I seldom buy them but have bought a few from https://2lilowls.com/ who has good sales fairly often and even gives some away (hoping you'll buy more). But you can shoot your own too: whenever you're out shooting, take pictures of water, of clouds, of wood, of concrete, of fabric, of paper. Save them as png's and you will soon have your own texture library.

How many of us have been frustrated when traveling and trying to take photos through the crazy tinted and scratched windows of a lurching tour bus? It drives me crazy! Last fall in Havana I saw such interesting scenes but most captures were as awful as this one. Captive on the bus, I fired away, knowing I was getting nothing. When I got home, I took them into photoshop to turn them into artistic memories that helped me recall what it felt like to be in Havana.

This offering is on the artistic side, which is my favorite way to edit. After straightening, cropping, color/light/noise/contrast measures I duplicated the file, offset one layer with slightly reduced opacity to create a double exposure effect then masked the balloon and a few other things that I didn't want doubled. I flattened it, took it into Topaz Impressions for a paint effect. (I usually use one of the Degas presets to start and fiddle from there). Then I stretched the image vertically and pushed/pulled a bit with the liquify tool. I remasked the balloon to keep it from stretching. I can't explain my fixation on the balloon except to say it was what caught my eye as the bus roared through the city.

Thank you all so much for getting this topic off to a great start.

One comment I identified with is Jim-Pops' "Never sure when to stop" You'll see why below:

Ducks and swans. With so much action, a lot of the photos I got were misses. My first creation used Topaz Simplify Buzsim b&w, Nik Glamour Glow and High Key filters. Then I tried a "stained glass" (from PS Elements filters) effect on another image that I blended with the #2 (more cropping) via soft light blend mode, and added an overlay to change the water to blue. #3 makes me smile, but I don't think I'll be putting it on my wall

Do you have a bad image you worked into something you liked? Share it here! Please post the before, the after, and a few basics of your workflow.

Take this opportunity to dig out an oops or a ho-hum and try something different - maybe you've never used textures or changed white balance for impact. Maybe you've never pushed the clarity slider to the left This thread is for experiment and play, while hopefully gaining new skills.

MinnieV will be co-hosting; welcome to all participants, from novice to expert.

Thanks for the inspiration, Linda! I'm sure your topic will generate a lot of new ideas and techniques.

I've been in photography since I was about 10 years old, so 60+ years, but just got into doing some post processing within the last year or so...typical stuff, and then I went way out there.

Here's a ho-hum image of my wife parasailing that just needed some "umph." So, I reversed the colors, added a neon glow, made a copy of the image, rotated it, then started dragging parts of the image this way or that, added a plastic wrap effect, converted it to B&W, and wound up with something totally different. I hope this fits what you had in mind.

Tim

Thanks for the inspiration, Linda! I'm sure your topic will generate a lot of new ideas and techniques.

I've been in photography since I was about 10 years old, so 60+ years, but just got into doing some post processing within the last year or so...typical stuff, and then I went way out there.

Here's a ho-hum image of my wife parasailing that just needed some "umph." So, I reversed the colors, added a neon glow, made a copy of the image, rotated it, then started dragging parts of the image this way or that, added a plastic wrap effect, converted it to B&W, and wound up with something totally different. I hope this fits what you had in mind.

Tim

You did a really good job with that rookie effort! Birds are such good candidates for artistic processing with textures, and your cedar waxwing is a nice bird image to work with because of its clarity, positioning and its simplicity. I love working with textures, and can bet that you'll quickly get hooked on it.

My own favorite free resource is Shadowhouse https://shadowhousestudio.blogspot.com/2015/01/single-texture-posts-mega-bundles.html but a Google search for "free textures" will generate a lot of results. I seldom buy them but have bought a few from https://2lilowls.com/ who has good sales fairly often and even gives some away (hoping you'll buy more). But you can shoot your own too: whenever you're out shooting, take pictures of water, of clouds, of wood, of concrete, of fabric, of paper. Save them as png's and you will soon have your own texture library.