Sometimes it's one thing to clearly see in your mind's
eye what you want to create and quite another to make that creation a
reality. I began on this piece in early December, worked on it on
and off throughout the month, and just put the final layer in place
this morning. At last! Perhaps I could call this Slow Photoshop, somewhat like the Slow Sewing movement.
One of my inspirations for this piece was the Day to
Night lighting effect demonstrated by Glyn Dewis in the November
Photoshop Virtual Summit. Here is my original and not very good photo of the
Château de Montreuil-Bellay in the Loire valley in France. After removing most of the background, I was able to
greatly improve it using primarily AI Clear in Topaz Studio 2. Then came
many, many layers to tone it and work on details for the moonlit
effect. The sky with the moon is overlaid on another sky with all the stars and both are from Pixabay. The deer and the stag are also from Pixabay while the trees and shrubbery to the left and the grass in the foreground are from my photos. There's even a texture from Kerstin Frank thrown in for good measure.
I could probably have continued piddling around on subtle improvements, but I think I have come close to the vision in my mind's eye. And while it took me a long time to get here, the journey with Photoshop is always amazing.
