I’ve been trying some new things. As an artist I think it is good to try things outside your usual workflow and I think they refer to it as growth.
I saw an image recently and it got me thinking, so I worked on these three images.
I was thinking up in the clouds, but my daughter thought they looked more like smog, I will take it. That is kind of fitting for city images. I like the look of them.
I did use Photoshop to process these. I knew that I could do it with that program, and sometimes it is easier to use what you know. I did try doing it with ON1, but I needed to cut around the buildings, and I found it a bit frustrating. It was not smooth.
I am trying another program at the moment, Affinity Photo 2, but it has problems too. I think I can make it work, but you do have to make sure you save it often because if it crashes, nothing is saved. All programs crash from time to time, but I’m wondering if Affinity has an inclination to doing it more often. It does ask for crash report, so hopefully that means they are trying to fix the problems.
I just want to point out that ON1 and Affinity are different programs, and I am hoping they will work well together. I hope that the things that don’t work as well in ON1 will work better in Affinity. I guess time will tell.
I plan on doing lots of experimenting over the next few months and I hope you will be here for it. I really want to stop using Adobe and I like the fact that both of these are not subscriptions. I know many of us are looking for programs that aren’t.
Times are getting tougher, and not many of us have the money to spend on things like this anymore.
I am going to start doing some live videos on my YouTube channel that will look at these programs, the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak. I will let you know when I start.
Cool effects!
Thank you Sharon.
These are very cool images, Leanne. I like this process a lot.
Thank you Joanne.
Had ON1 for a year. Hardly used it. Now need to pay the subscription again. Wasn’t going to…. but read your post. Am now am going to renew…… and it is all your fault!!!!! Haha. Let’s see what you come up with!
Hahahahah, I had to laugh when I read this Geoff, I am afraid of you trying it now, lol. You can buy ON1 outright so you don’t have to worry about a subscription, that’s what I did. if you get it, you will have to let me know what you think. Maybe try the 30 day trial first.
Beautiful, Leanne!
Thank you Egidio.
I have to agree on the smog. It fits a city better lol
Perhaps if it was a bit whiter would make it more fog like
Yeah I think I agree, though when I was doing it I had in mind when there is so much cloud cover that the tops of buildings get covered in the clouds. Something to work on. Who knows where it will go. Thank you Brian.
Love these buildings and the cloud effect Leanne.
Thank you Anne.
I am having a bit of trouble with ON1 too. Only with certain processes. I don’t have the hottest hotrod PC but it is a hot rod, custom built for processing photos and videos. ON1 is really slow working large files or batch processing. However, some ON1 plugins are pretty damn trick. It does everything Topaz and Luminar do and just as well. So those two AIs are back burner apps, and I’ll save a couple hundred bucks a year.
Since I’m a student still, I got the whole ON1 MAX package for dirt cheap and I own it. I pay Adobe monthly for the Photo package also as a student. That’s also pretty cheap considering the full normal price.
I’m still learning ON1. Masking is hugely important, as I believe you alluded to. Watching the tutorials helps a lot, so I’m plodding through. In fact I’m about to get back to it today… just as soon as I make this lazy ass of mine move off the lounger on the front porch. 😋
Adobe gets to stay for now.
I haven’t had that much trouble, though I don’t batch process so that could be why. My file sizes are quite large too. I mean there are some things that take a bit of time, but I find there are things in all programs that take time. My laptop is fairly good too, I have 32gb of RAM so that helps a lot. I got the MAX package too, but I haven’t used it a lot. I really want to be able to stop using Adobe products.I have to pay full price sadly.
I love masking, I think it is the best thing ever. I have been using them for years. I need to get back to it as well and do some more photos. I want to experiment with other images too.
Adobe stays for me as I paid for a year, so I have until May next year to decide, but if they put the price up anymore it might have to go.
I think these images have a really dystopian vibe that is very effective. Not a fan of real life dystopia, obviously, but I like it in art so I like the striking atmosphere of these photos.
Yeah, they did come out looking that way. I am not a fan either Laura, but in images, why not. Thank you Laura.
I just want to share that I did try Affinity a while back but had to abandon. I found the learning curve too steep and encountered too many problems with it.
I have found some things hard, but thankfully google is only a click away and have managed to work out what I need so far. I think it is like any new thing it takes some time to learn. Like changing camera brands. I like to think I’m pretty good with Photoshop so I am just trying to see if I can do the same things. Time will tell, so far I like it. Thanks for sharing your experience.