Before and After Photos

Lately I've been experimenting a bit more than usual with my editing. Most of my photo editing is general cleanup work, but I've been trying to be a bit more creative. Some of my pictures have taken on a more HDR-like appearance, some look more like paintings, some times I add textures. I wanted to use this post to give you a sense of the changes that have been made by giving you a Before and After look at the images.

All of the effects are done in Photoshop using various plugins. I have found that I'm rarely satisfied with the output of any given filter or plugin. Instead, I usually have to create multiple layers and layer masks in order to keep the parts of each layer that I want while revealing other parts underneath.

As some have asked what plugins I use, the following are my most used:  Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Topaz Labs Simplify 3, Alien Skin Snap Art 3, Nik HDR Efex Pro and Nik Color Efex Pro 3 (I have version 4 but find it is much slower than version 3).

To view the BEFORE image, roll your mouse over the image and wait a few seconds for the image to load.