"Hawaii Monet"

"Hawaii Monet"
©David A. Ziser

This image was made during a trip to Hawaii a few years ago.  It still remains one of my favorite images from that vacation.  What I like about it most is the play of dappled colors throughout the entire scene. 

This image is another one of my “drive by shooting” images – you know, you are in the passenger seat with the camera in your lap.  You see something interesting and try to grab the shot as you are flying down the road at 50+ mph. Sometimes you get lucky and capture the image you want.

That was not the case in this example.  What I saw was visually exciting – a strong play of red color against the rich green foliage meandering up the hill.  The setting was nothing more than a simple, rural  scene we encountered on our drive to Hilo. In my mind’s eye I knew that what I captured with the camera was a good beginning to what I wanted the finished image to be.

Heading to Photoshop I first cropped the image to remove the extraneous elements of the composition.  Next, with the judicious use of the “Angled Strokes Brush” filter, I added the painterly effect.  Now “juice” the color with the saturation slider and you have my finished result.

Camera Specs: Canon 5D fitted with 24-105 IS lens at 90mm, F11.0 @ 1/160 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

Want to see the “Before” image?

Just hit the “Read More…” link below.

Here is the “Before” image – amazing what Photoshop and a little imagination can bring to the final image, isn’t it ;~)