Photoshopping a Silver Spring Camellia

by Kathy Garvey

I just got back from a few days in the wonderful cabins at Silver Spring State Park near Ocala, Florida. I love walking in a park and then coming back and playing with my photos in Photoshop. This is the journey of one photo. The process took about two hours.

A lone camellia in bloom in one of the gardens near where you take the glass bottom boats captured my attention. It wasn't til I got home and looked at it on my laptop that I noticed the little bug. I love bugs, so this is the first photo I decided to play with. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

My first attempt just did what I usually do; crop, play with filters, and add custom patterns to different areas.

Then I decided to crop more and be a little more creative by adding some custom brushes and of course more filters and a few borders.

Next, I experimented with adjusting and softening the colors.

And then I tried colorizing the results. I liked these two colors.

It's a long way from the original, but the one below, which merges the two colorized versions with a gradient mask, is my favorite.