Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

One of the things I most enjoyed at the Bristol Renaissance Faire was the beautiful clothing that some of the women wore. I have to admit, I have a thing for women in this type of clothing. I feel the renaissance gowns and hats really bring out a beauty in women that’s hard to find in modern times.

I don’t know who this lovely lady is, she was walking about all by herself when I asked if I could have a picture and she posed for me. If she happens to read this, thank you for the great picture.

Though the gown she is wearing was very colorful and the original photo is great, I knew right away that I wanted to work with this image in a brownish or sepia tone.

By tweaking one of the presets in Adobe Lightroom, I was able to begin the process of getting the color I wanted. I then exported the JPG and loaded it into Photoshop. Once in Photoshop I used Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro to soften the image and add some dramatic glow. It was when I added the glow that I knew I had what I was looking for. The only problem was that the filter softened her face a little more than I wanted, so I used a vector mask on that layer and painted back some of the sharpness from the layer underneath. I finish the image off by lightening her face a little.

One of the greatest things about modern digital photography is the ability to create images that look anything but modern. By using the different tools available, we’re able to create artistic images that are not only beautiful to look at, but also create a sense of an older time.

View More of My Photos From the Faire

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