Love this thread. What a great start. I am off work soon for the holidays..watch out i will be playing to. Can not wait to join you all.

I took this [on my birthday] in Yosemite.

Russ what a beautiful photo. it feels 3d.

Some beautiful and creative photos so far. We haven't had any snow yet. I'll probably have to delve into photos from last year or the one before as we have had two snowy winters recently. This one seems to be more of a normal winter - damp, windy, occasional frost, some sleet...

We were away for a few days last week. We went for a walk in the forest on a very foggy day. However as we reached the highest point the fog started to lift and I got this shot. Ten minutes later the fog had clamped down again.

I haven't done much with the photo. In Topaz LensEffect I used the Dual tone filter to make the top of the photo a little more blue and the forest floor a little warmer. Then I applied a gentle shapening (also in LensEffect). Finally I tweaked Curves to lighten the photo. I can't be more specific as I was playing rather than taking much notice of exactly what I did. I have had to look up in the log to see what filter I used!

Foggy-morning.jpg (93.05 KiB) Viewed 512 times

Russ what a beautiful photo. it feels 3d.

Judy, thanks for the kind words.

Here's another photo from Yosemite.

At this size the frame lost a small section on the right, but the rest is okay.

Angela, beautiful photo & processing. Thanks for sharing your steps. I especially appreciate your discussing how dual tone was used. Topaz possibilities are continually expanding. Seeing how another user applies different settings is always interesting.

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Decorations are sparse this year. This is part of an entrance to a large horse ranch. I like the way the view of the ranch is framed in the ranch name plate.

ST-entrance-frame-1269--1211.jpg (198.76 KiB) Viewed 504 times

The entrance monitor has a little decoration

ST-entrance-monitor1273-1211.jpg (228.36 KiB) Viewed 504 times

T Adjust5 boost (vibrant collection) was used on both images. My workflow usually includes ACR recovery, fill & a little clarity.

(no snow here yet for photographing)

I am wowed by the beautiful photos. You all take fantastic shots. Me as normal am creating instead of snapping. I used Panos new globe action. Then i animated it in cs5.
http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/3354857

Thanks, Betty. There are so many options in Topaz filters that I never get anywhere near learning all about them before they bring out an upgrade. I am hoping to get to grips with the bokeh affect in LensEffect sometime....
I love the way you have framed the ranch within the nameplate.

Judy, I do admire people who can do animations. I have never attempted them myself as I am still trying to learn the basics of PS!

Angela

Judy, I love your globe. You did that with Photoshop?