One-to-three is a monthly photo processing challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I’d love to have you join in: The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. Then share the results, with a link to this month’s post. I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month, including a round up of entries from the preceding month, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.

Here’s my January 2022 contribution:

More of my variegated amaryllis. I may try to turn this into a Christmas card for next year so I’ve been trying out lots of ideas. Thing is, I like the flower so much that it always looks good to me, no matter what I do to it. Do you ever have that problem?

How to get the looks above (more or less):

The first variation uses an older version of the Nik Silver Effects Pro that I have as a plug-in for the GIMP. I used the Full dynamic(smooth) preset and added a subtle vignette in the GIMP

The next one uses Topaz Studio 2’s Abstract filter.

For the last one I also used Topaz Studio 2, starting with the Radiance result and added the AI Remix filter.

Here is the image after applying the radiance filter. I used the dark option, strength 0.1 and opacity of 0.5.

To get from there to the one in the gallery I applied the AI ReMix filter on top of this. I used the Burnt Oil picture, low style strength and 0.55 opacity.

Topaz Studio

I’ve been really having a lot of fun with this program lately. If you have Topaz you might be interested in this: I discovered a YouTube channel called the “Joy of Editing with Dave Kelly”. He has a playlist that is all Topaz Studio 2 and its kind of relaxing to watch one episode then grab a random photo and see what I can do with it. The link to his Topaz Studio 2 playlist is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRE7yCl-SQfRnqi8Mut6tw4Tgj9FEPHeZ.

Background

Since having to isolate due to the pandemic, last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with photo processing and I thought it might be fun to share some of the things I’ve discovered and see what others are doing.

I’m hosting the challenge on the other site to try and keep my WordPress.org skills.