Photo Story: An Artistic Look at 3 White-tailed Deer Does

This was a really long shot and the lighting wasn’t great.  But I really liked the composition and the way the White-tailed Deer Does were looking right at me.

White-tailed Deer Does – Topaz Impression

After processing the photo (bottom photo), I wasn’t really happy with the results.  The photo wasn’t that sharp even after using the Unsharp Mask Filter at 110% in Photoshop.  The bodies of the deer were also noisy from trying to add the detail to the image.

I decided to play around with two Photoshop Plugins that give your photos an artistic look:  Topaz Impression and Akvis OilPaint.  See my blog posts on both Akvis OilPaint and Topaz Impression for more detail on these Plugins.

White-tailed Deer Does – Akvis OilPaint

These two plugins do basically the same thing; they apply artistic effects to your photographs.  Akvis OilPaint focuses mainly on different oil painting effects while Topaz Impression contains a broader variety of painting techniques.

White-tailed Deer Does – Original Processed Photo

Applying these artistic techniques using Akvis OilPaint and Topaz Impression works surprisingly well for nature and wildlife photographs.  Next time you have a nature photograph that you are not quite happy with, give one of these plugins a try.

White-tailed Deer Photo Details

Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Lens: Canon 500mm f/4 with 1.4x III Telephoto Extender
Focal Length: 700mm
ISO:  400
Aperture:   f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/320 of a second
Exposure Compensation: +2/3
Lighting: Mostly Cloudy Afternoon

Artistic Wildlife Photo Processing

• Cropped the photo in Lightroom.
• Applied the Film Efex: Vintage, Vignette: Lens and Detail Extractor Filters in Color Efex Pro 4.
• Used Viveza 2 to selectively lighten the darken the image.
• Added contrast, saturation, and pop to the photo using the Fur and Feathers I filter in Topaz Clarity.

• Selectively removed noise from the photo using Topaz DeNoise.
• Selectively sharpened the photo using the Unsharp Mask Filter in Photoshop CC 2014 reusing the layer mask from the previous step.
• Used the Oil Glaze Preset in Topaz Impressions to give the photo an artistic look.
• Selectively lightened the darkened the image in Viveza 2 to make the deer stand out.

Written by Martin Belan

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