
Photo Story: White Plumeria – Painted Look
I took this photo of a White Plumeria at the hotel when I was traveling to India for business. I really like the composition of the photo but the front petal wasn’t sharp.
White Plumeria – Topaz Impression
After a ½ hour or so of post processing, I still didn’t like the result. I decided to make the entire photo soft to match the one soft petal. I used the Smooth and Flat Filter in Topaz Adjust to soften the image (photo 2 in the blog). But, still no luck. I still didn’t like the result.
I decided to try Topaz Impression to apply a artistic paint preset to the flower. After scrolling through the filters, I decided to used the Oil Painting II preset on the flower. After modifying some the settings, I really like the end result.
So if you have an image that isn’t completely sharp, don’t throw it away, try using an artistic plugin or preset to give your image a different look.

White Plumeria – Smooth and Flat
Details
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1
Lens: Olympus 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 Lens
Focal Length: 43mm
ISO: 640
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/100 of a second
Exposure Compensation: 0
Lighting: Partly Cloudy Morning Light
Processing
- Cropped the photo in Lightroom 5.
- Cleaned up the background and removed a bug from the flower using the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush in Photoshop CC.
- Applied the Macro I filter in Topaz Clarity.
- Used the Detail Extractor, Lighten/Darken Center, and Film Efex: Vintage filters in Color Efex Pro 4.
- Used Viveza 2 to selectively lighten and darken areas of the photo.
- Applied Smooth and Flat filter in Topaz Adjust.
- Applied the Oil Painting II Filter from Topaz Impression.
- Depending on the brush that is used in Topaz Impression, white spots can be left in the background. I used the Healing Brush to fix the white spots in the background.
Written by Martin Belan
Related Blog Posts
Photo Story: Boston Sunset Painted with Topaz Impression
Topaz Impression – Turn Your Photos into Works of Art
Photo Story: Soft Pink Hibiscus (plus how I cleaned up the background)