design from stained glass

[Zig]

Wondering where to put these, thinking some of you might find this interesting and useful: decided on this forum because of amount of pp...the image is no longer a photo, I feel, but fun was to be had here.
First the raw image: from Malmesbury Abbey(window designed by Burne-Jones, I believe, or one of the Pre-Raffs anyway...):



Allrightythen.
I was wanting an image both for cards and for my desktop. Worked on a black canvas, importing the angel as a layer then erasing as I went.
I adjusted saturation and contrast, using the dodge tool set to highlights at around 4% to bring out a bit of glow.
After flattening the image, I went into Liquify, pushing around the wings with various-sized soft brushes until I got the shape I wanted. I also pushed around the waves too.
I then copied to other layers: diffuse glow, also altering the saturation as I went along: blues needed much boosting, for instance, whereas reds came up a bit too strong and needed lightening and desaturating. Incidentally, should anyone fancy a bash at the same, greens need a considerable amount of dodging to brighten them up, so I found.
I copied the image to another layer, using radial blur set to zoom...the centre-point being the angel's head. I played about with the opacity of the layers(all set to normal), then flattened.
I tried to all the pre-diffusion work at 16-bit: as you know, CS2 diffuse glow requires a downsample to 8-bit, though I kept as a tiff( I love it when the CPU goes nutz!) until the final savepoint.
I quite like the result and possibly should save the workflow as an action, as I've been making a series of such designs.
Lemme know what you reckon by all means.

[Zig]

Oh agh!
Yes, I forgot to mention the really important bit:
First off, I corrected the image to simulate the necessary adjustment in horizontal and vertical planes: thank goodness for CS2 as it's saved me the bother of buying a TS lens!

[Irma]

Thanks so much for sharing your post processing of this one, Zig. I specially like what you did with liquify.
Black canvas works great too.

[matthew]

I like the soft effect and the colours, and admire the way you've turned something that usually ends as a snapshot into your own art.

I'm also a fan of PS perspective corrections -- the "lens correction" filter is almost worth the price of Photoshop alone. (At least the Education price. :lol

[Wedding Shooter]

Beautiful Zig!