Here’s some more photos of Europe from our family trip in 1986 turned into watercolour prints. This time I’ve used the glass filter as well as the watercolour filter and got some good results. I’ve also altered the colours to more my style and touched up the scratches and dirt that was on the scanner glass. I like to take anything out of the photos that suggests when it was taken as I feel it gives each scene a more timeless feel especially when it’s of something centuries old.
Before-Leaving Venice.After-Version one. I love the colour of the water especially after seeing the photos of how clear the water was in the canals during the first lockdown in 2020.After-I added in more water to raise the height of the buildings and made it darker for added contrast. I like doing less saturated colours so any photo that’s framed will go with a neutral decor scheme in a room. I like both options.Before-I think this might be Verona, but not sure. After-I did a version keeping the side of the building on the left but thought if I wanted to frame this that it might be more simple and airy without it. I took out the pink hue as I’m not into pink so I did a second photo underneath this one with cooler tones and erased the top layer so the blue colour was exposed in the top storey. I’ve found success doing this in several photos now. I’m a very basic Photoshopper so I go with what works. This photo gives me a sense of peace and quiet and that is what I need right now.Before-View from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After-I saturated the colours here to look more like a painting and love these greens. Before-Pisa. I love gargoyles.After-I left in the birds even though the look like blobs. It might be too green but I love the colours and can always do less saturated versions. The sky is now more grey than yellow.Before-Kendal with the ruins in the background. After-I took out the security alarms, grill and traffic sign and simplified a chimney. Before-The Roman Baths, Bath. I love the lighting.After-I’m glad this one turned out well with the glass and water colour filters. When I first started experimenting with filters, I put the oil filter on every photo and vowed never to put it on human faces again after seeing the effect.Before-This may be Liechtenstein. After-One subtle thing I took out were the tyre marks on the road to make the photo more timeless.
Have a great day and have fun turning ordinary photos into works of art.
Fiona Schiffl 