Fern Porthole, Finishing Touches

New Fern Porthole 7  12 ½" x 15 ½"

In many ways, this project has been the most challenging of the digital image projects I have been working on. When I wanted to have it printed to the 12 ½" x 15½"size, I could see that the fern in the foreground was blurred. It had been copied from a file with lower resolution (ppi) than the ferns in the porthole. The edges of the porthole ferns were sharp and crisp, which can be interesting, but was too harsh in this case. After this, I have been careful to standardize all the files before I cut and paste from them!


With this image, I began to experiment with blurring some edges and outlining others. Then I lightened and brightened certain leaves to create more interest. Tracing around fern leaves with a computer mouse involves a fair amount of trial and error. One false move and you have to start over again! However, the mouse works better than the touch pad in terms of control. 


This project is the result of 13 stages of development!