“I’m holding on tight to you.”

A step by step for creating this painterly image using iPad apps.

I have been photographing this family for several years now, and have had the privilege of watching them grow. The sisters reminded me of my daughters. I asked them to hold hands and spin around together. This was one of my favorite images from that series.

I felt like creating, and scanned through my recent images to find some to work with. I was a little hesitant to use this stormy sky image, wondering if maybe I should save it for a different image. As if an image can only be paired once.

Just one of the barriers sometimes to creating; waiting. Waiting for something to be ‘more right’. Waiting for a ‘better’ image, to be more experienced, or to figure out a new technique.

Words of wisdom that crossed my path. I couldn’t agree more.

To start this one, I removed the cornfields from the sky image in Retouch and flipped it vertically. Next I added the girls in with SuperimposeX app. I duplicated the layer, flipped it vertically, and decreased the opacity to make their reflection.

In Procreate I used different brushes to ‘paint’ on their dresses and create ripples in water by their feet.

In my original image, I used PaintCan to transform the image into something like an impressionist painting. Sadly, PaintCan is no longer available through the app store so I have been working on different ways to create this step using other apps. Here is what I have so far using iColorama. (I was considering changing brushes while in Rebound Brush, and then restarted part way through.) I like the different options here, in brush type, size, and opacity. Definitely something to explore more.

Final ‘painted’ image using iColorama.

In SuperimposeX I layered the painted image I created over the previous image and used a masking tool to reveal more details.

One of my cold wax paintings (cold wax medium mixed with white oil paint).

In SuperimposeX I layered the cold wax painting over the previous image using Soft Light blending mode. I used a masking tool to remove some of the paint texture from their faces and arms.

I used a filter in Mextures next. But really there is little difference here and could have been done in Lightroom. But I like to explore the different options Mextures offers.

Final edits in Lightroom Mobile.