The Sussex Tree

Here is a picture I entered in a recent Camera Club contest. It won second place. The category was Artistic Impression. I heard a rumor that someone thought it didn't fit the category but the judges didn't throw it out. What the heck, win or loose I like it.

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This picture consists of two images. A polarizing filter was used to enhance the sky and tree in both. The in-focus and out-of-focus images were then blended in Photoshop. After blending using Multiply, the out-of-focus image was further blurred using Gaussian blur with a radius of 40 pixels. A levels layer was added to each image to fine tune exposure. The in-focus layer was sharpened slightly using Smart Sharpen. The image was then flattened and resized to post here.