Friday, November 12, 2010

MAJOR PROJECT - The final touches

I felt that I had overworked the image and it was looking dull & boring. I decided to add some sunbeams and a graduated orangy-yellow light going from left to right (on new layer, then multiplied- at 50% opacity).

It looked better but still dull so I just removed a desaturating layer. I then masked out the tree on LHS so the leaves didn’t look yellow





Saturday, November 6, 2010

MAJOR PROJECT - Putting it all together

PUTTING THE IMAGE TOGETHER

1. Placing the images. When I first placed the elements, the lamb was dead centre & looked strange. It was the fatty white side of the leg of lamb. I decided to rephotograph a leg of lamb to get less white fat & streaks of muscle which made it look less like a white bag. Also I extended th leed so the lamb was on the right side of centre

2. Adding the fog & mist. I decided to do two levels of this. The first was a graduated white very opeque layer. The second was clumps of mistin the central area. To give the image depth of field it was necessary to mask out the trees closest to the front. Also the twigs & leaves so it looked consistant.

3. Added folliage. This was to make the feet look as if they were walking through the longish folliage/grass. Also there was some leaves added to the main trees as the light shining through them was too bright once the fog was applied.

4. Curves, desatiration, de-vibrance, darkening/lightening, blurring etc. These adjustnents were needed to make the elements look as if they belong inside the foggy forrest. For instance:

* Woody was blurred and slightly fogged to put him in a different plane to Chilli.

* The lamb was blurred, desaturated & de-vibranced

* Both dogs were darkened towards the back of them. Initially I tried to lighten the fronts but especially with Chil, her white face became too gleary ie too contrasty for the whole image.

* The folliage was blurred & de-vibranced to make them the same colour as the forrest floor

* The balloons had a colour change & were desaturated.

* The knot was desaturated & changed colour & slightly blurred

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MAJOR PROJECT - ELEMENTS - 6. Foliage

FOLIAGE

To make the subjects look as if they are in the forrest it was necessary to have them walk into the follliage. So I created some folliage to slightly cover their feet. The three photos below were taken in close proximity to each other. The folliage was extracted, blurred, desaturated & de-vibranced.





MAJOR PROJECT - ELEMENTS - 5. Background

5. Background

I considered several backgrounds but decided on the burnt forrest – taken in Healesville in Victoria. This lent itself to adding a fog better than the others.



MaJOR PROJECT - ELEMENTS - 4. Balloons and Lamb

4. Balloons and Lamb

Each was photographed separately. Also there was a knot of ribbon. Initially I had photographed the other side of a leg of lamb. It was so white that when in the image it looked like a white bag. It is also situated almost in the centre so the white looked wrong. This more muscly/bloody side looks better.







MaJOR PROJECT - ELEMENTS - 3. Tom

3.Tom

I had planned to do a studio shot here. The person whom I had lined up cancelled so I decided to take this photo of my son Tom. Granddaughter Mia held the leed. The leed needed lengthening and liquifying.




Friday, November 5, 2010

MAJOR PROJECT - ELEMENTS - 2. Woody



2.Kelpie – Woody

Similarly I took a number of Woody. I wanted him looking up. I needed two of him. In one of the photos he was just about to take a bite – he pulled the meat down. Part of his foot was missing but I knew it would be behind Chilli so I did not repair it.