June Photoshop Competition - Chat Here

[leightonjames]

Discuss your ideas, comments and opinions here!

750 px


full file size
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/2jamesl/ebo...

and then make an entry in this thread

Edited by leightonjames on Monday 2nd June 11:11

[Dogsey]

Ooh nice picture. Can't wait to have a play with that tonight!

[arej]

Was wondering if I should do anything else to it. I made the sea effect and then incorporated a seabed. Then put the canoe in place and make it look a bit wrecked and rotting wood etc. Tried putting various other things (e.g. scuba diver)in as well but don't think it looked as good so have left it as above.

[Carolineccb1]

Neek (or anyone who can answer) - I've just been looking at your entry and I wondered if you might be able to help me? When you're placing a picture into a new background - how do you get the shadow to look convincing? I've tried copying the shadow from the original, but obviously the surface doesn't match the new background. (What a terrible explanation!) What I mean is, the shadow of the fezza is over the pebbles but the orignal photo of the fezza wasn't taken on a pebbly beach.

Sorry that my explanation is rubbish!

[ol]

I use the 'burn' tool, which will give the look of shaddow... I'm sure someone will offer a better method though.

[Neek]

I use the burn tool too - just make sure that you make the brush have a low Hardness. I used a hardness of 0%

George

[Blukoo]

Heres mine for the month... or half month now that my entry is in.



And that image as printed on an old canvas.



Which should i enter?

Edited by Blukoo on Tuesday 3rd June 17:09

[Carolineccb1]

Thanks Neek and Ol - I'll give that a go

[Beyond Rational]

Was the file name intentional?

[leightonjames]

Beyond Rational said:

Was the file name intentional?

haha, no it was because i had a few photos in order so i named them -A -B -C -D -E etc etc.

[ol]

Just had a quick play, still toying with different ideas and it needs to be refined a bit...

[Dogsey]

[Blukoo]

ol- i think you actually need to put that into prodution! A beach-boat-buggie would be awesome, epecially if it was amphibious.

[leightonjames]

Blukoo said:

ol- i think you actually need to put that into prodution! A beach-boat-buggie would be awesome, epecially if it was amphibious.

Blukoo, Im afraid you can't enter two photos into the competition. Your going to have to pick one!

[Timmy2TARs]

Carolineccb1 said:

Neek (or anyone who can answer) - I've just been looking at your entry and I wondered if you might be able to help me? When you're placing a picture into a new background - how do you get the shadow to look convincing? I've tried copying the shadow from the original, but obviously the surface doesn't match the new background. (What a terrible explanation!) What I mean is, the shadow of the fezza is over the pebbles but the orignal photo of the fezza wasn't taken on a pebbly beach.

Sorry that my explanation is rubbish!

IMHO it all depends on the shape and orientation of the subject compared with the light source. Consider a tall object - in a situation with a light horizontal with it, the shadow is likely to weaken as it recedes from the subject. A light source almost on top of the subject will not weaken it, since it remains close to the subject.

A short object will throw a short shadow that will remain fairly strong, but may still recede given the position of the light source.

To add further complexity, the level of ambient light will determine the perceived strength of the shadow!

What I typically do is to select the outline of an object. Use this to create a duplicate layer, and do a gradient fill from black to transparent, moving from bottom to top, ie black at the bottom, transparent toward the top. Then, on that layer, use the distort tool to stretch the shadow according to the light source. Then move it behind the object layer, and then finally adjust positioning and opacity of the shadow so it matches the object, ie touches in all the right places *and* the background, ie it looks natural (see bit about ambient light above)...

A good way to practice is to make your own iPod style adverts - a similar sequence is show below. The only additional step is filling in the object outline to make the silhouette.









HTH

edited as I confused myself when I read it back

Edited by Timmy2TARs on Thursday 5th June 00:06

[kybo]

Blukoo said:

That image as printed on an old canvas.

Great pic!!

Pray tell, how did you do that? Is it difficult? Is there a tute out there for us lesser mortals to follow?

Thanks,
Scott

[Blukoo]

kybo said:

Pray tell, how did you do that? Is it difficult? Is there a tute out there for us lesser mortals to follow?

Thanks,
Scott

To be honest, its just a case of placing one photo on top of the other, and playing about with 'Blending Modes' till you find one that looks good. Then fiddling about with a few other options.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but next time I do something similar, i'll try and take notes so i can make a tutorial.

Trial & error is the best way to learn (along wiht plenty hits of the 'undo' button).

[leightonjames]

Come on people, lets see some of these in the official entries thread!

[stigmundfreud]

arej said:

Was wondering if I should do anything else to it. I made the sea effect and then incorporated a seabed. Then put the canoe in place and make it look a bit wrecked and rotting wood etc. Tried putting various other things (e.g. scuba diver)in as well but don't think it looked as good so have left it as above.

how do you do the light rays?!?

[arej]

stigmundfreud said:

arej said:

Was wondering if I should do anything else to it. I made the sea effect and then incorporated a seabed. Then put the canoe in place and make it look a bit wrecked and rotting wood etc. Tried putting various other things (e.g. scuba diver)in as well but don't think it looked as good so have left it as above.

how do you do the light rays?!?

Make blank document (make it bigger than the one you want to put the rays onto) and fill with any colour, in layer style select gradient overlay, in the gradient drop down list and select the noise palette (I used the first one), change the style to angle then you get a set of lines radiating from the centre, flatten image, desaturate it, then crop some area below the centre so you have the radiating lines, copy and paste into your other document with gradiented sea colour and set blend mode to overlay.
Is that OK? (using CS3 by the way)