Layering

tedgtfan · Jul 17, 2007

My first attempt at layering. It looks fake. Any suggestions on how to improve? I took the goose from one pic and put him here. Thx Ted

SlowRide · Jul 17, 2007

for starters you should changes the hue/saturation/color of the goose to match the rest of the picture

tedgtfan · Jul 17, 2007

What would that do, tone him down so he doesn't jump right out at you?

newrmdmike · Jul 17, 2007

burn around the bottom of him, and add a reflection so it doesn't look like its floating.

did you add any of the trees?

tedgtfan · Jul 17, 2007

newrmdmike said:
burn around the bottom of him, and add a reflection so it doesn't look like its floating.

did you add any of the trees?

No, just the goose Thx Guys Don't fully understand, what u mean by burning but I will investigate the reading material and see if I find it. Again Thx

newrmdmike · Jul 18, 2007

in the darkroom you darken things by "burning" them, putting more light there, or "dodging" them, keeping light off that spot,.

in photoshop its the same, burning and dodging lightens and darkens certain areas.

burning-darken
dodging-lighten

tedgtfan · Jul 18, 2007

newrmdmike said:
in the darkroom you darken things by "burning" them, putting more light there, or "dodging" them, keeping light off that spot,.

in photoshop its the same, burning and dodging lightens and darkens certain areas.

burning-darken
dodging-lighten

Thx Mike I'll try

The_Traveler · Jul 18, 2007

To me, one of the problems was that the goose was at a different angle than the plants so I selected the goose, did a transform so that the top of the goose was smaller than it was before.
Then changed the hue more towards the blue, lower the contrast and brightness.
For the reflection, copied the goose, flipped it vertically, reduce contrast and brightness, reduced opacity of the layer and then blurred where the bottom of the geese met. Blurred arounf the edge of the 'reflection' a little also.

Not terrific but maybe a little better.

The_Traveler · Jul 18, 2007

In looking at this again, I think the neck of the goose in the edit I posted is too dark. If the hi-res version was available, I would decrease the darkness of the goose neck until it matched the stems of the plants.

Flash Harry · Jul 18, 2007

It just looks rubbish, for one, this bird would sit a lot lower in the water, pshopping like this is last. H

LaFoto · Jul 18, 2007

Flash Harry, isn't Ted saying that this was his very, very, VERY first attempt?
Aren't very, very, VERY first attempts allowed to "look rubbish" without anyone saying it out loud?
I feel that the goose in the original photo from where it was taken was standing. And not swimming. And this fact shows. And this is what causes FlashHarry to say it is "rubbish". OK, there are many mistakes - but I for one have NEVER SO FAR in all my life tried this technique! So kudos to Ted for trying, first of all.

Now my question is: was the cut-and-pasted goose standing?

And yes, as you can see in Lew's (i.e. The_Traveler's) edit, it at least needs to have a reflection same as the trees. He nicely explains how he brought about his.

And some here were even instantly able to tell that the colour temps in both the lake pic and the goose pic don't go together. Wow. I can only feel that "something is not quite right", but I couldn't ever tell what it is...

The_Traveler · Jul 18, 2007

Flash Harry said:
pshopping like this is last. H

I don't know what this means.

tedgtfan · Jul 18, 2007

LaFoto said:
Flash Harry, isn't Ted saying that this was his very, very, VERY first attempt?
Aren't very, very, VERY first attempts allowed to "look rubbish" without anyone saying it out loud?
I feel that the goose in the original photo from where it was taken was standing. And not swimming. And this fact shows. And this is what causes FlashHarry to say it is "rubbish". OK, there are many mistakes - but I for one have NEVER SO FAR in all my life tried this technique! So kudos to Ted for trying, first of all.

Now my question is: was the cut-and-pasted goose standing?

And yes, as you can see in Lew's (i.e. The_Traveler's) edit, it at least needs to have a reflection same as the trees. He nicely explains how he brought about his.

And some here were even instantly able to tell that the colour temps in both the lake pic and the goose pic don't go together. Wow. I can only feel that "something is not quite right", but I couldn't ever tell what it is...

Thx all, yes the Goose was standing

tedgtfan · Jul 18, 2007

The_Traveler said:
In looking at this again, I think the neck of the goose in the edit I posted is too dark. If the hi-res version was available, I would decrease the darkness of the goose neck until it matched the stems of the plants.

Thanks very much for showing and explaining what you did. I understand better after seeing the work as well as reading the step process. Thanks again I'll be working to match yours. Good work