Experimenting with layer masks

[EJC]

Hi folks

Here is a very helpful website for those of us starting to learn to use Photoshop. He has a long list of topics but the one I came across first was using layer masks to create a composite photo. Using the steps in this link

http://www.crhfoto.co.uk/crh/layermask.htm

I was able to blend a photo Mad Aussie found of our good friend Kiley9806 from the frozen north into a photo of palm frond shadows on a textured wall I took in St Lucia. Thank you Kiley for letting me use your photo.
The only extra steps I took were:
- to adjust the hue and saturation of the palm photo to match Kiley's photo colour tones before importing it.
- played with the opacity and fill percentages in the Kiley layer to softly blend her into the background wall
-add a copy of the background layer on top of the Kiley layer and turned down the opacity to embellish the shadow lines without the wall texture becoming visible on Kiley’s skin

Kiley still seems to be added in. Does any one have any tips to make the photo more realistic?


cheers
EJC

[edbayani11]

i'm not sure if this was the effect that you wanted.
i did this by dragging either of the images on top of the other.
then choose the top layer and on the layers pallete, click the "make layer mask" buttom ot the bottom of the pallette. a layer mask frame will come out beside the image thumbnail.
click on the blank frame and choose brush tool. adjust the hardness and the size of the brush at 100% opacity and with black, brush on the image. you will notice that the top image will be "erased" and show the underlying layer.
if you over erase, just click X to toggle to white and brush back what you erased.
if you choose opacity 50%, and brush the image, only 5o% will be erased and you will see both layers. it,s up to you to adjust the opacity to get the effect that you want.
remember, before brushing, be sure that the mask frame is clicked, if not and you brush on the image, you will be brushing black or white on the image.
i hope this helps
in this sample image, that i made, the texture image was on top of the photo of kiley.

[EJC]

Thanks Edbayani. That is pretty much what I did but I wanted the palm leaf pattern to show across her and have a bit of her shadow appear on the wall.

cheers
EJC

[Mad Aussie]

Here's my effort.

I do hope Kiley is ok with us playing with her image like this????

Kiley, for goodness sake tell us if you aren't please.

I must say though that I've rarely had such a lovely canvas for my artwork before
There's something very ... pronounced about it



What I did was this ...

I used the lasso tool to cut the goddess out (without her shadow) and then placed her gently on a layer above the palm background.
Using a layer mask I carefull removed any artifacts from around the outside of her.

Then I applied a drop shadow to her and positioned and sized that how I wanted it.

I used curves to darken her blacks to blend with the shadow.

I adjusted the hue of the palms further to better match Kiley, the Palm Goddess of Love.

I couldn't find a way to lay the palms shadows effectively so I started adding layers above all and using the pen tool I drew and stroked paths where I wanted the plam frond shadows to be.
Then I used Guassian blur to create the final look for those shadows.

I rushed the palm shadows a bit because my wife rocked up and accused me of perving and told me dinner is ready!!!

Hope that helps.

Oh .... and thanks Kiley ... thanks very much

[edbayani11]

Thanks Edbayani. That is pretty much what I did but I wanted the palm leaf pattern to show across her and have a bit of her shadow appear on the wall.

cheers
EJC

hi ejc, here i am again, one more time

[EJC]

I think you aced it MA! How did you make the drop shadow?
BTW Kiley allowed the use of her image on this site only

Thanks
EJC

[Mad Aussie]

For the drop shadow in Photoshop at the bottom of the Layers palette is an icon 'FX' (effects)
While having her layer selected click on that and you'll see the options from there.