Autumn Souls

[billyboy]

I thought maybe nobody commented on my first post because I linked it to my on-line gallery... so here`s a picture that hopefully will appear rather than a link. Comments and critics welcome! Cheers, BillyBoy



and a link to my new gallery...

http://www.photozo.com/album/showgaller ... user=17125

[Seosaimhin]

Hello there!

This image looks great - congrats! It's a great idea, well executed - perhaps you'd like to share details of the software and technique you used to help others who'd like to give this a try?

Thanks for sharing - keep uploading!

[billyboy]

Many thanks for your reply and the encouragement! Share my method? I`d be happy to.

Basic image is a forest floor. As I`ve done lots of portaiture, I cut out faces from various shots in Photoshop, sized basically to the leaves. Keeping the original image as the background, I made a separate layer of each of the faces and placed each one over a leaf that looked the right shape, adjusting the rotation with the transform tools. I then used the luminoscity layer blend mode to merge the face layer with the background so that the structure of the leaf appears to follow the contour of the face. I used the history brush, set to before the layer blends, to bring back sections of the eyes and mouth so that these remain clear and sharp. I then erased any part of the face that didn`t quite fit the leaf with a soft eraser so that the blend between face and leaf was gradual. It`s often necessary to adjust the levels and contrast between the layers to get the balance looking right—you have to take each face as it comes as there is no rule that works for them all. Black faces tended to go best with the red or brown leaves, white faces looked better with green and orange. The interesting thing about this image is that the more you look, the more faces you find. It was fun to do, but it took LOTS of time and patience. You have to get really anal with the detail, but if you do, the result justifies the pain.

I hope this inspires some of you. I am an amateur, totally self taught… living proof that anyone can do this if they persist.

Cheers and thanks for looking, Bill