The Daily Texture for 01/11/2015
Fond Memories
Today I'm featuring another texture which is more of a painted background than a simple texture. {If I keep this up, I'll have to rename this blog The Daily Texture & Backgrounds!} There's a lot you can do with this painted mountain scene.
My first attempt was the image on the left titled "Morning At The Mountain". I incorporated a photograph of an Elk from the zoo, as well as one of my bald eagle photos into this image. I masked out the eagle and the elk and placed them where I wanted, blending the edges of them into the texture. TIP: If you're going to mask out something you intend to make smaller in a scene like this, do the masking on the layer BEFORE you resize it down to the smaller size. It's much easier, especially if you have older eyes like I do, to get the mask accurate when the photo is large! After I did the masking, I resized both of my subjects down to a smaller size and put them where they needed to be. I darkened the ground under and around the feet of the elk, in order to tie him in well to that part of the scene, because originally his legs and feet were much brighter than the area I was placing him in the picture. Here's another tip: When you're working on your image, zoom the image down small -- or step back across the room from your scene -- so you can see it at a distance. Often this far-away perspective will show you areas which need work in your image. That's how I discovered his feet were too bright originally and they didn't look right. By darkening the ground and his legs, he now looks like he is really "there" in the scene. I added the texture on top of the final image and set it to soft light at 30% to make the colors pop a bit more.
My first attempt was the image on the left titled "Morning At The Mountain". I incorporated a photograph of an Elk from the zoo, as well as one of my bald eagle photos into this image. I masked out the eagle and the elk and placed them where I wanted, blending the edges of them into the texture. TIP: If you're going to mask out something you intend to make smaller in a scene like this, do the masking on the layer BEFORE you resize it down to the smaller size. It's much easier, especially if you have older eyes like I do, to get the mask accurate when the photo is large! After I did the masking, I resized both of my subjects down to a smaller size and put them where they needed to be. I darkened the ground under and around the feet of the elk, in order to tie him in well to that part of the scene, because originally his legs and feet were much brighter than the area I was placing him in the picture. Here's another tip: When you're working on your image, zoom the image down small -- or step back across the room from your scene -- so you can see it at a distance. Often this far-away perspective will show you areas which need work in your image. That's how I discovered his feet were too bright originally and they didn't look right. By darkening the ground and his legs, he now looks like he is really "there" in the scene. I added the texture on top of the final image and set it to soft light at 30% to make the colors pop a bit more.
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My second attempt at using this background was with the eagle at full size. This one was much easier to do, as I didn't have to worry about scale {or feet!}. What I did have to do with the eagle on both images was mirror image him {or I could have mirror imaged the background}. The light is coming from the right, and in my original photo of the eagle, the light was hitting his wing from the left. By mirror imaging that layer, now it makes sense. TIP: Always look at where your light is coming from and match your subject and texture/background up with that so it makes sense to the viewer. I added the texture to the top of the image on this one as well, only I set it to overlay at 30% to give the colors more richness.
Some other ideas you can use with this painted background: If you have a photo of someone fishing, place them on the shoreline {where the elk is} if they are facing away from you. If you have a fishing boat photo...incorporate that somewhere into the water. Add some birds flying in the sky for interest. If you have a photo of a person standing with their hands up in the air, resize them down to a tiny size and put them on the mountaintop...I think that would make an interesting image, too!
Like this texture/background? Buy it here for only $2. Commercial Use OK.
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