My college years were spent in Tucson studying at the UofA. Now, many years later I returned for 1.5 weeks to take a workshop, teach a workshop and enjoy all Tucson has to offer. Now, I’m a hiker so I discovered many new places one of them being Tanque Verde Falls. Fortunately, another workshop attendee and local Tucsonan joined me for the morning. After a short hike and scrambling over boulders we arrived at the lower falls. Luckily, clouds were intermittent providing softer and more even light. We ran short on time, so we didn’t scramble to the upper falls but it sure was great scouting a new location. Notice in the images below the difference of cloud cover versus direct sunlight?
Tanque Verde Falls in cloud cover. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100mm, f/16, .5 sec, ISO 200, Singh-Ray Waterfall Polarizer.
Tanque Verde Falls in sunlight. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100mm, f/16, 1/4sec, ISO 200, Singh-Ray Waterfall Polarizer.
The first two images were used to create the composite on the right.
Photoshop is not for every image, but I like to use it for
compositing and making an impact. I decided to create a composite to celebrate
Valentine’s Day. Using my Cognisys StopShot Water Drip Kit, I captured several
drops and drop collisions. After reviewing the images, I noticed two that if
combined would make a fun composite. Since, viewers commented that it looks
like the character, “Tigger”.
Layers
Setting the camera on a tripod (a must with water drop collisions)
gave me several almost identical images, the only difference was in the actual
drops. To create the composite, I would need to utilized layers in Photoshop.
The “Tigger” image was my base image. Then I selected the “tail” from the second
image and brought the tail layer over to my base. Once the “tail” was in place,
I added a mask to erase the part I didn’t need to create a believable Tigger
tail. The final composite included two images and you may notice that I also
erased a few of the extra water drops. The spot healing brush is an easy tool
and blended the area nicely. This took me less than thirty minutes and I have fun
creating it.
Transform Tool
Original Water Drop
Transformed Heart Drop
On the next image, I envisioned a drop in the shape of a
heart. Well, that would never happen naturally, so I used Photoshop’s transform
Tool to create the heart. First step was to cutout the heart onto its own
layer. Then use transform (Ctrl +T, Cmd +T) to select it. With the transform
tool active, a right click will offer additional transforming options and I
chose warp. After dragging the sizing handles around, I designed a heart. The
last step was to blend this with the original drop. Again, I added a mask to
erase the top portion of the original drop and positioned the new heart shape
to blend properly.
Photoshop isn’t for everyone or every image, but it is fun
to use!
