Photoshop tip – easy effect for more punch

Here is a well-known Photoshop technique – one that I like and use on occasion. It desaturates the photograph, while also compressing the tonal range. It creates a modern look that also looks quite trendy. It is also quite easy to apply, by dragging the layers from a reference image once you’ve set it up.

Starting with the original image, I add these two layers:

The important layer here is the Gradient Map adjustment layer. You select it by right-clicking on the icon shown below.

The Gradient Map layer creates quite a nice B&W image. But by changing the Blending Mode to “Soft Light”, the color returns, and the image is quite contrasty … and under-exposed. For this, we add another layer – Levels – to help lift the exposure.

Adjust the opacity of both layers.

Here are the two images in succession – the original, and the effect – so you can see the change.

As you can see from the screen-capture of the layers there, I did use the Portraiture plug-in for some initial skin softening.

- more on how I use other Photoshop plug-ins to retouch portraits
- other articles on digital imaging and retouching

camera settings: 1/250 @ f5.6 @ 400 ISO
Nikon D3;  Nikon 70-200mm f2/2.8 VR II (B&H) @ 130mm;
manual off-camera flash in a softbox for lighting.

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Photoshop fairy dust / Neil’s secret sauce

As much as I believe in the “get it right in camera” ethos, it is near inescapable that most images can use some sweetening in Photoshop. My own preference is for fairly subtle retouching of photographs.

The photograph above is one I’ve shown a few times as a great example of how good on-camera bounce flash can look. I did have to adjust the WB and exposure as part of my usual RAW post-processing workflow. And for the image on the left, I also removed some skin blemishes with the Healing Tool. So it does look pretty good .. but it can be subtly enhanced. And the keyword here for me is *subtle*.

My post-processing retouching for portraits involve some Photoshop plug-ins that I use, but there are some useful (and well-known) Photoshop techniques to make an image pop a little bit more. Over several articles on Tangents, I’ve referred to it as either “Photoshop fairy dust” or in a humorous way as my “secret sauce”. The techniques vary, depending on what is needed, and on what I’d like to achieve.  So the “secret sauce” varies from image to image by some degree. It really depends.

With the help of Photoshop wiz, Adrian (aka, Trev from the Tangents forum), we’ve put together two action sets that make these Photoshop techniques quite accessible … and more importantly, accessible in a subtle way. No over-the-top effect. Just that sweetening of the photograph as is necessary. The image on the right-hand shows the type of retouching that is possible with this action set.

The action set, called Neil’s Secret Sauce, is available for download for a $10 fee from that linked page. The zip file includes two actions as well as a PDF instruction sheet.

And of course, we’ll gladly help!

Where this Action can and can’t work:

Adobe Photoshop: YES
Adobe Elements: NO
Lightroom in Conjunction with Adobe Photoshop: YES
Lightroom Standalone: NO
Aperture in Conjunction with Adobe Photoshop: YES (not verified)
Aperture Standalone: NO

Adrian, a regular follower of the Tangents blog, (better known as the ever-helpful Trev in the Tangents forum), has the guest spot this week. Adrian has expanded on his explanation of the actions that he mentioned in the comments section of the recent article on Selective Sharpening in Photoshop. Even better, he has made it available as two downloadable actions as well.

Photoshop actions to help with Post Processing after RAW conversion (free download)

Intro:

The following downloadable actions with the instructions on their use can save some time and grief on getting a good result after RAW conversion. Even using your RAW converter may not get a fully desirable end result and these very easy to use actions will help in that regard. They are not complicated and you don’t need any plug-ins to achieve a simple lift to your final image.

.
The actions, while still utilising the features in photoshop, do it in a different way to what you may have learnt or been shown, by using layers and masks you keep the integrity of your image at the same time giving it that lift.

Things like a simple contrast can be achieved in less than 1 second running the action, but, without the undesired color shift you would get with the ‘generic S Curve’.

Once you have run it through the RAW converter, you can still open the RAW file itself [from ACR] and have an image adjusted quicker and easier than during the RAW stage, or once exported, having a batch opening and then checking selected images make further adjustments much easier.

Sharpening is always a contentious point, many varying views, but the one thing that remains a ‘given’ is you don’t want to sharpen skin tones, looks nasty, so running a sharpen action after export could be done even in batch mode to your images.

Another action, cleaning colours, helps lift faces if used sparingly or boosting colours, but in a way that’s not too dramatic. Bit like Vibrancy slider in Lightroom without having to go to LR.

download the 2 actions from here, (right-click & save-as)

Description of the Actions:

Note: Some of these actions will change how your Curves dialogue box looks like. I operate on percentages, not levels based in using Curves, since everyone can relate to a % figure without having to wonder what an Input of 230 Output of 241 will result in, but with percentage base, a no-brainer.

If you want the gritty details, open your Curves dialogue box, click on ‘Curve Display Options’ and check ‘Pigment Inks’ which will also swap your Shadows/Highlights around, dragging down for lighter and up for darker, and if you place your cursor and click on a point, the figures are now percentage based, not levels.

If you want to see what any of the Masks are protecting/enhancing in any of the following actions, simply Alt [pc] Option [mac] and click on the Mask itself and it will show the actual mask on your image. Reverse procedure to get back to full colour image or simply click on ‘background’ of your image.

Anyone who is familiar with actions, can also get out of button mode, open up the action arrows to see what was applied. Some look involved but fairly simple for anyone who can create and understand them. Obviously you can change defaults if comfortable with them.

1st Action Set Name: TOOLS for PROCESSING

Actions:

1] Gradient POP 20%
A simple gradient map, blend mode Soft Light, Opacity 20% which can be varied.

2] Sharpen 250 Protect Skin
Great for wedding/portrait with lots skin. Sharpens 250%, Radius 1.8, Threshold 0 with a Red Channel Mask protects reds for skin tones. Opacity 100%, can be varied to taste.
Fantastic other colors around faces except red. Gets in between eyelashes, etc., protecting the skin tones.

3] Sharpen 150 Protect Skin
Same as 250 but Sharpen set to 150. Opacity can be varied.

4] Clean Colours Independently [using UK English spelling of ‘colours’]
Great for ‘cleaning’ colours which may have been a bit ‘muddy’. Use sparingly set to 20% adjustable.
Simple use of ‘Selective Color’ adjustment layer. eg: Red is Magenta and Yellow, so I make Cyan -100%; Blue is Cyan & Magenta, so I make Yellow -100% and so on for each colour.

5] Boost Colours Independently
Similar to above, but to increase colour saturation. Use sparingly. Set to 20%
This time you +100% the colours you want. eg: Reds – Magenta +100%; Yellow +100%, Cyan 0, etc.

The Clean & Boost is handy if once you find you processed image still lacking a bit you can without having to go back to original, give the quick boost via actions. You can also add layer mask to the ‘Selective Color’ layer to mask out anything too intrusive, eg: faces.

6] Reflector Open Shadows
A great way to open up eye sockets, faces if a tad too dark, simply using Soft White Brush, paint in on Black Mask around 15-30% opacity until you have built up the desired effect. There is a protective mask on there which will help preserve highlights. Gentle brushing to build up is far better then aggressive brush opacity flow rate.

7] Remove Blues from Whites
Simply use of Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer with the ‘Blues’ set to -65%, using Soft Brush, opacity set to 100% simply brush over the whites, removes Blue only.

8] Sunburn Relief
Ahhh, ever had the ‘sunglasses white eye sockets with burnt surrounds’ or simply just sunburnt.
Brush out on the mask around 10-30% until happy with Soft White Brush.
Simple use of Selective Color Adjustment Layer with Reds having -33% Magenta and -27% Yellow.
Why those percentages? Just cause I found it a nice combo, but feel free to play around.
Only effects the ‘Reds’.

9] Contrast via Masks 5%
Now, this is the “be all, end all” in my personal opinion.
Many people apply contrast via S Curves but that can destroy colours, it *will* change them.
I found a great tutorial [forgot site name] on this a good while back, made a lot of sense, so I made 2 actions. 5% and a 10%
Using Curves Adjustment Layers for both Shadows and Highlights [S-H, percentage based] I applied a 5% for dark tones, but, using the midtone point in the Curves Palette.
Input 50% Output 55%, PLUS a protective layer mask.
Same for Highlights, this time 50% Input with a 45% Output and mask to protect darker tones.
Alt click on the mask to see what I mean. Alt click on mask again to get back to image.
You can change the percentages, but you need to do it in the Curves Palette, the layer opacity is always 100%, of course you can alter Output to different % for each of the Shadow/Highlights, nothing says you need to keep both at 5% or 10%. You may find having the Shadows at 5% plenty but open up the Highlights to 10%.

10] Sepia Protect Whites
Convert to BW your way first, then run the action.
Excellent way to get genuine Sepia tones, without tinting the whites.
Mask to protect the whites from looking silly, they remain white, and it tints perfectly and gradually through midtones to shadows.
It uses the ‘Solid Colour’ Adjustment Layer with a mask, so you can change the colour if you want by double clicking on the Icon in layer, and change to your hearts content.
Default gives a good ratio of Red 60, Green 30, Blue 0; but feel free to experiment as the whites will always be protected.

11] Teeth via Green Channel
Great way to whiten teeth using Curves with Image Calculations on the Green Channel since this gives the greatest contrast between gum/skin/teeth so you can brush confidently without having to be careful. Brush at 100 full brush, then change opacity to suit. You don’t want a in your face ‘Hollywood’ look, 40-50% layer opacity is generally pretty good.

12] Dodge Brighten Eyes
Once again, Curves/Mask Layer Mask, brush in white brush until happy. Change layer opacity to suit.

13] Dodge & Burn General
Nope. Definitely NOT the Dodge-Burn Tool, that’s a useless tool in my opinion.
This uses once again a Curves Adjustment Layer for each of the Dodge/Burn Layers with protective Masks.
Simply use soft white brush, around 10-30% or change opacity on the fly to lighten/darken areas of the image using the different layers created.
Of course hitting X on keyboard you can brush back in something you may have been too aggessive with.

2nd Action Set Name: SHADOW RANGE

Actions:

1] SHADOW RANGE GREEN
Great for opening up shadows, using the Image/Calculations/Green Channels, but protecting highlights, run, change layer opacity to suit. Default 100%

2] SHADOW RANGE GREY
Same as above, but using a ‘generic’ greyscale in Image/Calculations/Grey

If familiar with actions, you can put a ‘stop’ on the Shadows/Highlights Palette Box, to change values before proceeding on. I left it run at defaults of Amount 60%; Tone Width 60%; Radius 300 for Shadows; Zero for Highlights; Black Clip 0.01; White Clip 0.01; Color Correction +30.

by Adrian, Five Star Studios – wedding photographer, Mackay, Queensland in Australia

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photo session – vintage pinup style (on location)

When the hot-rod show which didn’t offer as much in terms of photography as I had hoped, Jill and I moved over to the pier in Brooklyn. Having a model in a retro sailor-suit type outfit … well, it just seemed to good an opportunity to waste. I thought of perhaps using the Ice Cream Factory there as a backdrop to a straight-forward pinup photo, but ultimately decided the Hudson River waterfront would work better as a setting for the photo.

Then we just had to add some simple but dynamic lighting, and give the final image a vintage flavor with the post-processing …

Here are the two starting images:

The first one with the camera settings so that I have correct ambient exposure. But the image looks bland. There’s no punch to it.  (1/200 @ f4 @ 400 ISO)
The next image was with the camera set to where I wanted the background exposure to be – darker and with more mood.  (1/250 @ f6.3 @ 400 ISO)

Why those final settings? Simply because I liked the way it looked on the back of my camera. Turns out to be 1.7 stops under the regular proper exposure. Sounds about right.

Then I had to add light. My setup was simplicity itself, resorting to my usual on-location lighting setup when working with an individual subject such as a model:
Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24″x24″) (B&H), with the speedlight,
which is controlled by two PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceivers (B&H)

I used the flash in TTL mode, triggered via the TT5 units.

Here is the out-of-the-raw converter image on the left, with the final processed image on the right:

I wanted the look of the image to have a warm retro feel to it. For this, I stacked a few of the Totally Rad actions, using the RadLab filters. I used the RadLab filter set with the recent article on post-processing a photo – that summery feeling, but this time I used a different set of actions, at different opacities, with different settings, layered in a different way. Of course, I can save this as a recipe and re-use it at a later date.

And here it is again – the final image:

image settings:
1/250 @ f6.3 @ 400 ISO … TTL flash  (FEC not recorded)
Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (B&H) .. used at 70mm

Here is the pull-back shot to show the relative placement of the softbox.

You can order the RadLab or the Totally Rad action sets, via this affiliate link:
the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%

equipment used during this photo session:

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24″x24″) (B&H)
Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(2x) PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

Stay informed of new articles via the monthly newsletter.
Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

post-processing an image – that summery feeling

A hot rod show & hot girls dressed in 50′s retro outfits .. it all just has to look good! Well, not necessarily. Sometimes the way you feel something should look, just isn’t quite there in the actual setting. At a hot rod show today in Brooklyn, though there were the usual awesome cars (and girls), but the show was held under an expressway. Just not quite the right setting to easily get images with sparkle. But parked around the area were some vintage cars, so along with Jill (one of the models), I used some of these cars for a few images.

But even here the images I got just didn’t quite looked like I envisaged. I wanted a lazy, but sexy and summery feel to the photos. Less about the car itself, than the mood. So the photographs needed some sweetening in Photoshop …

For me, the background is of huge importance when I take an image. Clutter and distracting elements need to be removed. Usually this is easy enough by shifting your position, or changing your perspective or focal length, or by hiding stuff behind your subject. With some of the photographs of models on this site, you’d be surprised how many of them were snapped just as someone walked behind the model … an effective way of hiding random passersby.

I couldn’t get low enough here to completely eliminate the street scene behind Jill …

In Photoshop I cloned out the distracting stuff in the background, to give it a white seamless backdrop effect. And no, I don’t find the flare distracting. In this instance, the lens flare is an integral part of the image and the sun-drenched look I was after.

So this is a good start. But it needed more. My photography in general is fairly “straight”. I don’t use much Photoshop effects. However, Photoshop actions are an easy way to chase a certain look. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel every time and prove our Photoshop skillz – especially not when we’re just after a quick edit. Then Photoshop action sets are a handy thing to have.

One of the few action sets I use (and really like) are the Totally Rad action sets. Doug Boutwell, the mastermind behind these, have just released a superb upgrade to these – RadLab.

The actions are now available as a filter called up in Photoshop. What makes this a huge improvement, is that there is now a mouse-over preview of the effect.  And you can very easily layer them and change the opacity of the effect. And turn the chosen effect off if you want, or change the order of the layer.

If you already know and use the Totally Rad action sets, you will love this improvement. If you haven’t tried it out yet and are looking for a way to fluidly add an effect to an image, then I highly recommend this.

The final image again:

image details:
1/200 @ f8 @ 400 ISO  … no additional lighting or flash
Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (B&H)   … used at 35mm

related article:
photo session – vintage pinup style (on location)

You can order the RadLab or the Totally Rad action sets, via this affiliate link:
the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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Photoshop action – selective sharpening (download)

Jim McGuinness, a regular follower of the Tangents blog, has made available a tutorial on how to do selective sharpening in Photoshop. Even better, he has made it available as a downloadable action as well.

You can download the action and the instructions on how to use it, from here.
Right-click & save-as, 2 of the files files:
- the action as either Windows / Mac compressed file
- the instruction as a PDF

Expand / uncompress the sitx file. You’ll get a Photoshop icon.
Drag your image onto the icon, and photoshop will run it.

I’ll let Jim follow up for any questions that may crop up.

[ Jim McGuinness is an Adelaide based wedding and family portrait photographer ]

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Ulorin Vex – Hotel Monaco foyer (photo session 4)

During the same afternoon that I had the opportunity to photograph Ulorin Vex, I took several other sequences of images of her in other costume. Here we worked in the foyer area of the Hotel Monaco in San Francisco. (If only all other hotels had such a diversity of immediately photogenic areas!)  With this image, I wanted a near-symmetrical image, with just Ulorin Vex’s posture slightly breaking the symmetry up. Just enough to make a stunning subject even more eye-catching.

A little more about the train-of-thought to getting to this image …

When I saw that bench in the foyer area, I knew that it would work as a simple backdrop, and that the colors would pop. The pose is mostly Ulorin Vex’s … she is supremely professional and easy to photograph, bringing so much to the photo session. Then all it needed was gentle fine-tuning of the positioning of her hands and legs by telling her how I’d like her to place her hands and feet.

In lighting this, I went for a simplistic set-up again – just bouncing an off-camera flash into the ceiling and away from her. The pull-back shot will explain this better:

The off-camera speedlight was controlled with a  PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H) which allows me, with the PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H), to change easily from manual flash to TTL flash, and control the power of the flash, from my camera. In the end, I shot with full manual power, since bouncing flash this way lost a lot of light.

camera settings: 1/80 @ f3.2 @ 640 ISO

In the larger image of that pull-back shot, you can see that I had gelled my flash. The light in there was predominantly incandescent, so I just used a gel on my flash. In the end, looking at the comparison shot without flash, so little ambient light registers, that it most likely wouldn’t have made much difference.

Yet, the shadows of the diagonal beams do show up in the final image. In the end, I’d gel my flash again if I had to shoot in a similar situation. It just makes more sense to have my flash be close to the color balance of the predominant ambient light source.

For the two images shown here, I took my post-processing a few steps further than I usually do.

Instead of my usual post-processing workflow for retouching portraits, I changed things up a bit:

• I used Neat Image to smooth the image a bit;
• then ran a Nik Color Efex filter – Glamor Glow – at reduced opacity;
• an adjustment layer which I set to a Soft Light blending mode, also at reduced opacity;
• and what gave this image a grittier but glowing look, was the Gradient Map layer, set to Soft Light blending mode, again at reduced opacity.

And that’s all it took – a fantastic model, a photogenic spot, simple but effective lighting and some Photoshop fairy dust. Simple really.

other articles on Tangents, featuring Ulorin Vex:

model – Ulorin Vex
Ulorin Vex in red - photo session 2
Ulorin Vex – window light - photo session 3

Equipment used with this photo session:

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(2x) PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)
Manfrotto 1051BAC light-stand (B&H)

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

personal work – Manhattan cityscapes

It’s been a long cold winter without much chance to roam around and explore with a camera. The past weekend it seemed like the weather was finally relenting and becoming warmer. Taking to the streets to shoot for myself a bit with no purpose in mind, I ended up with three images that I liked – all deserted New York city scenes. Or in the case of the image above, nearly deserted.

It felt good to let my thoughts roam for a while, getting some exercise and listening to music … looking for anything that visually appealed to me in the camera’s viewfinder.

With this image above, the street had tourists floating around. I shot about 10 frames over the course of 10 minutes, with the camera steadied on my iPad and iPhone on the steps of a building opposite. My camera settings were: 8 seconds at f14 @ 200 ISO. I purposely went for such a slow shutter speed, since I wanted passersby to melt away.

In taking several shots as people milled around, I was able to layer a few photos in Photoshop, erasing the static tourists via a layer mask. This way I could reveal a duplicated part of the scene where there was nobody in any chosen area. The final result … a deserted scene.

Canon 1D Mark IV (B&H);   Canon 24-105mm f4L (B&H)

Processing for all three images:
1. my usual B&W processing in ACR / Bridge, but with the local contrast cranked up.
2. Topaz Adjust 4 – Spicify – at 50% opacity on a duplicate layer.
3. Topaz Adjust 4 – Vibrance – at 50% opacity on another duplicate layer.

If you’d like to order Topaz Adjust, or any Topaz product through this affiliate link, use the discount code ‘planetneil’ for a 15% discount off any item in your shopping cart.

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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children’s studio portrait – lighting setup and post-processing

The lighting setup was very simple. Mostly because there wasn’t much space in the area where I set up my home-studio in my dining room area.  But also, because a complicated lighting setup wasn’t necessary. Just two lights. One light on my subject – this adorable little girl; the other light on my background.

To get an even spread of light and to get softer light than a smaller umbrella (ie, smaller light source) would’ve given me, I used two 60″ umbrellas. Both of them with T2 Q-flashes. But in this small space, two speedlights would’ve worked equally well.

I shot close to the one large umbrella, hoping to create a kind of wrap-around light on the little girl.

She and her brother had come in for this photo session. Of the sequence of images, I like this one. She and her brother were great subjects, but her younger brother, being .. well, young, didn’t have any interest really or the attention span for the photo session. He was zooming around the dining room and living room area. My assistant Jessica had the idea to use a laser pointer to get the cats involved to see how the kids would react. The kids were just as animated as the cats.

This image here was when she was on the floor and whipped her head around to look at me. I liked the way her hair, slightly in disarray, moved around her face, giving a kind of 3D effect there. Since she isn’t posing for the camera here, I think this is more true to her spirit. I like it.

Back to the lighting. It really was a very straight-forward setup.  We had used a lightmeter to get the light on the background at least 1 stop brighter than where I would position the little kids. I wanted the white backdrop to approach blowing out. But not so much to create too much spill light (and flare) on my my subjects.

Looking at the histogram, we had the exposure bunched up tight on the right-hand edge.  This showed as well then that we were over-exposing the white background.  Even so, for the final edit of the image, I knew I would have to clean it up with Photoshop. But it is always best to start with the best possible image in camera.

camera settings: 1/200 @ f9 @ 400 ISO
Nikon D3; Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)

Here’s an animated GIF to show the effect of the various steps in post-processing.

Image 1: the image directly out of the RAW converter. No adjustments made.

Image 2: clean up the white background; remove sensor dust spots; brighten eyes

I use the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop, and set it to a Tolerance of around 10. The entire background won’t be selected on a first click.  Keep the Shift key down and click on the other areas which weren’t initially selected. Select as much of the white background, without selecting large portions of hair.

Now with the background still selected, use the Eraser tool to erase the background and make it white. (Make sure the color is selected to white first.)

After this, use the History Brush to bring back any part of your subject that was lost with the selection and erasing of the previous step.  This can be tedious, depending on the level of precision you need in the final image. There are software tools like Vertus that makes this whole process much easier. I am sure there are readers of this blog that will have better ideas of how to accomplish this. Perhaps even doing this with minimal effort – a few clicks and its done.  I’d love to hear.

The better separation you get between your subject and white background, the better.  For then you have to do less work in Photoshop. But the trick is to find that balance where you don’t cause flare or a kind of halo around your subject.

For the next step in post-processing, I brightened her eyes by using the History Brush, set to Screen, with an opacity of less than 10%

Image 3: further retouching

With this step I would use the Healing brush to remove any skin blemishes. Yup, little kids often have scratch marks and bumps. I then went through my usual series of steps for skin retouching, but brought down the opacity on some of those edits.

Image 4: some Photoshop fairy dust to subtly make the image pop a bit more. This step will have to remain my secret sauce for now.

There are the steps I typically use to photograph a portrait against a white backdrop, starting with the lighting of my subject and the background … and then finally finessing the image in post-production.

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Two fantastic entries to the recent Photoshop contest came from Marcia Gold, who runs a post-processing and retouching service. She said she entered just for fun, and didn’t want to be eligible for the prize. I am taking the liberty of showing her two images here anyway, since they are outstanding takes of the original image …

I know you wanted it to look like he was coming from an unseen area…ergo the two versions: one in the sky alone which is inexplicable and mysterious; and one with a few silly cloud brushes thrown on top so it looks like he’s come from somewhere earthly. Hope you get a kick out of these.

Marcia Gold

The steps used involved three layers in Photoshop:
- Sky background
- Carefully masked cutout of climbing gypsy + his shadow masked at 30%
- The wall transformed in size and perspective + masked to blend with sky

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