Thursday, April 19, 2012

Simple Seagull


















I've begun a course called Beyond Layers.  Today's project was to use a texture layer provided by Kim Klassen, and use it in simplifying a photograph.

This is my original photograph taken of a gull hanging out at the beach.  In Photoshop, I made a duplicate layer of the original.  On the duplicate layer, I used Color Balance and adjusted Cyan to -50.  I added Kim's "awaken" texture layer using soft light at 100%.  I felt this made the gull too pale, so I used the eraser tool on the texture layer.  I worked at 25% opacity, and ended up doing it three times, so I guess that would equal using the eraser tool at 75% opacity.  Next, I flattened the image.  My last step was to adjust the mid levels from 1.00 to 0.75.
I've used this photograph of this gull before - maybe he deserves a name?  Let's try Gunther, that seems to suit him!  Here's a link to my earlier post when Gunther was used with a more pronounced texture layer, as well as a layer that was a photograph of ocean waves.  That time I used hard light instead of soft light.  Today's image is definitely more subtle.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very pretty bird and nice work on the texture. :)

Pepper Cory said...

Nice to see you uop and on the web Jean. Hello from Georgia!

The Artful Diva said...

Well done. I like what you've done here. I've never had much luck taking photos of birds. By the time I get my camera set up, the bird has flown the coop!

Jean Baardsen said...

Thanks, Tammy!
Artful Diva - when I'm at the beach, there are tons of gulls, and I take so many pictures I'm bound to get a few good ones!

Charlotte Wilson said...

My hat goes off to you. As soon as I get near a bird, it flies away.
Good capture!

♥charlotte

Vicki Lane said...

All nice work!

Eileen Sottovia said...

Such a subtle change made the bird even more beautiful. Gotta love that!

Eileen

Mollie said...

Very nice! Thanks for giving the explanation of what you did to achieve the final image.

Looking forward to spending the next year with you in Beyond Layers II!