Cropping and Compositing

This composite image was created in Photoshop CS3, though it could have been made in almost any of the Photoshop programs available, or even in GIMP. This is an example of many different tools in action all at once.

First, the background had the color levels adjusted. While they were just fine as they were, they didn't have that perfect "wistful" look that I was tyring to achieve.

Next, I removed the mountains on the right-hand side of the lake photo. To further cover this, and to add some more mood, I added in the fog by using blurred brushstrokes, which I further blurred using the Gausian Blur Photoshop filter.

My daughter, the subject of the photo, and the rail, were painstakingly removed by outlining them with the pen tool, which created a workpath. Using this workpath, I was able to delete out everything surrounding the items that I wanted to keep. I then flipped the image along the y axis to make her face the opposite direction.

The right-hand railing and foliage border were taken from the remaining picture, shown in the lower right. This was accomplished by using the Color Select option in the Select menu, as well as some careful brush-erasing. These were then manipulated around to fit properly into the spaces they needed to be. Finally, the colors were adjusted using filters and blends, and shadows were added to the underside of the railing and other areas to add the proper lighting effects.