[Toad]

It has been a very long time since I did a major composite piece. I have been at this one for about 8 hours now, and am too tired to continue tonight. It is still very much a work in progress...




{edit} slight changes to scales - watchtower and cloaked figure.

[Irma]

You worked rather late today, Toad. I was surprised when I saw your post.

Beautiful photo manipulation. I've been exploring your picture and everthing matches so well... The detail in the foreground is great. I like the effect in the smoke and the color, I see it like a pause going from the range of colors in the foreground to the background.

How many pictures have you work with so far?

[Wedding Shooter]

Very intense Rob - there is so much going on. Look forward to seeing your final piece - when you have some sleep

[Toad]

Thanks folks - in the light of day, I see a lot of changes that I want to make. I think there are 12 or 13 photos in play here so far...

[Zig]

Whoaaoaoa!
Toad...when I finally get round to recording my quadruple-CD concept album, in which is paid homage to all those Rock Dinosaurs of Yesteryear, and of which discs 2 to 4 contain an extended guitar solo divided into 42 Roman-numeralised movements........well, you know whom I'm going to ask to do the artwork, don't you...?

:|

[Zig]

arf!

[Toad]

Thanks Zig. I need the work...

[wulinka]

Wohow! Awsome colors!! And a great composition.

I love the combination of warm and cold tones, and the texture of the smoke is great.

Uli

[ADK_Jim]

Wow! It looks like something out of the Lord of the Rings. Cool!

ADK Jim

[Rabid Penguin]

needs a nazghul

[matthew]

This is already amazing. I imagine the full-sized version is stunning.

[guerito]

Fantastic work, T. I don't even dare to ask of how many parts you have composed this. It's just wonderful.

I have a tiny little thing that disturbs me, though: I think the blueish cast of the distant landscape and hills doesn't go well with the warm sky. In my experience (which is not much), if you have a sky like this, the distant haze has a golden tone too, and the orange of the sky reflects in the river. A little warming there would make the picture even more realistic IMO. I took the liberty to play with your picture to prove my theory and I think it works. But maybe this contrast is exactly what you're after.

Sorry for posting critique in the showcase forum, but this picture definitely deserves a closer look.

[Toad]

Thanks very much for the comments, folks. Guerito - I believe you are right - I will play with that and see how it looks. When you are working completely from your imagination like this with no reference , it is easy to miss the forest for the trees. Thanks.

[Kombisaurus]

Some excellent photo manipulation there Toad.
It's great to see people heading off on their own little tangents with photography, and your stuff is always very interesting.

[Toad]

I took Guerito's advice and made the background colors more in keeping with the colors of the sunset. I think the changes improve the mood. Thanks Jurgen!

[Wedding Shooter]

About 100 x more believable now Toad - looks even better.

[Irma]

I like very much the change of colors Toad.

May I ask how do you make the resizing of your pictures?

I started working on photomanipulation with more than one picture and sometimes don't know whether it is ok to do it with the transform>scale layer or there is another way. Also I wanted to ask you about resolution. How it works, if you have an image you have done with different resolution pictures.

[Toad]

Thanks Chris.

Irma: I use transform->scale on the individual layers for the most part. I always start with a blank canvas 11x14 @ 300 dpi and then place the image snippets on the blank canvas as separate layers. The images comes from a number of different cameras of varying resolutions and some of then are even scans of old film photos. The different resolutions don't seem to matter much to the finished work. One thing I always do is work with the geometry of the composite before I do any changes to density, light, color or anything else to the individual layers. I lay the photo out and do all the erasing, resizing and placement first. At that point the overall concept is there, but it looks just like a bad hodge-podge of photo snippets (which it is). I then start to equalize densities and even out the color and lighting. This is the stage that makes it look like it is *one* photo.

I think I will do a tutorial of this process at some point - I don't see too many people online doing this kind of thing.

[guerito]

Ahh now it really looks gorgeous, Toad!

[matthew]

Very nice, it does look much more "authentic" now. It's an amazing composition -- in the musical sense as well as photographic. While I look forward to your tutorial, I know that I don't have the min to be able to combine elements and images the way you have.

[aine-caitlin]

Outstanding composition, and such an improvement with the rework.

[Zig]

I'm really enthralled by this, Rob, particularly as I'm becoming a bit more aware of how painstaking you're having to be here. Your offer of a tutorial on this would be extremely gratefully read.
Regarding lighting: do you work out the direction/source/type in advance, then treat each layer accordingly..or begin with something fairly "non-directional" then apply lighting to the finished product?
Likewise, I too think the reworking you've done really strengthens the overall image. I can think in a musical analogue here, as it reminds me of the mastering stage...sort of like applying an overall EQ or compression to the final mix to make it all hang together. I'm assuming for the reworking here you layered in a warm-up from the photo-filter section?
Stunning example of bringing a photographer's eye and skills to the design process: please let us know when/if you post a How To.

[Toad]

Again thanks to all.

Kombi mentions in his post how it is interesting when people head off on their own tangents in photography. I agree. Personally, I find my composite pieces to be among the things that I am most personally proud of. Photographers always wrestle with the art vs science question and the ethics of adding and removing elements of a photo. I can't paint and I can't draw - but this sort of thing allows me to create narratives and concepts that I could not otherwise do. It also feels uniquely mine as opposed to just some already wonderful scene that I am just piggy-backing on.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Toad]

Regarding lighting: do you work out the direction/source/type in advance, then treat each layer accordingly..or begin with something fairly "non-directional" then apply lighting to the finished product?......I'm assuming for the reworking here you layered in a warm-up from the photo-filter section?

Thanks Zig - what I do is decide on the mood and light directions after the geometry is in place, and the layers are taken to equal density. Then I work on every layer separately to support the overall concept. I don't get too anal about it though - sometimes the light on the individual layers is not completely consistent. On the last pass for this one, I worked on that a bit more - added some subtle shadows and darkened the jagged peak on the left significantly as its lighting wasn't quite *right* before.

The warming pass on 2 of the background layers (the river and the hills) was done with a channel mixer layer where I reversed the blue and red channels, and then faded the layers back until they looked correct. It is all very subjective what looks right. Again, thanks to Guerito who suggested the color alterations.

[Janika]

Too cool!