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PHOTOSHOP CC
THE MISSION
Learn key
compositing skills
with Blend Modes
and MasksTime needed
20 minutesSkill level
BeginnerKit needed
Photoshop CCshoot rarely goes
exactly to plan,
especially when
working with children
or animals. While
photographing the dog here,
my idea was to create a shot
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from the dog’s head at all
angles. However, it proved tricky
to get the dog to play ball, and
even when I managed to get a
usable shot, it didn’t have the
scattering of water drops that I
had envisaged. However, I did
have other frames from the shootin which the dog wasn’t right, but
the water drops were plentiful.
As such, I could piece together the
drops and the dog to craft the
shot that I wanted.
This is often the case with
Photoshop techniques. It’s about
augmenting the in-camera results
to improve the image, and doing
so in such a way that looks
natural. When we have several
similar shots of the same thing, all
taken under the same conditions,
it often makes sense to piece
together the best bits from each.
This kind of subtle compositing iseasier than it might seem,
especially if, like here, the subject
is photographed against a plain
backdrop (or if a tripod is used to
keep the various frames in
alignment). We can simply use the
Lighten Blend Mode so that the
droplets show through but the
original dark backdrop does not.
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Curves adjustment, and if
necessary use a layer mask to
control what is visible or hidden.
These are essential layer skills
that will prove useful for all kinds
of projects...Animal magic
James Paterson use s Photoshop CC wizardr y to combine
images for a pup portrait with added splash!
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DOWNLOAD PROJECT FILES
TO YOUR COMPUTER FROM:
http://downloads.
photoplusmag.com/pp160.zip
VIDEO ALSO ONLINE
http://bit.ly/pp_160_6VIEW^ TH
E^ VIDEO