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Step 13 I afterwards decided that the rocks in the foreground weren't working, so I removed them and added some more rocks to the base of the tree to give the appearance of land jutting into the water. I then began to look at Hemali’s clothes. The color of the white on the skirt appeared very flat and the trim on the skirt had a grey appearance with no contrast. So I duplicated the Hemali layer and began experimenting with all the Blending Modes. Special Tip Here is a trick that took me some time to learn. When looking at the various Blending Modes, keep an eye open on all the individual areas of the image. If you notice that a particular Blending Mode looks fantastic on just one small portion of the image but makes the rest of the image look awful, then place a mask on that layer and keep only that portion that looks great. Then duplicate the original image again and again experiment with Blending Modes. You can then add numerous Blending Modes to various parts of an image or layer using this method. |
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Step 14 When I chose Linear Light, the trim on the skirt suddenly popped out, but the rest of the image’s highlights were completely blown out and damaged, so I then applied a Mask to the layer, filled it with black and painted back with white only the trim of the skirt.
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Step 15 Then I again duplicated the original Hemali layer and resumed playing with Bending Modes, this time looking at modes that would enhance the blouse and add radiance to the skin tones. Again I chose Linear light and masked the layer in black and lowered this layer to 81% opacity, which is where the effect brightened the blouse. To reduce a layer's opacity, while the layer is selected, go to the top of the Layer's Palette. There you will find an Opacity slider that can be adjusted to any opacity from 0% to 100%. I was careful not to make it too bright which would make the colors look unconvincing. I painted back the shirt, but it somehow appeared a bit too bright. To fix this, I lowered the opacity of my paintbrush and began painting back with black again to create shadows and contours to enhance the shape of the torso and breasts.
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Step 16 Once again I duplicated the original Hemali layer, this time changing the blending mode to Overlay because I liked the color it gave to the upper part of the skirt and it also added a golden glow to the skin. First I Masked this whole layer in black and then painted back at varying paintbrush opacities to get the effect of folds in the front of the skirt, which was originally a bit flat and without contours. I also painted at approximately 34% opacity to give the skin a golden glow.
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Step 17 I then took some time to examine the entire image from a distance, zooming out to see the contours, shadows and highlights of the overall image. Suddenly it occurred to me, fickle creature that I am, that I actually did prefer some rocks in the foreground. The rocks behind the Hemali layer were mixing too much with her skirt, not allowing enough contrast. So I then painted out some of the rocks behind her (painting with black color onto the Mask of the rocks layer). I also duplicated this layer once again, pulled it into the foreground, added a fully black mask, then painted back a portion of the rocks to use in the forground. I then again duplicated this layer and set the blending mode to Color Dodge as I had done with the original rocks to add that luminous glow. |
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Step 18 Now I wanted to emphasize the wind. What better way to do this then add some leaves blowing off the tree. I went to “Big Box of Art” to find some suitable leaves, looking for ones with a generic shape (as not to give a clue to a specific country) and also looked for ones with interesting curled shapes to make them appear as though they were 3 dimensional and being buffeted by the wind. I chose 4 leaves, and used the eraser tool to extract them from their background. I didn’t bother with Masking because it adds to the PSD file size and I reasoned that I couldn't go too far wrong with cutting out the leaf, as long as the edges look uneven and jagged. I chose 4 different leaves so that there would be some variety in their shapes, and when duplicating them, it wouldn’t appear as though I had cloned the same leaf over and over again. I knew that I could afterwards vary the shapes if necessary using the Liquify filter and Clone tool. Once I extracted the leaves, I used the Edit / Transform / Rotate and Scale to put the leaves into the position that I thought looked convincing. Then I chose the Select Tool and clicked the choice for “Auto Select Layer” in the Main Option Bar at the top of the Photoshop screen. This allows me to drag the leaves wherever I want, one by one without having to click on their individual layers in the Layer Pallette. Be careful when this is opton is selected though, because it is easy to accidentally click on an unintended layer and begin dragging it to the wrong spot. Make sure your left hand is hovering over the Crtl/Z keys (Cmd/ Z) to quickly undo any error. Then I link all the leaves and drag them into their own Set at the bottom of the Layer Pallette. This will save you an enormous amount of time, because you can drag the entire set or make changes to it at the same time. Next I duplicated the set and superimposed a Blending Mode that suited the lighting of the piece. I chose Multiply to darken the leaves. |
