I originally backlit this
shot of the flower against a black background and as you
can see it was not a bad image. It's well exposed and the
backlighting has added something and even the black background
does make it stand out. However I thought I could make much
more of it digitally and set about that task
Starting with the basic
image shown above, I opened the layers palette and renamed
the background thumbnail. We can do this by simply double
clicking the thumbnail and in the new layer box type a new
name. Select the magic wand and by varying the settings
and holding down the shift key to build up a selection gradually
select all the black areas in the picture.
(Holding down the shift
key enables you add one selection to another). I added a
little feather to the selection from the select menu at
the top of the screen and then cut away the black background
via Edit > Cut. This left me with my flower floating
in a transparent background. (See Below)
Using layer > transform
> rotate from the menu bar I tilted the flower slightly
to the left. From the menu bar select Layer > Duplicate
Layer to create an exact copy and then select Edit >
Transform and flip the layer so that the two flowers start
to form a spray shape.
This is where my original
plans for this image went out the window. Looking at this
double flower image shown below I thought it looked rather
alien or insect like in appearance with what looked like
eye sockets and tendrils around what may be a mouth. I decided
to abandon my original idea of a pretty flower picture and
pursue this new idea, after all within the digital medium
we can return to that flower pic another day.
I searched my image files
for some suitable eyes and retrieved the image below.
I made a selection of one
eye using the freehand lasso tool from the toolbar and left
a generous overlap of skin area around the eye. I copied
this selection into my growing image and saved the whole
thing again. You can make a separate blank layer at any
time just by clicking the centre icon at the bottom of the
layers palette.
Using the Transform >
distort tool from the menu bar I turned and sized the eye
so that it fitted the area of the flower that I thought
looked like an eye socket. I made sure I overlapped this
a bit knowing that I could more carefully deal with the
edges of the eye via a layer mask. To do this I created
a layer mask on my eye layer and with the image greatly
enlarged carefully masked off the eye with the spray tool
set to black. I kept the pressure setting of the spray tool
low, which helped me achieve a good effect. I carefully
continued this process so that the flower stem formed the
outer edge of the eye socket. A simple copy, paste and flip
created the other eye, which I carefully moved into place
with the move tool. Being a symmetrical picture I only had
to work on one side as all the opposite parts could be made
with the copy and flip horizontal tools.
I wanted to alter the eyes
so that they became a little less human so I experimented
with the dry brush filter and ended up selecting Brush size
9, detail 1 and Texture 2 from within this filter palette.
I also wanted to alter the colour balance of the eye so
selecting the hue and saturation palette, I moved the Hue
slider control until I had introduced a green colour to
the skin around the eye that fitted in better with the flower.
This also had the effect of making the eye pupil blue, which
I thought added to the effect. I then selected the green
area around the eye and added a little crystallize effect
from the filter menu to help simulate a lizard type skin.
At this stage I thought
the image needed some lizard skin textures and I remembered
a slide I had shot of an Iguana some while back and I found
this image below
I carefully cut out parts
of the scales and using a combination of Transform tools
and the Hue and Saturation palette I formed the scales into
shape and positioned them within the flower stems. I added
a layer mask to blend the scales into the image exactly
the same as the eye. If you are not familiar with layer
masks,use the eraser instead. A copy and flip then produced
the scales for the other side of the face.
The image below shows how
I adapted the scales I had already had to form other features
in the growing alien face. The problem area was the nose
and at first I tried using a beak from an owl, but it did
not look right and I abandoned that. In the end I had little
choice but to design one myself. I did that using the marquee
tool and sections of the scales using a separate layer.
A little trial and error with opacities/colour and shape
soon had something that began to look about right. I saved
the file many times to make sue I could go back to a previous
point if I wanted to.
I needed a mouth and for
this I went back to my portrait and using the free hand
lasso tool I selected just the lips and copied them into
a separate layer. I used Transform tools to give me the
size I wanted and then I chose the dry brush filter at the
same settings that I used for the eyes and applied that.
I also reduced the saturation of the lips a little. Later,
I tried changing the lips to green after listening to the
comments from friends, but I eventually settled on the red.
Finally I added a layer mask and blended the mouth into
the image area. Using this same mask I also gave the appearance
that the mouth was behind the stems which I thought looked
like tendrils hanging down.
The image was completed
by selecting a black background and cloning one of the green
colours from within the image by clicking the eye dropper
icon. I then selected the gradient tool set foreground to
transparent and added the blended green graduations around
the edge. Finally I added some noise to the background to
avoid that plastic look when printed.
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