In my opinion there is far too much emphasis put on the comparison between the quality of digital camera images and conventional output. Sure, the digital files are not up to a direct comparison with a 35mm 18 megabyte file straight off a kodak CD, but who cares?

NB. They are up to 35mm standard and beyond now. Jan 2003 webmaster

With a digital camera you have an instantaneous image and that is a huge advantage and great fun. The quality difference between the conventional and digital process is closing rapidly and photographers who ignore the digital evolution are in for a big surprise. For those who have taken the digital plunge already the trick is to make the very best of your images. What better way to do that, than with Adobe Photoshop.

The first thing to remember when taking digital pictures is to ensure you get the very best quality from your camera. Use that tripod when the conditions are not bright, the last thing you want to do is to introduce camera shake. In a composite picture like this, get in as close as your camera will allow and fill the frame with the elements that you wish to include. There is little point in using only a part of your camera's capability by not getting in close. Having done that you are well placed to produce a great image and all that is needed is a little time and effort. Digital photography is no different from the conventional in many respects and to get a worthwhile image you will have to work at it.

I started the task with the 4 images above. Choose a natural background like the leaves as a background for your composition, but don't forget natural stone or weathered wood is also worth considering. Call up the level's palette by hitting Ctrl+L and adjust the levels of each image to suite your liking. I tried auto levels first on my background image, liked the result and decided to stay with it. (Shown below)

To gain the most flexibility in composing your image you will need to lift your subjects from their original backgrounds and this can be the slow part. Stay with it and give the task your tender loving care, it's worth it in the end. Removing the passion fruit was the easiest of the three because it was a bold colour against the leaves and the magic wand tool will work a treat in these circumstances. You may need to add to your selection to pick up things like the stalk, but remember that holding down the shift key allows you to add to a selection and you can change from the wand to the polygonal lasso tool. Before removing the background from your image you will need to feather the edge of your selection. Your subject will look more natural later when you come to arrange it with the other elements. The feather settings are found via Select-Feather and you should choose a radius of 1 to 2.

When you have your selection complete and feathered, hit Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V which will copy your selection and paste it to a new layer. You can then delete the original, which should leave you with your subject floating on a transparent base. Save often as you go through these processes and certainly save your completed transparency.

Repeat this process on all the elements you wish to use. Making a transparency of a subject like these leaves below where the background is fussy is a little more difficult. I chose to use the pen tool marking a path around the whole shape in short steps. Although this looks to be a very laborious task, it is surprising how you soon get used to this tool and you can work surprisingly quickly. When your path is complete call up your path palette and drag the path down over the selection icon shown below. Once you have your selection choose the feather tool and feather edge and copy and paste the selection to a new layer.

With all your transparencies made (like the one shown above) drag and drop them one by one into your base image. This should give you a 4 layer stack as shown below.

I chose to give each element a slight shadow to give my composition some depth and I did this by selecting Layer-Effects-Drop Shadow from the menu bar.

The settings you choose from the drop shadow palette are a personal choice, but make sure that each of your elements has the same style shadow or things can look odd. The only task remaining is to use the transform tools to size your subjects and the move tool to place them in position. If you need to copy a layer as I did with the flower, drag the thumbnail over the copy icon at the base of the layer's palette. How you position the elements within the picture space is up to you. (See below)

There are some very nice edge effects available from third party suppliers that can be installed into the filter draw of Adobe Photoshop and other image editing software and I chose to finish off my image in this way.

Flatten and save your image, but save it in it's layered form as well. It is surprising how many times you will want to make just a slight adjustment the next day when the creative mist has cleared.

It is a well know fact that this creative mist prevents you from seeing mistakes until it is too late. Give it time to clear before committing your layered composition to the bin.

Check out the tutorial CD's available on this site HERE