Sometimes the simplest of subjects can make a great picture and all that is needed is just a little knowledge of Photoshop or your particular software to achieve a great end result. Many pictures are stumbled upon rather than being carefully planned and that was the case with Digital Worship. We stumbled across these statues in the grounds of a stately home while on a visit. Their appeal is obvious, but we felt there was a better picture here just waiting to be released.

The two pictures below were all taken with a Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera set to fine mode. The pictures were 10ins by 7.5ins @ 160 pixels per inch (PPI)

Your first task to produce an image like this is to remove your statues from their background. There are many ways to do this using your selection tools, but on fussy subjects like this, the magic wand may not be that effective.

Try using the pen tool, which at first it may appear a slow and laborious way to select your subject, but try it once and see for yourself the difference. To start this process you will need to call up your layers palette and in Photoshop you can use the shortcut key F7. Alongside the thumbnail of the image you have on screen you will see the word background written in Italics. Double click on the word background and rename it to something of your choice as we show below.

The pen tool is best used with your image greatly enlarged on your screen. Select the tool from the menu bar and in small steps make a path around your subject. Try using small steps for curves and longer steps for straighter edges as we show below..

This process takes less time than you think and you do have complete control of what is selected.. When you have closed the path by returning to your starting point call up the path pallete which may already be on a tab in your layers palette. Alternatively it can be found in Windows>show paths. Drag the thumbnail, which displays your path down over the selection icon at the bottom of the palette and Photoshop will convert your path to a selection.

Tip

If you have your cursor set to the precise setting in Photoshop the small cross hairs can be difficult to see with some subjects while you are making your path. If this is the case go to your preferences in the file menu, choose display & Cursors and change the cursor to the standard setting.

Your statue(s) are now selected and you can either copy them to a new layer using the shortcut keys of Ctrl+C for copy and then Ctrl+V for paste.

Alternatively you can inverse your selection by holding down the Ctrl & shift keys and hitting I. This process will switch your selection from the statue to the background, which you can then remove via the cut command Ctrl+X.

You are now left with your statue on a transparent background shown below

TOP TIP……..

Before you carry out any cut or paste commands always feather the edge of your selection. Many digital images are let down because the edges of the pasted subjects are too sharp. Even in the sharpest image the edges of the elements within the picture are softer than you think.

Enlarge a sharp image and look at the edges on screen for yourself. The feather command is found in the select menu and you may find that it is worth setting up an action to run the feather command from one of your function keys i.e. F6. The amount of feather will vary depending on the resolution of your image, but a good guide is 3-4 with a 35mm scanned image and 1-2 for an image from a digital camera.

TOP TIP………

Save your work regularly and save all the separate elements from your image as you go along. Many images evolve as you are creating them and it is always a good idea to have the original elements to hand in case you change your mind. Save the image you are working on in its layered form as you work. If you have space on your computer save it in as many layered stages as you can so you have plenty of opportunity to back track at any time.

When you have completed your image save it in the layered form if space is available, but certainly retain the layered image for a few days. It is amazing how often an improvement will come to you a day or two later after the creative mist you were working in has cleared. You will be glad you have stored your image in layers if you do spot an error or an improvement later.

With your main elements prepared as transparencies and safely saved on your hard drive you will need to choose a background that will do them justice. This is a personal choice and there are many roads you can take at this stage, but remember that old rule the KIS principal. "Keep It Simple".

When you are shooting with a digital camera, always try to be aware of objects and subjects that can be used in your digital creations. One subject that you will need from time to time is a sky. So, when the opportunity presents itself snap a few skies and store them on your computer for later use.

It is a good practice to get yourself schooled into this way of thinking and over time you will create quite a catalogue of images and subjects that you can call on at any time. Some skies are dramatic enough to stand on their own so it pays to have that digital with you at all times.

We chose the sky shown below for our background and after calling it up on screen you will need to add the other parts of your picture to it. Creating a layered composition can appear baffling at first, but stick with it as it is well worth learning. Adding one picture to another to begin your layered composition is a very simple drag and drop process within Photoshop.

Make sure you have the first two layers that you want to amalgamate on screen along with the layers palette. Select the image that you want on top of your layer stack by clicking inside the picture area and that image will then appear as a thumbnail. Place the mouse over the thumbnail, hold the left mouse button down and drag the thumbnail out of the layer palette and into your other image.

Repeat this process for all the elements you need. Photoshop copies the dragged image and creates a new layer. Your first image can now be closed down as it is no longer required. In a multi layered image the layer order can be changed by dragging one layer up or down the stack into any position you want.

Using your transform tools you can size and position your subjects within their new setting. Try adding impact to your sky by adjusting the levels, which can be found via Image>adjust>levels.

We found that by just hitting the auto button within the levels palette our sky shown below was transformed from its original dull grey into a much more dramatic setting for our statues.

We found that it was better to cut and paste one of our grouped statues to a fourth layer so that we had more control over the composition of the picture.

Use your free hand lasso tool to do this remembering to add that feathered edge to your selection before hitting Ctrl+X (cut) and Ctrl+V (paste)

With your statues in position you can now begin to adjust the balance of tones and colour within all the layers. If you have a subject with very little colour in it then you can consider desaturating it completely.

Ctrl+shift+U will remove all of the colour from any layer selected. In our image the gold face of the large statue was important to the whole effect. Before desaturating that layer make an inverse selection of the gold face so that any changes you make do not affect the gold colour.

Try creating the effect of the statues disappearing into the clouds using a layer mask. Click on the layer you wish to mask and then click on the bottom left icon within the layers palette. You will see the mask appear alongside the thumbnail.

You will notice that your foreground and background colours on the toolbar have switched to black and white. Painting black onto the mask using any of the tools within Photoshop will allow the sky beneath to show through. Masks can appear confusing because although you are spraying onto your mask you cannot readily see the mask. It appears that you are spraying onto your main picture.

Practice a little and you will soon get the hang of it. Spraying white will reverse the effect so any mistakes can be put right easily. You can also apply the mask or discard it by dragging it down over the dustbin icon.

You can view the mask by holding down the shift key and clicking the thumbnail.

To create a smooth blend at the bottom of your statues set your airbrush to a low setting of about 4-5 and gently spray black onto the bottom edge of your statues. Nothing will be seen, but you will gradually mask the bottom of the statues until they blend nicely into the sky. When you are satisfied that your blend is right and your layered image is saved you can flatten the image for the last process.

The flatten command can be found by clicking the small black arrow to the upper right of the layers palette.

Try adding a series of subtle colours to your image by selecting the magic wand tool and clicking in an area of tone within your picture.

Choose a light tone to start with and a selection will be made. Choose select>similar from the menu bar and Photoshop will select all the similar tones to those already selected. Feather the edge of that selection by 25 pixels and call up the hue and saturation palette Ctrl+U.

Tick the colorize box and adjust the hue and saturation controls to create a tone that you like. Subtle colours are probably best so keep the saturation command low.

This process can be repeated choosing other tones from within the image. How far you go is up to you, but 3-4 four delicate colours is likely to give the best result.

Use these techniques on your own subjects and add your own tips and tweaks to create a stunning, but simple image.