Flower Power Positivity

8/14/22

    This is the last of the of the Pixabay ShonEjai starter images for July PFCC. I’m using feathers for the August themes. We’ve got some good stuff already.

    This is quite simple due to my limited time. After I ran the image through the camera raw filter, I duplicated the image. On the top image, I masked the flower from the background to have it on its own layer. For the bottom layer I used the heal and clone tools on a black layer to remove the flower. I then burred the background even more than it had been. I masked “Conquer Fear” from the another starter image and placed it diagonally from the flower.

    Next I put a series of textures from Flypapers Taster Pack via Adobe Paper Texture Pro (a plugin from Russell Brown, unfortunately no longer available); Burnished Clay, Sakura Skies, Orange Blossom, and Rainbow Trout — using different blend modes to make the image more contrasty and enhance the base colors.

    I added a dark vignette around the edges and a “spot light” over the center. One day, I’m going to film a video on how I do both. The vignette is destructive, so it has to be done on a separate layer, but it’s still the best I’ve found for a cropped image that wasn’t cropped in ACR.

    Take care and stay well.