04 November 2011

The Common Crow, or Oleander Butterfly

Well rather, it started out with my photograph of the Common Crow, or Oleander Butterfly, on a flowering kalanchoe.  It looks much different now!

So enjoyed playing with this weeks PhotoArt Friday.  At first I was jotting notes, and then I realized I hadn't been adding the new changes I'd been making.  When I tried to recollect what came first (the chicken or the egg?), it became a little difficult to decide!  Was certainly fixed in a time-warp with this one; it was going places I liked, and was thinking along the way, what if I just try ...... and then, bingo! Didn't really want to step off; how much further could I go with this I wonder?

Instead of confusing anyone if I slipped up on the diagnosis; I decided easier (for me), to give that part a miss for this week.  My apology; I'll be more diligent next round.

What I do remember, is that I had used Bonnie's new free layer, Soft Echoes (love it; thanks Bonnie!), and also Happy Days, with some obvious tweakings along the way.

Then went on to add a PhotoImpact mask (the honeycomb look one), and added a 'soft edge' effect.

When I lightened the background intensity I found it took away from the butterfly itself, so the next step gave me the opportunity to do more with it as a solo "object", and then reposition that, over the background. 


You can see how light the butterfly had been.  Now it has been adjusted to suit and ready to move where it belongs.
Had also added a 'shadow' to the butterfly to give it a 3rd dimension.

How to separate the butterfly like that so you can change it?  

  1. Just duplicate your original image to work with  (save the background first).  
  2. Now 'erase' everything but the butterfly (or whatever it is you want to keep in your photo).  
  3. By increasing the size, it becomes easier to erase really close to the outline, bit by bit.  
  4. Then reduce it back to 100% when complete.  
  5. Add a 'shadow' if you like.
You can save this 'object' if you want for other applications too; for me, using PhotoImpact I save it in a .ufo format, to preserve the object status.  I have no idea how PS users might adapt this though; maybe there is also a .ufo format within PS too?

Lastly, open up your saved background image, and position the new, improved 'object'.

Merge all, and save as .jpg format when complete.


And  the original photograph; my starting block.




Linking to: 



Photo Art Friday

18 comments:

Leovi said...

Truly a delight, that wonderful colors and texture that magnificent us into a sweet dream.

Sharyl said...

Starting at the bottom and working up, "Wow, Wow, and WOW!" Beautiful butterfly shot to begin with--hard to improve upon nature--but then you did by using these wonderful colors and affects!

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

Beautiful work Carole, I love both pieces of photo art. The colours are wonderful too.

kareninkenai said...

Excellent job of manipulation, bringing a lovely piece to fruition. I like the color choices, too. Thanks. kareninkenai

johanna said...

i´m in AWE!! thanks for sharing your tips... i bookmarked your post in case i will find the time to try something similar myself (one day... when i have patience...).
super effect!

Nadege, said...

I love the colors and honeycomb in your edits and I love the way you have place the butterfly in the second image...how clever ...very artistic.

Carol aka Traveller said...

I think this is a wonderful piece of work. I love the colours.

Unknown said...

Love the effect you achieved, I am so inspired by everyone. I am a complete beginner but learning and gleaning by seeing everyones great work.
Blessings from NZ
Suzanne

TexWisGirl said...

wow, carole, these are amazing! i LOVE the double-over one! just amazing art!

Linda said...

Love what you did with this....beautiful work. Thank you for sharing!

Pat said...

Lovely work!

Kim Stevens said...

Love all the colors and honeycomb texture in this and how you moved the butterfly in the second one!

Torunn said...

Beautiful butterfly picture.

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Wow - I'm impressed. Your editing is SO professional. Love the second one with the duplicate butterfly extending beyond the borders. Wonderful use of textures too. Thanks so much for sharing with Photo Art Friday Carole!

Ida said...

Oh my gosh these are fantastic! Love the colors and textures of your edited piece, truly a work of art. - And being a "purist" at heart I also love the original work because mother nature is totally awesome all on it's own.

hannah said...

Absolutely fabulous.
Love the colours and your way of editing. Not acquainted with the programme you used, but the effects are wonderful.

Jan Castle said...

Absolutely STUNNING Carole!!!
Paper Hugs,
Jan

Marilyn said...

Thanks for sharing how you did this. It's and effect that has a lot of impact. I'm bookmarking to see if I can do something similar.
Your images are terrific!