For Assignment 2 I had taken the theme of creating a composite image and created something that I believe demonstrates my skills within Photoshop that have been learnt in lesson and during my own time. Below is my workflow for this assignment.
PLEASE NOTE – This is a duplicate workflow. I had not documented the original workflow but the process below is the exact same as I had used to create my final piece. The resulting image, although similar, will be different to that submitted.
I have opened my base image in Photoshop CC, I have also also duplicated my background layer to ensure that I am operating a ‘non destructive’ workflow. I will be making changes to this base layer, so it is always a good idea to keep a fresh version of this image ready to go should any issues occur. Right now I have both layers visible but I am only working on my copied version.
The first step was to remove any clouds from the base image, as these will show later as distractions. This was achieved by simply using the ‘Lasso’ tool to draw around the clouds and using the backspace key, I was able to select ‘Content Aware Fill’ to blend the delete space back into the sky.
Next we need to fill the bland blue sky of our base image with some texture by creating some clouds. We do this by navigating to Filter >> Render >> Clouds; ensuring that we are working on a new blank layer. This needs to be done twice to create a soft but random texture. Repeat this step so that we have 2 blank layers, both containing nothing but rendered clouds.
You can see now that we have 2 layers both containing clouds. I have set the top layer’s blending mode to ‘Overlay’ – this ensures that both layers are mixed, creating a random mesh of texture that we can then turn into our cloudy sky above London. Our next step is to simply merge the 2 cloud layers together by selecting BOTH layers and right-clicking where you will see a ‘Merge Layers’ option.
Both of our cloud layers are now merged – meaning that effectively they have been converted into one element. We now want to add some Gaussian Blur to create softness to the sky. We do this by going to Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur. I have set mine to 7.0 pixels as we will manipulate this layer later to create a more convincing cloud effect.
We then use the ‘Position’ tool (the crossed arrows) to move the cloud layer so that the edge sits just below the horizon of our base image. We are then ready to manipulate this to create a more realistic look by using the ‘Free Transform’ tool.
We then want to skew the cloud layer’s perspective to create a more 3-dimensional effect. This is done by zooming right out from your canvas (Cmd and minus), navigating to the ‘Free Transform’ tool (Edit >> Free Transform OR Cmd + T). We can then right-click inside the Free Transform box and select ‘Perspective’ this will allow us to stretch the top of the cloud layer towards us to create a blanket of clouds.
The first screenshot (left) shows the process of me stretching the Free Transform perspective to create a blanket of clouds. The second screenshot is the end result – a much more convincing cloudy sky, however it does still need some work.
The next step is to set the blending mode of our cloud layer to ‘Screen’ – this ensures any dark areas of the cloud layer become transparent, leaving us with white clouds that look much more convincing.
Here I have made a global change to the image by creating a new ‘Black and White’ adjustment layer. This can be added by clicking the half black / half white circle at the bottom of the ‘Layers’ pane and selecting ‘Black and White’. I have made some adjustments to the colour sliders to add contrast and depth to the image. The Cyan slider mainly affects the contrast to the clouds so I have lowered this considerable more than any other.
The next job is one of the more involved parts of this project. We create a new layer mask on our cloud layer by going to ‘Layer >> Layer Mask >> Reveal All’, and using a black paintbrush, we can remove the clouds from the areas of the buildings. This is a long process that requires a large amount of attention to detail. This screenshot shows that I am using a 300 pixel brush (shown top-left) to paint over the clouded areas on top of the buildings. The layer mask can be seen on the ‘Layers’ pane – the black areas show on the actual layer mask itself are the areas that I have painted over.
You can see here that I have chosen a smaller paintbrush to get to the harder to reach areas such as the sharper defined lines of The Shard and surrounding buildings. It’s important to get this right as if it’s done poorly, it can affect the entire outcome of the project.
Here you will see that the entire foreground has been masked from the clouds, meaning that there are no overlaps over the buildings in the foreground. I have however left some ‘fog’ lingering over the buildings in the background as I feel that this creates depth which is important to any image.
The next step was to create the purple hue to the sky. This is a key element in my final image as it adds to the ‘Impossible Truth’ theme. This was achieved by creating another new layer and simply creating a gradient over the top. I have set the gradient mode to ‘Solid colour to transparent’ in order to show the city through the fading purple. We will then copy the layer mask from our previous layer to ensure that the building tips aren’t contaminated with the purple hue.
You will see by the ‘Layers’ pane that we have copied the layer mask from the previous layer – this can be done on a Mac by holding ‘Option’ and dragging the layer mask to the layer you wish to use it on. Of course we now need to neaten it up by adding more paintbrush strokes to the layer mask on layer 3.
Now we need to create the lighting strikes – This is a fairly simple process using a feature called Difference Clouds. To do this, the first step is to create another new later and draw a tight, black to white gradient – This will be the ‘map’ of our lighting strike. It needs to have a fairly hard gradient as this the lighting strike is based on the divide between the white and the black area.
We create ‘Difference Clouds’ by navigating to Filter >> Render >> Difference Clouds. This will create a contrasty jagged line where the gradient changed from black to white. this is the basis of our lightning strike.
We then invert the layer by navigating to ‘Image >> Adjustments >> Invert’ – This does exactly what is says – anything white will become black and vice versa. Note that this will only affect the active layer. You can now see our lightning strike beginning to take shape.
The next step is to manipulate the levels of the lightning strike layer so that all of the darker areas go black. This is done by navigating to ‘Image >> Adjustments >> Levels’. Move the darker arrow on the left of the Histogram to the right to darken the image. Any mid tones in the pattern can be controlled by moving the middle arrow.
From here, we can change the colour of our lightning strike by going to ‘Image >> Adjustments >> Hue / Saturation’. We can then change the colour of our lightning strike by selecting the Hue on the top slider and changing the saturation (second slider) to suit our needs. Note that that ‘Colorize’ check box needs to be applied before any colour change will appear.
Select the layer containing the lightning bolt and set the blending mode to ‘Screen’ – again, this will make all dark areas transparent so that we are only left with the white and red tones of the lightning bolt. Now that the lightning bolt appears as we would like it to, we can use the Free Transform tool (Cmd + T) to position the lightning bolt where we see fit. I have personally increased the size of the lightning bolt so that I have a single point finishing on a building in the distance.
I have used another layer mask, this time on the lightning layer, to remove any unnecessary marks created on the image by that layer. I have also used this to shape the lightning bolt as I would like. You will see by the look of the layer mask next to ‘Layer 4’ in the Layers pane on the right-hand side that most of the mask has been painted over, leaving only a small section that we are keeping as our lightning strike. This step can be repeated as many time as you see necessary, I however opted for 3 lightning strikes on my final peice, each varying in size and opacity.
I have now added 2 more lightning bolts to the image. Each has been created using the above method. The only difference is the placement and size using the Free Transform tool.
The last step in the editing process is to simply burn in some of the buildings in the foreground as they appear unrealistically bright. This is done by selecting the ‘Burn’ tool in the tools pane on the left-hand side. You can control the amount of burn (exposure) and what areas to target (range) in the top control box. It’s a good idea to keep the ‘Protect Tones’ box checked as this will prevent any clipping from happening.
The final step before saving the image is to prepare it for printing. This include setting the size of the image. Arguably, this should have been one of the first steps, however staying faithful to my original workflow this was one of the final steps I undertook during production. You will see from the top control bar that the crop size has been set to 16 inches wide by 12 inches high, and the resolution is 300 pixels per inch (ppi) as per the assignment brief.
Once complete, the image will be saved as the following:
.TIFF format (Uncompressed)
.JPEG format at 300ppi (For Print)
.JPEG format at 72ppi (For Screen)
.PSD format (So that we can work on the file later if we desire)
Left: Result of this workflow
Right: Result of my final piece workflow (undocumented).
IDI 