Magic Waterfall-Composite Imagery

I will preface my first non-editorial post with a little info. Though most of my posts are (and probably will be) on the technical side (gearhead alert), I actually am a creative. I started exploring photography something like eight years ago, though not super seriously. In my sophomore year, I joined the school yearbook as a photographer. Let me tell you, there is nothing more motivational than having to see your work published for the eyes of your entire school. I currently serve as photo editor on our staff (lead position).

Really, my weakest skill kit was and is photoshop. A critical tool for a photographer's arsenal, I felt pretty uncomfortable in the application at the beginning of my AP studio art class. I decided that I wanted to experiment with reality augmentation/creation-the meshing or modifying of one photo with another. That led to this piece. Over 10 hours of photoshop, a lot of hand cramps and a few expletives went into its creation.

What you see above is actually a very complex system of layer masks. Nothing was ever cut out or rearranged (lasso tool) or anything of the sort. I started with an arch layer, masked through by hand using the brush tool. The next step was masking through another tree layer that was placed in front of everything to allow the rocks to be in front of the pillars. Without it, the image would have no depth. Added after that were about four more layers of shadows and green tints.

What I started with were these two:

Big difference!

Hope you enjoy!
-Rowan

Let me know if you would like to see a blending or masking tutorial. I would be happy to put some work into breaking down the specifics of this particular photo if there was any intrest.