this did not work out quite as planned... i think i might have finally figured out what's wrong, but after four edits, i no longer have the energy to try again ;p
there's something like 12 layers here, and i've alternated between using the normal blend mode at varying percentages of opacity and the screen blend mode in PSE...
why do i think this is a fail? well, for one thing, i can't get the foreground to work at all... if i use the screen blend mode, the foreground just kinda disappears (like here)... if i use the normal blend mode, even at a comparatively low opacity, the foreground kind of overpowers everything else...
the other thing is that i've overlapped too many images here and as a result it hard to really make out the details... i need to go back at it and be more purposeful about which images i choose to layer... but like i said, 3 shoots and 4 edits later - it ain't gonna happen tonight :)
tx everyone for the wonderful feedback on my skull shots... i do have another idea for completing the story on the get pushed challenge, but didn't have the energy tonight...
If PSE is like PS, bring what you absolutely want to be up front to the top of all your layers. I may have misinterpreted what you wrote though. Play with your opacity of the foreground layer is the only other suggestion I can offer, Northy.
@quixoticneophyte hmmm... tx Alexander... i *think* i tried that, but not sure anymore having messed around with each edit quite a bit... i was thinking i might have to take a more complicated approach and maybe toss more light onto the foreground... and i also think that if i didn't try to put so much in the background that it would help let the foreground show thru better... but i'm really not sure and i need to be more methodical about this next time because otherwise i really don't think i'll be able to figure out what's throwing things off...
@northy You could always order the pieces from front to back, so the front is at the top of your layer stack. Then, play with masking off sections of foreground and background as separate shots with differing illuminances, blending them could be tricky though.
You could even assemble the rear section only, then flatten it when you are happy, so it's right. Building the front will be easier and less confusing then.... Hopefully...
It's the sort of thing I'd go to sleep on, and approach again with fresh eyes another time.
@northy It's also the sort of thing I would assemble piece by piece on black so I could extract each piece easily and just have it with no base underneath, for easier assembly. That's just the way my mind works though. The beauty of PS is there's a million ways to do any single thing!
I think it is quite fabulous. Love the focus on the black queen and the ghostly quality to the other pieces. Your processing is already far above my head so I'm of no help in that area.
Can you mask in PSE? When I play with multiple shots and stacking, I frequently use the mask and/or eraser tool and remove the pieces a layer at a time. It is more time consuming, but it works. I think it's a cool shot, but I'm getting "movement" and "charging the queen" as opposed to multiplicity.
You could even assemble the rear section only, then flatten it when you are happy, so it's right. Building the front will be easier and less confusing then.... Hopefully...
It's the sort of thing I'd go to sleep on, and approach again with fresh eyes another time.
I think layer masks might solve some of your issues.
@humphreyhippo tx HH... i was actually using masks, but quite likely not properly... i really need to take a proper course in PSE one of these days...