More PS practice but this was more about trying to create the image than practice for practice's sake. Used a bunch of tools in service of the result -- selection, masking, layers (sky, gradient), color-aware fill to get rid of a blurry bird and a dead tree, and final tweaks in LR. Took a LONG time, but I must admit to being happy with the result. It's the first time I felt I could use tools to achieve something I had in mind.
Here is a second version after a workshop Saturday morning, using the content-aware-move tool to place the hippo closer to the tree. I think it changed the idea of the hippo walking to the hippo snacking: https://365project.org/taffy/365/2021-01-09
i'm so very tempted to give myself a lockdown treat of this course to fill the considerable gaps in my understanding. is it 'the photoshop system' that you're following? you and junko are a great advert for it - maybe some commission is in order!
Hi Clare, we are taking the Photoshop course by Matt Kloskowski at Mattk.com and @jgpittenger is also taking it. Matt is easy to follow, methodical, and his modules are in segments of 3 - 7 minutes so he explains a concept, demonstrates, and has course material to practice it on so you can follow along with exactly what he's doing. The three of us have not used any of the course material but instead work on our own photos with mixed success because the explanation isn't precisely the same but this is a choice we made. I just looked and it's half price right now. I think it's worthwhile!
I do think it's been worth it!