I spent a while watching two swans digging around in the reeds in the lake. They had the afternoon sunshine upon them and I felt sure that there was a photo opportunity.
They were constantly on the move and in amongst the reeds and I was on the edge of a flooded bank made slippery with mud and other more unpleasant deposits. My attention was largely on not falling in.
I was disappointed with what I had managed to capture and this was the best of the bunch but the background of underwater reeds and floating sticks distracted from any merit.
So today I set about seeing what I could do by means of changing the background in a convincing way. Just as an exercise.
I used my enjoying the blues photo from a week or so ago, and created an additional layer with that. Then cut away the swan shape to reveal it from the layer behind. I gave the remaining blue a decreased amount of opacity in order to show through a hint of the features from the original background and hopefully give it a more realistic look. I used the rubber tool - less than 100 per cent opacity to try and pick up some of the drips and splashes through from the background image.
Finally, I added a photo filter to the swan area to tone down the yellows and make it look more in keeping with the background.
I am not over excited by the results but think it worked moderately well.
I agree with you about that a bit too much. I really haven’t noticed the neck of one of these creatures up close and I find it very interesting. I like the way it’s neck is reaching across the frame. I like the way the water Beads are being Illuminated by the light hitting them.
We are get-pushed partners for next week. My challenge for you is to make a triptych of the same subject photographed under three different lighting conditions. An example might be to photograph the same outdoor scene at three different times of day, but you can decide how you want to approach the challenge.
@tdaug80 thank you for the challenge - I am hoping to get a day where the lighting conditions actually change beyond dark/grey! I look forward to trying this.
This looks very realistic - well worth the effort you went to!