Favorite Travel Quotes

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."
-- Mark Twain
Innocents Abroad

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu

Photoshop Revisited

Bald eagle merged with sky image

Bald eagle "layered" with sky image

©Bert Gildart: Following my posting on November 1 about Photoshop techniques, several people wrote and said the sky back–dropping my eagle photo did not look real. They said skies usually have some gradations, and they’re right. Consequently, I decided to take the Photoshop techniques–explained in my earlier posting–one step further.

SKY PHOTO

To try and better my first attempts I photographed the sky from my own backyard and then used that sky (one with clouds and some gradations) to backdrop the Yellowstone National Park eagle. I used some of the same techniques described in my posting to create “layers,” except this time I did not use the “Fill” technique to alter the color in the background layer.

This time I used the “Move tool” and literally lifted the eagle from the original window and placed it into the window containing the sky and clouds taken in my backyard. In this new window, the sky became the background, the eagle the foreground–and that’s the way in which they were stacked using the applicable procedure in Photoshop.

Though I think I’m getting there, something still doesn’t look quite natural in my composite, so I might keep this as an ongoing project, sharing if I think I’ve made improvement. Essentially, I believe the separation between eagle and background too abrupt, despite my use of the “Blur Tool” along the edges.

Hopefully this posting will inform on the possibilities inherent in Photoshop, something I intend to keep chipping away at these next two months–before Janie and I strike out in early January for another extended trip. The trip will be into the Southwest, and we’re making it to complete assigned stories.



2 Responses to “Photoshop Revisited”

  1. Kimmy Says:

    Beautiful shot Bert! I think the contrasts between eagle and sky are brilliant. His authority stands out! Great job my friend. :)

  2. Tom Palesch Says:

    Bert, with all of your rambling in Montana, have you found time to visit the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range? A person can reach it from MT, but it is probably eassier from the WY side approach near the Big Horn Canyon Rec. Area near Lovell.

    I hauled my jeep to the area and spent half a day climbing in low range first gear to get to the 8000′ upper meadow where most of the mustangs graze. It is a beautiful and quiet area. Black bear and mountain lion abound as well.

    If you have been there or go sometime in the future, it would be wonderful to see some of your photos of the area. The scenery is spectacular.

    It is one of Montana’s “undiscovered” areas with great Airstream camping at the base in the Recreation Area.

    I enjoy your on-line stories and articles. Your photography is exceptional and sets the scenes of our stories. Your Ranger and Naturalist background makes it all the more real.

    Thank you for sharing your work with us.