Layers with Birds at Sunset

This was originally for the low light theme but it was hard to get a nice landscape for the wonderful sky. This one had a funny shape tree in it on the left. So I cropped picture to a square but saved one of those little red clouds from the cropped bit in a different layer. I had to chop away quite a bit around the edge as the colour didn't match. I tried just using the opacity to blend it but it didn't work so I merged the two sky layers and used the plaster healing tool to blend in where I'd cut it. I just selected the birds and copied and pasted them into the picture. It didn't seem to work with the composition until I flipped the background sky horizontally then the birds fitted in better. I still have all the layers if you have any suggestions for moving the birds etc.

Layers with Sunflowers

I am posting this to Layers as I have plenty others for the sunflowers. I combined two shots as I liked the background of this one but there were too many gaps at the front. I used a combination of the magnetic selection tool and the one that does straight lines to work around the foreground flowers that were in focus. I just used the move too (arrow) to move it over to the other picture which meant there were two layers. Then I did a bit more selecting and deleting to make the flowers fit in.
Then I clicked on the original background layer and used the highlight tool to select the sky and I gave it more contrast to darken the blue a bit more. I think that was all I did before I flattened the layers. I will post the other two pics to show why I chose to do this.

Layers Sunflower

Background Original with gaps showing the soil

Layers with Sunflowers

Foreground original. I first used the exposure control in PS to get the sunflowers looking the same as the background.

banging pots (layers outtake)

OK, I know this is silly, but I was playing with layers. Every single component in this picture is in a different layer.

I love Moo's sunflower sky picture. This is a poor cousin, very poor, but it is instructive in the use of layers for constructing something. 

Sunflower Intake: "Like Father, Like Son"

Sunflower Intake: "Like Father, Like Son", by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger.

Guess what! I found a whole field of sunflowers right in the middle of Detroit and took about a hundred pictures--more than that relaly, becaes I deleted about 50 already and there's over a hundred left. Don't worry, though, I won't post them all.

Sunflower Outtake

Sunflower Outtake, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. Click image to view larger. This is a cloth (fake) sunflower at our local market. 

Sunflower Seven

Sunflower Seven, an attempt at a high-key sunflower, not sure it succeeded. Maybe not quite high key enough. Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. 

Sunflower Sunshine

Well, I hope this works, and I apologize for all your work, Kate!

Is this any better or not?

These could be posted under layers, since I did many layers, but they don't hold a candle to your bird sunset one!!!

Sunflower

 

Sunflower Detail

This was my attempt at something a bit different

Sunflower on the Edge

There were a few sparse sunflowers growing on the edge of the field that had a white groundcover plant growing between them which I thought made them stand out rather than against the usual green foliage.

Classic Sunflower

This was the sort of image I wanted when I suggested sunflowers. I never seem to be very good at getting a pleasing composition when cropping a circle. This is my favourite of the shots I tried like this.

Cedar Shadows

I'm posting this under trees as compositional elements but I could post it under shadows too, LOL!

Trees - Pines and Ferns

The ferns seem to be holding up well in the dry weather. I think they make a lot of condensation from night to morning. I know this as I have a secret path which I chopped back myself and use as a short cut but it is too wet to walk through it especially when it has been windy and all the ferns have collapsed into the path. This is not it!

Trees

This wee path here is one of my favourite spots to photograph. I have pictures of this in all seasons. This was taken Saturday 5th August and already you can see some leaves covering the ground. At least there are no dead leaves on the trees in this picture but there are many in some spots. I know I should photograph them but they look so horrid I can't bring myself to. I doubt there will be much of a show this autumn.

STATELY TREES

Sorry this is an old picture from my old Fuji Finepix taken at Felbrigg Hall which is a National Trust property in Norfolk close to where my mum lives. I am going to see mum on Friday but I doubt I will get time to go there and redo it. Besides it means leaving mum on her own while I go off. Due to poor quality of pic I have buzzed it and added more contrast. Not all the pics I buzz are poor quality but I do find it is a way of making something of them.

Stately Trees - Edited

Cropped and cloned as suggested by Mary.

Much better of course. Thanks!

POPLAR TREES

This row of poplar trees looked a bit dull as the sun must have gone in when I took it. So I used Virtual Photographer ambience (faded) then Filter, artistic, underpainting (faded) to try to liven it up a bit. Maybe with the scenery in the background it is not really what you had in mind Mary but it looked kind of dull with just the poplars.

TREES - Alternative Intake

Funny how sometimes you suddenly see things as soon as you have uploaded. I much prefer this crop. Lesson of the day is to stop and think before uploading!! Maybe I should
delete the other one or leave it as a lesson?

TREES - Intake (I think)

Handheld and shot on full telephoto 300mm from a local road in Messing. I preferred this crop for the composition but also because the crop (agricultural crop) in the foreground was out of focus and I do not like out of focus stuff in the foreground. Maybe I should also have cropped out the r/h side so the tree covers the whole of the top of the frame. I will give it a go and post it if I think it is better. Opinions please.

Trees Outtake

Trees Outtake, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. 

Triangles Outtake: Night-Bloomer in Spotlight

Triangles Outtake: Night-Bloomer in Spotlight, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. Click image to view larger. 

Triangles Outtake

Paint chips, cut in hald and taped to the front of my notebook. 

Triangular Love (Outtake)

Triangular Love, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. This is not a love triangle!!!

Triangle Outtake

Triangle Outtake

Triangle art by Mary Stebbins, click image to view larger.

(I haven't got a name for this one yet) 

Low Light Again: Another sailboat

The water on this one was also very blue, extremely blue, just as it came from the camera. In order to make it look less starkly blue, I selected the water with the magic wand and selected the color of the sail and paintbucketed that color over the water at a low let opacity to overlay. This one was taken a few minutes earlier than the other. Mary Stebbins Taitt.

Triangles: Hummous on Pita

Triangles: Hummous on Pita, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. Click image to view larger.

This is the hand of jo(e), my poet friend. 

Triangles: At the Secret Garden

Triangles: At the Secret Garden, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. This is at The Stone Quarry Art Park in Cazenovia, NY. 

Triangles: Plastic Pie

Triangles: Plastic Pie, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. I do know these aren't really triangles, but they did remind me. 

Triangle: my hands

Triangle: my hands, photo by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. 

Triangles: Cottonwood leaf

Triangles: Cottonwood leaf, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, click image to view larger. Fall already???