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Spirit Messengers


	Spirit Messengers In many traditional religions, cranes are thought to act as bridges between the earth and the spiritual world. This work symbolizes that connection. To make this picture, three photos were combined in Photoshop. Using many overlapping layers, I created these spirit cranes which are present and yet transparent. See the discussion for the original photos and a description of how this work was created. Location, camera and lens settings described on the original photographs. Feedback greatly appreciated! Pamela K
	Spirit Messengers -- Crane #1 Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge Camera: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/3200sec; lens: Canon 70-300 DO IS @ 300mm Pamela K
	Spirit Messengers -- Crane #2 Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge Camera: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/2500sec; lens: Canon 70-300 DO IS @ 300mm Pamela K
	Spirit Messengers -- Sunset Pablo National Wildlife Refuge, Montana ISO 100 f/2.8, 1/250sec; lens @ 7.0mm Pamela K

Pamela K

Here are the three original photos and a basic description of my Photoshop work.

I selected around each of the cranes using extreme zoom and the lasso tool. The cranes were then resized to fit onto the sunset photograph. The cranes were turned into spirits (present and obviously cranes and yet the sunset is clearly visible through them) by creating a series of layers as follows:

Layer 1 (bottom): Crane silhouetted in black using Brightness/Contrast adjustment and setting both to -100%. Layer blended at 100% in Soft Light mode. This enhanced the color of the sunset.

Layer 2: Crane’s black silhouette lightened to 75% gray using Brightness adjustment. This was blended at 50% in Difference mode. This made a stronger outline around the crane silhouette.

Layer 3: Exact copy of layer 1 (black silhouette at 100% Soft Light). This darkened the silhouette without losing the luminosity of the sunset.

Layer 4: Crane with contrast made extreme using Brightness/Contrast and Curves to make the delineation of the feathers prominent. Blended at 100% in Overlay mode. This gave the crane definition of feathers without losing the pattern of the sunset in the background.

Layer 5 (top): Black silhouette blended at 30% in Normal Mode. This darkened the silhouette to make the crane more present and substantial while keeping the colors and feather outlines.

I then made the cranes stand out a little more by darkening the sky in a feathered oval around them to make the edges of the photo darker than the center.

Pam

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August 31, 2007

David W. Orias

Cool composite work.

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August 31, 2007

- Stephanie Laird

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