Photoshop: Composites

We have been learning a lot about compositing and using layer masks. Understanding masks can be difficult, but it is integral to most photoshop work. This week we had to do another composite image. I used these photos I took in Forks and LaPush, Washington. Again, there is a lighting issue. I tweaked this picture so many times, trying to get the truck to look like it belongs on the beach, but I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. Part of it was the lighting, (bright sun on the truck, cloudy on the beach) and part of it was focus. The truck is too in focus for it's placement in the photo. But, as our teacher says, she isn't looking for perfection. These assignments are for us to practice and learn. She loves for us to come in with our problems so we can learn in class how to fix them. She showed me how to use gaussian blur to blur in the truck. But getting the light coming in from the same side as the tree, that will take a bit more work.

In this composite, I did a lot of work on color and brightness to get the truck to fit in better. I didn't think it would be this hard to make these two pictures go together. :)