In this episode we continue with our project on image composite. Last week we added color to an antique portrait in preparation to bringing it into a new composition. This week we blend two backgrounds together with the Blend If sliders in Layer Styles. This is a strategy I often use when beginning a composite. We will then bring the portrait into this blended background and make adjustments based on this new context. I always wait to refine a hand colored image until I know where it is going to reside. Finally we will use Layer Styles Blending to integrate the portrait into the new background.

I am back after a one-month hiatus. I received many e-mails asking if I was going to continue producing Creative Photoshop and the answer is definitely “yes?. Life sometimes intervenes and my day job as Director of the Polaroid 20x24 Studio has required quite a bit of my attention lately. We are trying to insure that it survives further into the digital age. Even though I am completely digital in my own work, I feel a responsibility to make sure this superbly analog technology continues. These episodes often take four to six hours to produce and I won’t put one up unless I feel it meets the standards of the previous ones. So I really appreciate the e-mails but I want you to know that it is great to get feedback all of the time, not just when I disappear. These labors of love are best supported with the knowledge that you are indeed listening and enjoying the work. That said let us turn our attention to this weeks episode, “Project Composite, Part One, Hand Coloring?. We are going to re-create my current signature image for the Podcast, and Image titled “Highlights?. We will begin by hand coloring the figure, using Paths, Selections, Layers, Adjustment Layers, and Blend Modes. It is many of the topics covered in previous episodes but now with specific image goals employed. I hope you enjoy it.