Tutorial 2

James Paterson uses Photoshop CC wizardry to combine images for a pup portrait with added splash!

Add fun water splashes to images the easy way in Photoshop CC

Ashoot rarely goes exactly to plan, especially when working with children or animals. While photographing the dog here, my idea was to create a shot with water drops flying out from the dog’s head at all angles. However, it proved tricky to get the dog to play ball, and even when I managed to get a usable shot, it didn’t have the scattering of water drops that I had envisaged. However, I did have other frames from the shoot

in which the dog wasn’t right, but the water drops were plentiful. As such, I could piece together the drops and the dog to craft the shot that I wanted.

This is often the case with Photoshop techniques. It’s about augmenting the in-camera results to improve the image, and doing so in such a way that looks natural. When we have several similar shots of the same thing, all taken under the same conditions, it often makes sense to piece together the best bits from each. This kind of subtle compositing is easier than it might seem, especially if, like here, the subject is photographed against a plain backdrop (or if a tripod is used to keep the various frames in alignment). We can simply use the Lighten Blend Mode so that the droplets show through but the original dark backdrop does not. Then fine-tune the blend with a Curves adjustment, and if necessary use a layer mask to control what is visible or hidden. These are essential layer skills that will prove useful for all kinds of projects...