I used Photoshop 3.0 to create this image. I began with the scanned landscape. It is one of my own photographs, printed using a full frame negative carrier which accounts for the rough black border. The figure of the man standing on the guard rail was part of the original photo. As matter of fact, this photograph was the inspiration for the final image. However the original landscape had a very bland sky that I replaced by making a rough selection of the sky, including the tree line and part of the figure. I was using the path tool. Next I pasted another sky from a separate print into the selected area. This became Layer 1. Next I erased the sky where it overlapped the figure and the trees. I was using a soft edged paintbrush eraser for this. To make it easier to view the underlining image I first turned the opacity of the layer to 50%, then back to 100% when I finished. This is a time consuming method but I prefer it because of the soft edges it creates.
I found the old photograph of the young girl in an antique store. I scanned and pasted her into the landscape creating layer 2. The picture of the man stretching his hands toward the viewer is also one of my own. I pasted it on layer 2 with the girl. The dog jawbone was scanned in on a flatbed scanner. I drew its outline using the path tool then made it a selection and pasted it on layer 2 as well. The flying geese were pasted on the same layer. I applied the motion blur filter to them. Pasting several elements on the same layer saves memory but I still can move them separately if I first select them with the marquee tool. As I went along I adjusted the brightness/contrast of the separate elements.
Vanda Nagy
[View Artist's Statement]
