This is my first post here.
I thought I'd introduce myself with examples of my work.

I love doing montages and combining different effects on images and their backgrounds. Here are three examples of my latest work.

The first, "Where are all the butterflies?", is a meld of different smart objects placed on a designer background.
http://www.pbase.com/beaucamera/image/80643639.jpg

The second, "Poppy Delight", also uses a smart object and designer background.
http://www.pbase.com/beaucamera/image/80025846.jpg

The third, "Apparition", is something new I've been trying using my own custom brushes.
http://www.pbase.com/beaucamera/image/80499955.jpg

I'd appreciate any feedback or comments you have.

Thanks,

Virginia
aka beaucamera

http://www.beaucamera.com
http://www.pbase.com/beaucamera/

Welcome Virginia we have "met " before over at the nikon cafe, glad you have joined here as your work is super and is very inspirational and i am sure you will get a great welcome.
Although i like all three the first one is my top favorite :)

Palms

Hi Virginia
I like the second one best, I like the texture of the flowers and the colors.
The third one seems unfinished? I'm not sure I like the placement of the flower and maybe something added to the background, like texture or something?
The are all very interesting though, I'm glad you posted them.

Welcome to RetouchPRO, Virginia. Lovely work!

Welcome Virginia we have "met " before over at the nikon cafe, glad you have joined here as your work is super and is very inspirational and i am sure you will get a great welcome.
Although i like all three the first one is my top favorite :)

Palms

Thanks, Palms
Since I do a lot of retouch work, I thought it would be good to get the perspective of others who do more of this kind of work.

Thanks for the compliment and warm welcome.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Hi Virginia
I like the second one best, I like the texture of the flowers and the colors.
The third one seems unfinished? I'm not sure I like the placement of the flower and maybe something added to the background, like texture or something?
The are all very interesting though, I'm glad you posted them.

Thanks for your welcoming comments, Cathy.
The third was is a departure from my typical style. It's deliberately minimalistic (is this new word?). I've found custom brushes limit what you can effectively do with backgrounds.

Do you do much work with them?

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Welcome to RetouchPRO, Virginia. Lovely work!

Thanks, Swampy.
What an interesting screen name you have?

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Very nice pieces of art! Thanks for sharing.

Bart

Very nice pieces of art! Thanks for sharing.

Bart

You're welcome, Bart.
I appreciate your stopping by to take a look.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Cool! I really like the 3rd one. How did you do that? Was it done in Photoshop? Oh, and I like the 2nd one too-
Bootsie-

Cool! I really like the 3rd one. How did you do that? Was it done in Photoshop? Oh, and I like the 2nd one too-
Bootsie-

Bootsie, all of these images were done in PS2.
I'm glad you enjoyed them.

For the third image I made a custom brush of a deer cutout. The option to create a custom brush is located under the Photoshop edit menu. The only trick to this is that the image you start with can't be larger than 2500 pixel on a side. If it is you'll find the custom brush option is grayed out. Once you've made the brush, however, you reduce the brush size and use a smaller version.

It's best to create a new layer when you want to use the brush. The brush will paint in whatever color you have forward so remember that. If it's white it won't show up on white background. A transparent background will let the background show through.

Using the move tool you'll be able to change the position (you can also transform and apply filter effects) of the brush image. In this example I adjusted the opacities of different layers to get the effects you see here.

The flower image, another cutout, was something from my smart object library. It was simply placed in the image.

I recommend you try custom brushes.
They are fun to use.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

How did I miss these?

Beautiful work Virginia, I don't like to besmirch them with my miserly discrimination, but I liked the 2nd one best (but it was a close call). :)

How did I miss these?

Beautiful work Virginia, I don't like to besmirch them with my miserly discrimination, but I liked the 2nd one best (but it was a close call). :)

Thanks, Gary.
I have a lot of fun with montages!
:) :) :)

Virginia
aka beaucamera