This montage combines fact and fiction.
The background consist of a pattern I made using Photoshop custom brushes and filters.
The doe in the foreground is a smart object which I isolated from the background some time ago.

Just experimenting with two different approaches to see what can be done.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

http://www.pbase.com/beaucamera/image/80884000.jpg

Interesting use of colors to compliment those of the doe. The nice job you did extracting the doe and applying the drop shadow is what sells this concept.

Virginia,

The only two suggestions I have to an otherwise nice piece would be to darken the deer so it separates from the background a little better and add just a tad of gausian blur to the shadow to make it a little softer.

I did a very quick sample...

Virginia,

The only two suggestions I have to an otherwise nice piece would be to darken the deer so it separates from the background a little better and add just a tad of gausian blur to the shadow to make it a little softer.

I did a very quick sample...

Thanks for the suggestion, Swampy.
I like what you did, but have a question for you.
How would you recommend I do a Gaussian blur on the shadow, which is a blending effect(ie. drop shadow)?

Virginia
aka beaucamera

If you are using CSPS2 (not sure if this feature was in CS1) you can go to Layers/Layers Style/Create Layer. This will "detach" any style(s) you may have applied and put the style on it's own layer so that it can be manipulated separately. Apply the blur to the new layer.

The other (old) way is to make your own shadow, Duplicate the deer extraction on it's own layer (move below the original) load that selection (or lock the transparency on that dupe layer) and fill with black, blur, reshape with free transform if you need a cast shadow, reduce opacity. This is my preferred method since it gives you so much more control of the shadow.

If you are using CSPS2 (not sure if this feature was in CS1) you can go to Layers/Layers Style/Create Layer. This will "detach" any style(s) you may have applied and put the style on it's own layer so that it can be manipulated separately. Apply the blur to the new layer.

The other (old) way is to make your own shadow, Duplicate the deer extraction on it's own layer (move below the original) load that selection (or lock the transparency on that dupe layer) and fill with black, blur, reshape with free transform if you need a cast shadow, reduce opacity. This is my preferred method since it gives you so much more control of the shadow.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, Swampy.
I have never done anything with layer styles, but it looks like something I should investigate more.

I just installed PS3 so, for the time being I am using both PS2 and PS3.

Many thanks again.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

If you applied a drop shadow using the "f" looking popup (effects) at the bottom of the layer's palette, then you have applied a style. You should get a little "f" appearking on the layer with the shadow that says an effect has been applied to something on that layer.

Since you are using PS2 then you can use the Layers/Layer Style/Create Layer to turn that style into a layer of its own.

If you applied a drop shadow using the "f" looking popup (effects) at the bottom of the layer's palette, then you have applied a style. You should get a little "f" appearking on the layer with the shadow that says an effect has been applied to something on that layer.

Since you are using PS2 then you can use the Layers/Layer Style/Create Layer to turn that style into a layer of its own.

Yes, Swampy, this is what I did.
How else do you use layer styles?
I'm looking for a reference that might explain other uses for layer styles.

Thanks, again.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Actually, Virginia, I don't use layer styles much except to apply a bevel/emboss or when I need to stroke text to get better separation for it on a busy background. I do use the Blending options in the Styles palette from time to time too.

I sometimes build a "frame" style when I'm working on a prepress project and need to be consistant with photo borders across an entire brochure or book. For these I usually use stroke, and inner/outer glows and set the blending fill opacity to zero so that the photo that I apply it to can be seen.