Multicolor Daisy

[gmitchel]

Here is a Shasta Daisy from my front yard. Manipulation was done 100% in PS. I call it "Changes in Attitude."

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/...n_attitude.jpg

I started with a Canon 10D image taken with a 180mm "L" macro lens. The resulting image certainly tested the RAM of my PC.

I started by making three copies of the daisy. Three of them had a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. The yellow in the upper left corner was the original.

The real time consuming task was the layer mask for those Hue/Saturation layers. I wanted the center of the flower to keep its original color. I made one mask and copied it to the other images, using Reveal Selection for their layer masks. I used the Magic Wand for the initial selection and then iterated between Quick Mask at 250% painting details in/out and applying a Gaussian Blur, then back to 100% to check and undoing the Gaussian Blur for another round of touching up the mask.

The window panes were made by creating a new image and making the four rectangles. Four masks were generated, one for each rectangle.

The four copies of the daisy were then added to the new image (after each was flattened). I used one of the masks to make a selection and then contracted the selection by a few pixels to leave a black edge around the pane. The selection was used as a Reveal Selection layer mask.

I started with a 30mb image and wound up with an image -- before flattening -- that consumed over 700mb of RAM.

Enjoy!

Mitch

[DannyRaphael]

The sectioning and retention of the flower's center colors really makes this stand out, Mitch. Novel approach and nicely done.

~Danny~

[Kissed Vixen]

wow thats really nice!

I love the colors you picked and just the detail itself great!

really nicely done! thanks for sharing

kissed

[Jeff L]

Some very good work here man! Thanks for the description on this one. I may have to give that a whirl one of these days.