Leaf on Fake Water

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Folks;

Found a tutorial on making fake water, any color and ripple adjustment by Corey Baker in Photoshop User which I created here with a leaf from our Arizona Ash floating in our bird bath.

Comments welcome & appreciated.

Gus

[Anita Bower]

The water is gorgeous! Wonderful colors and designs, and nice amount of abstraction. The leaf, however, looks a bit fake, even though I know it is a real leaf. it looks like it is suspended over the water. How did you add it?

[Patti Edens]

That water is fantastic! I love the swirls and colors - looks very real. Agree about the leaf though. I looks suspended in the air above the water and not as if it is floating on it. I don't have a clue how to make it appear to be floating.

[Mark Fuge]

Nice image and application, Gus.

My first impression was stated above by others. I don't have a real clue either on what went wrong,:confused: but maybe not having the dark border would drop it a little. Also, the colors just don't seem to be right ... possibly reducing the opacity a little would help. Not a criticism, as I can't make it better, but a what if! :o

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Ladies: Did you know there are 2 kinds of women? Yep! "Good ones & better ones" :)

I didn't notice the float, I should have put a Hummingbird in flight - Back to the drawing board when I get back from shopping with one of the "better" ones.

Gus

[Ken Childs]

Hey Gus, the water looks really cool, the leaf not so much. Part of the problem is the black border and color of the leaf and that there's no sign of the surface tension around the edges of the leaf. The other problem is that the leaf looks like it was photographed from directly above while the water looks like you're looking at it from an angle. Keep working on this because I think that with a little practice, you'll be able to create one that looks believable....then you can tell me how you did it! :D

[denise ippolito]

Ditto everyone else. I can't wait to see what you come up with.:)

[Gus Hallgren]

Well folks;

You have the option to change the colors, blur, distort or displace the look of the water, Actually, IMHO, the look of the water shape that everyone raved about in a previous post is very similar, blurring this one and color manipulation would make a tremendous difference, Mind you, the leaf is a distraction.

It's really pushing the envelope.

Thanks for all comments,

Gus aka SMP (Slightly Mad Painter)

[Patti Edens]

I think it would be very useful to know how to make that leaf appear to be floating on the surface. I will post my attempt in hopes that someone will come along and show how it is really done. Gus, I hope you don't mind me playing around with your creation.

I selected the leaf, copied it and pasted it to get it on its own layer. Then I altered the perspective of the leaf so that it appeared to be in the same plane as the water. I cloned water under where the original leaf was and then blurred it a little (too much on the right side). Then I put a mask on the leaf layer and painted around the edges with a soft black brush in small increments.

I tried using a displacement filter to make the leaf follow the contours of the waves, but that didn't look right.

Interesting problem.

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Patti;

Love it when folks play with my creations. You have the right idea as I redid leaf without black border, lightened it and looked similar to yours.

I think looking like it is suspended is because of layers which you never had.

I changed color of water, blurred it and added a Costa's Hummingbird flying over stormy seas.

What do you think?

Gus

[Paul Lagasi]

Ditto on comments about first image, not really sure its possible to make it work. Nice try though on 2nd version. Water does really look sharp...TFS

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Gus, I agree with comments above and I think Mark has it right about the black border on the leaf. I'm sure you can work with this one to make it look a bit more convincing. The water is very cool. Care to share the tutorial? :cool: