Creating an Angel – Etheric

Creating an Angel – Etheric

Etheric Angel Composite PhotographWhile taking images of a model and basically doing some freeform posing I captured an image that immediately struck me as something special. Seeing it on the back of the camera I was excited to see it on the big screen for editing.

Jojo Cottle was my enthusiastic model a few weeks ago and I mentioned to her I had an idea for this specific image. I have been moving more and more into composites and this was a perfect chance to do one.

The original image and the first edit are below: (click on an image to view larger size)

Jojo Cottle Raw image
Raw Image
Jojo Cottle Triangles Image
Edited Image

 

The wings:

Wings file before background removed

 

The first process is to extract the subject (Jojo) and the wings out of the background. From there I place each on its own layer in Photoshop. Next I used a selection tool to select each wing separately and move them to their own layers. Now I have two separate wings, left and right, as well as my angel on a transparent background.

Moving the wings in to place behind here, I then used the transform tool to allow me to warp the wings a bit to get a new and unique look. I duplicated each wing layer and applied a shadow and blur filter to each of these new layers. Moving them to be behind each respective wing, I adjusted their position to be slightly down and to the right so they would show. I repeated this with Jojo so she looked a bit more 3 dimensional.

Adding a white background layer behind it all got me close to the look I wanted. Now to add a clouds and blur/glow effect.  A new layer was created as a composite of all the previous layers. On this one I use the Clouds filter on top of it. I expanded that cloud layer larger an beyond the image boarders. This made the clouds softer and larger. Duplicating this cloud layer I move the clouds again. Adjusting the blending mode to Soft Light and adjusting the opacity of each down to until I liked it.

Finally I took the image out into NIK Software Color Efex Pro to add some blur and glow to the image. Back in Photoshop I added a mask to this new layer and painted out some of the blur an unwanted stuff on her face. I actually had been doing this all along the process as not to lose the great eyes and look.

A few passes with a lighten and darken brush layer and I was now ready to flatten all the layers into one image. Below is the result. The Etheric Angel I envisioned weeks ago.

 

Click to view larger image:

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery gallery_type=”thumbnails” theme_id=”1″ gallery_id=”3″ sort_by=”order” order_by=”asc” show_search_box=”0″ search_box_width=”” image_column_number=”5″ images_per_page=”30″ image_title=”none” image_enable_page=”1″ thumb_width=”360″ thumb_height=”180″ popup_fullscreen=”0″ popup_autoplay=”0″ popup_width=”1050″ popup_height=”625″ popup_effect=”fade” popup_interval=”5″ popup_enable_filmstrip=”1″ popup_filmstrip_height=”70″ popup_enable_ctrl_btn=”1″ popup_enable_fullscreen=”1″ popup_enable_info=”0″ popup_enable_comment=”1″ popup_enable_facebook=”1″ popup_enable_twitter=”1″ popup_enable_google=”1″ popup_enable_pinterest=”0″ popup_enable_tumblr=”0″ watermark_type=”none” watermark_link=”http://web-dorado.com”]

Larry Pollock

I am an Artist who's medium is Digital Photography. I paint with Light. Product, event, portrait, landscape and fine art photography

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe To MyNewsletter

Join my mailing list to receive the latest tutorials, workshops, events and posts.

You have Successfully Subscribed!