Project 3 - Karel Rasovsky

The objective was to select a component (three hot air balloons) from another image and make them a “natural” part of a landscape photo. The background image captures a royal castle nestled in the rolling Bohemian countryside. Taken on a beautiful late-summer day last year, it is filled with unique hues of green and blue capturing the mood of the place perfectly. But that also presents a challenge when “blending” an external object into that setting.

I chose to do a quick pass through the entire process first, to scope up the best selection tool/process, sketch out the composite arrangement, and get a sense of how to best blend the balloons with their new surroundings. Second round was then all about getting the details right.

Selection process

I toyed with various lassos, but none came close to Quick Selection Tool. With some practice, it was easy to guide the tool along the edges almost perfectly, and whatever imperfections were there left, ironing them out with “add/drop to the selection” under a zoom completed the job. Having the ability to adapt the diameter of the brush – e.g. for detailed corrections – gives one improved feel when applying the tool.

Placement on new background

This was actually one of the more challenging parts of the project. I had to re-size the balloons several times to achieve the right proportions and placement relative to the background, to make them appear as if floating up in the air somewhere between the castle and the bottom of the valley.

Blending process

The Refine Mask has the advantage of being a dynamic all-in-one tool. My balloons had a nice edge definition to start with – but too sharp to fit into their new setting. Here, applying the “Contract” operation “broke” the edges in the most natural way. In Layer Style, nudging down opacity ever so slightly made a huge difference – the balloons were beginning to look like they belong. The Match Color command worked wonders when blending the balloons in with the characteristic blue mist on the horizon. Except one last thing – they looked too “in focus” for an object so far away. After a great deal of experimentation, adding a touch of a blue filter and a carefully measured amount of blur to the balloons improved the overall perspective and fit. Final step was a routine color adjustment of the resulting image.

Final thoughts

Do I believe the composite appears to belong into the background? Yes – considered we started with three garish-colored balloons and were able to slip them seamlessly in (well, quite seamlessly) as if belonging into the quaint Czech countryside is a testimonial to the powers of Photoshop. The bigger question is, do I believe they should be there. The answer is an emphatic no – nothing, nothing, not even hot-air balloons and Photoshop should intrude on the fairytale beauty of that place.