Marz+S+-+Texture

Original 1:



Original 2:



Original 3:

Final:

Ten Changes:
 * 1) First, I adjusted the contrast of the sky to make the pale blue color of the sky stand out.
 * 2) Then, I adjusted the sky’s color balance by altering the midtones, shadows, and highlights to red, magenta, and yellow to give the sky a reddish glow.
 * 3) I also increased the brightness of the image.
 * 4) I then cut and pasted a set of trees from my photo collection, resizing the photo to fill my frame.
 * 5) To help the trees to blend more realistically into my manipulated background, I adjusted the opacity of the trees.
 * 6) Then, I reduced the brightness of the trees to compliment the brightness of the sky in the background.
 * 7) Using the burn tool, I burned the trees to make it look like the flames had charred the tree.
 * 8) When I cut the flame out of the original photo, I adjusted the saturation of flame to highlight the oranges and yellows a little more.
 * 9) After copying and pasting several flames to make it look like an actual fire, I adjusted the vibrance of some of flames to make them more vivid like an actual fire is.
 * 10) I then warped the flames and adjusted their sizes to make the flames seem like they were actually moving.
 * 11) To make the flames themselves seem more realistic, I used a radial blur on each of the flames, which helped to make them wispier.
 * 12) Finally, to make it look like the light of the flames had lit up the trees, I adjusted the tree vibrance.

In this piece, leading lines were a prominent compositional fixture. The tree trunks lead upward into the colored sky, as well as downward into the flames. The two trees are also connected by the overlapping lines formed by their branches. In addition to this, I filled the frame with these two trees by extending their branches to the far right of the image, creating an asymmetrical balance. The flames that lick at the trees also serve to fill up some of the negative space in the image.

By adjusting the contrast and manipulating the brightness, I was able to put a lot of emphasis on the bark of both of the trees, highlighting the grooves and notches. Also, by burning various parts of the tree, and some parts more than others, I tried to show this varied texture. In addition to the trees, I wanted to highlight the wispiness of the flames, which I did by radially blurring each of my flames to show how flames are somewhat translucent and smoky. Color was also a big factor in creating this piece, particularly with the sky in the background. To compliment the fire in the foreground, I manipulated the previously blue sky in the background to incorporate more reds and yellows to make it feel like the sky was being lit on fire, as well.

Overall, I felt that my Texture Combine Three piece turned out well. I was especially pleased with the way the sky in the background turned out, because it captured my theme of fire while maintaining its realism. I also liked the end product of the two trees, because of their compositional characteristics, particularly the leading lines formed by their branches and trunks, were able to fill the photograph and enhance the piece. The flames were the toughest obstacle for me, because I struggled for awhile to find a way to incorporate them without making them look unnatural, but I think that blurring them really helped this part to blend in with the rest of the photo. While it was a challenge to put these aspects together, I felt I did the project justice.