| To place Ron Chapple’s black-and-white photo
in the line of fire, digital artist Shelly
Greer added color using Variations and Levels.
But what really makes this composite hot is the
technique applied to the goggles.
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Greer isolated the man in the photo from its background by
tracing with the Lasso tool, pressing Shift-Option-I (Invert), then
Delete. She placed a fire image on a layer behind the man.
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To match the fire color, Greer selected the man, chose Image >
Adjustments > Variations, and manipulated the contrasts. She
selected Shadows and added more blue and magenta, clicking
the Lighter option once. Then she cooled the Highlights with
more yellow and green, and two clicks on Darker. She added
red and yellow to the Midtones.
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Greer wanted to intensify the impression of fire reflecting
on the man’s face. Choosing Levels, she moved the end sliders
inward in the Histogram for an almost posterized effect. Then
she moved the midtone slider to the left to globally lighten
the image.
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To further surround the man with fire, Greer added a reflection
to each lens of the goggles. To do this, she duplicated the fire image
layer and reduced the layer opacity to see the man beneath.
Using Edit > Transform > Scale, she reduced the fire proportionally
over one of the lens. Greer lassoed the lens and pressed Command-J
to jump the selection to a new layer. She adjusted the layer opacity
to 70% to bring the man’s highlights forward, then repeated the
steps for the other lens.
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Greer contoured the fire to the shape of the goggles with the
Spherize filter. After Command-clicking a lens layer, she chose
Filter > Distort > Spherize and set the Amount to 20%. The final effect is shown at right.
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