I photographed these costumed models on a street in Venice, Italy, during my carnival photo workshop. The original background was boring and distracting with other tourists, shops, and unattractive graffiti vying for attention. Using the pen tool in Photoshop, I made a precise selection around the women and then searched for a suitable background. I've used so many Venetian backgrounds that I thought I'd try something else. So, I pasted them into the interior of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. I thought the arch framed them beautifully, and the carpeted stairs added a leading line. The original color of the carpet was red, and when I changed that to magenta, I had to tweak the color of the costumes to match (Mona Rose, I hope you don't mind). It was a little risky to mix lighting. The women were photographed outdoors in diffused light, and the interior lights were incandescent. But , I think it works. My settings for the interior shot were 1/60, f/5.0, and 2000 ISO. I arranged to photograph the Hermitage after hours and at twilight for a photo tour group when I last led a photo tour to Russia.
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