Dante's Inferno

Sometimes I preconceive a Photoshop composite, and other times I just play around with images until I like something. This one began with an inspiration from my friend and client, Robin Yong. Robin is a doctor from Singapore who comes to the Venetian carnival every year, and he arranged to have this incredible costumed model pose for my photo workshop in 2017. He took a wonderful shot from a low perspective, showing the beautiful ceiling of the room I use every year. I took a shot that was more straight-on, but I loved the idea of a fantastic ceiling as a background. So, here you see the ceiling of the Cathedral of Brixen (taken in northern Italy) as the background. Because the architecture is so busy, I had to create some kind of contrast to make it stand out. Therefore, I changed the white balance of it in ACR to be bluish. To make a precise selection of the model, I used the pen tool. As an after-thought, I added several shots of fire that came from the fire-breathing performance I have after hours at my semi-annual frog and reptile workshop in St. Louis. To blend the fire into the base of the frame, I selected each fire photo, one by one, with the lasso tool and pasted that into the bottom of the frame. I then used the ‘lighten’ blend mode in the layers palette. Robin posted this photo on his FB page without the fire -- the first version I sent him -- because he felt the fire was 'too much.' I also like the original, but to me, the fire adds the wow factor. It reminds me of Dante's Inferno.