Osprey taking flight

Inspired by the paintings of John J. Audubon from the early 19th century in which a bird was positioned in the immediate foreground with crisp detail and the landscape in the background was likewise painted to show every detail. In photography terms, of course, this would be complete depth of field. I created this composite with essentially two subjects -- the bird holding a partially eaten fish from Tennessee and the seascape I captured in South Carolina. I meticulously selected the osprey, along with the branch on which it was perched, using the quick selection tool plus the lasso tool and then pasted that onto the driftwood on the beach. Finally, I added a new sky (Edit > sky replacement) to blend with the original sky. I purposely kept the white feathers of the chest and wings light relative to the more muted environment so it attracted the eye. I learned that from Rembrandt -- that the eye is drawn to the lightest part of a photograph or painting first. That is how an artist draws attention to the most important part of an image -- the subject.