Costumed models I photograph during my Venice workshops at carnival time offer a lot of creative possibilities for post-processing. I felt this particular costume was especially intriguing, if not spooky, so I embellished it with a moody, dramatic background. The streaks of light come from stretching and blurring white dots on a black background in Photoshop. I used the pulldown menu commands Filter > blur > motion blur in addition to Edit > transform > scale to elongate the dots into would-be shafts of light. I then added them into the sky, using Edit > paste, with the 'screen' blend mode. I used the plugin 'Flood' for the reflection, and to make the intense storm clouds even more powerful, I used the filter 'Tonal contrast' in Nik Color Efex Pro 4. Originally, I photographed the model in San Marco Square in Venice, and then I used the quick selection tool to select her. Being able to make precise selections is the name of the game in composite work.
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