Montage Art | Photo Montage Ideas in Photoshop

More montage art pictures! The first of these new photo montages is called Lake: Evening. It was made after I went for a walk on a chalky path near where I live. The path rises gently through woodland where deer, red squirrels and polecats can be seen (if you're wide awake and on the ball!). At the top of the hill is an area where many of the trees are bowed over and the day I went walking, the sky was particularly interesting, with clouds racing along over the horizon.

photomontage of a swan on a calm lake at evening

Click the thumb-nail to open a larger version.

I took a shot of the horizon with one bent tree while the clouds were piling up low in sky and when I got back home I opened it in Photoshop and decided to apply a Flaming Pear filter to it to create a still lake beneath that wonderful sky. I used the Flood Filter to create a calm surface to the lake with one single area where the water ripples outward - the swan reflection was added separately.

I also tweaked the whole thing a bit in the Curves dialogue box to brighten it slightly and used a red filter (Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter) to warm up the highlights a bit. I tried not to overdo it as I wanted the deep blue to be the dominant color but the warm-up filter has given it more interest and helped to create a unique atmosphere.

The swan came from an external resource and I applied the Flood Filter again but this time with a different set of parameters. I don't really have a method for working with this particular filter, I just set the horizon line where I want it and then keep clicking on the dice icon which produces random settings until I find something that pleases me. I maybe tweak things a little afterwards by adjusting the sliders here and there and I suppose I could be more systematic about it but using the dice icon gives you new ideas - and it's more fun doing it this way!