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NitroLiq
07-12-2005, 09:31 PM
Hi,

I've been working out some matte background ideas in photoshop and am looking for a little advice with regards to "horizon lines" that just don't quite look right. If you look at the attached image, this is where I'm currently at. This was a simple exercise...a sky image and a sea image...both turned into a stormy atmosphere via many adjustment layers and layer masks. Now I know when you look at a horizon line from the beach, it's pretty sharp....but something about this didn't quite blend, even with hue/saturation matching. I tried a few different things....healing brush, blur tool, painting a bit more clouds around the horizon to give it a "misty" vibe...to me it's looking a bit too blurred and photoshopped. Is there something I'm missing here?

If anyone has any pointers, sock it to me.
RKurczewski
07-12-2005, 10:27 PM
As a rule of thumb- sky has always "strongest", most saturated colour over your head and is brightest over horizon line. Of course there are exceptions (for example at night you can see this sheme inverted) but here adding a stripe of lighter tone over surface of water would help to both make it feel more "real" and add depth (of course in my humble personal opinion- do not hit me if I am wrong).
Jean Genie
07-12-2005, 10:28 PM
Also, You won't find big clouds on the horizon line like that. Look out you window. Clouds diminish in size the further they are.
They almost look like waves though, which is kind of nice.
NitroLiq
07-12-2005, 10:43 PM
Good points. Played around with lightening the water and can see where you're coming from.

With regards to the cloud height...never thought of that. In the original source image of the water, the clouds roll back all the way to the horizon but they are lighter and less detailed. With the new clouds, I've managed to tweak the hue/saturation a bit more so they look more like large wafts of fog or steam. I may try to paint a landmass behind it to see what I come up with.
Lunatique
07-13-2005, 03:44 AM
Also remember there's atmospheric haze, so that the further things are, the less contrast/saturation you'll see.
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07-13-2005, 03:44 AM
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