Light Bulb Aquarium Exploration
Overview: The above image is a very strange photo created using a tutorial. It includes the implementation of a shadow, reflection, removal of the insides of the light bulb, and obviously the addition of the fish and water within the bulb itself. It was created primarily as a way to practice combining images when one is transparent.
Process: The image was relatively simple and took me around twenty-five minutes to create. Using this tutorial I combined the fish, water base, splash, and bulb. The bulb initially had all the typical wires and electrical components so I had to remove them. This was done by using the stamp clone tool to copy clear parts of the light bulb to cover the unwanted bits. Doing this the effect was still choppy so to complete it the newly added colors were blended using the mixing brush. With this done I layer the water base over the bulb and created a clipping mask. To make the water fit within the bulb the clipping mask was selected and refined using a black brush to cover the unwanted portions. This was then repeated with the splash asset which was then changed to an overlay blending mode so that it appeared as the same color as the water. Next the fish were added. This was a simple matter of deleting the other fish within the layer, resizing the image, and placing this layer behind the water so they did not appear to be floating in mid air. With this done the final step was to add the pieces to make it seem more realistic. To do this I create a black ellipse beneath the bulb, applied a Gaussian blur, and lowered the opacity in order to create a shadow. Then I create a duplicate of the light bulb, flipped it vertically, and lowered the opacity to create a reflection. The final step was to add a very faint grey line to the background to make it seem as though the light bulb was within an object studio.
For the future: This is an amazing effect that I intend to put my own personal effect on in the future. It is a very cool image, but I think using plain, boring fish as the subject is a waste of potential. Instead this could be used to do something like placing a person in a bulb, building in a bottle, or a scene through a pair of glasses. The potential that comes with having the ability to manipulate transparent subjects is unlimited.
Process: The image was relatively simple and took me around twenty-five minutes to create. Using this tutorial I combined the fish, water base, splash, and bulb. The bulb initially had all the typical wires and electrical components so I had to remove them. This was done by using the stamp clone tool to copy clear parts of the light bulb to cover the unwanted bits. Doing this the effect was still choppy so to complete it the newly added colors were blended using the mixing brush. With this done I layer the water base over the bulb and created a clipping mask. To make the water fit within the bulb the clipping mask was selected and refined using a black brush to cover the unwanted portions. This was then repeated with the splash asset which was then changed to an overlay blending mode so that it appeared as the same color as the water. Next the fish were added. This was a simple matter of deleting the other fish within the layer, resizing the image, and placing this layer behind the water so they did not appear to be floating in mid air. With this done the final step was to add the pieces to make it seem more realistic. To do this I create a black ellipse beneath the bulb, applied a Gaussian blur, and lowered the opacity in order to create a shadow. Then I create a duplicate of the light bulb, flipped it vertically, and lowered the opacity to create a reflection. The final step was to add a very faint grey line to the background to make it seem as though the light bulb was within an object studio.
For the future: This is an amazing effect that I intend to put my own personal effect on in the future. It is a very cool image, but I think using plain, boring fish as the subject is a waste of potential. Instead this could be used to do something like placing a person in a bulb, building in a bottle, or a scene through a pair of glasses. The potential that comes with having the ability to manipulate transparent subjects is unlimited.
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