Assignment 4 – Real or fake

I decided to make an illustration for Stephen Laws’ ‘Ghost Train’. I envisaged a flying train in a very dark sky.

For this I took two images – the first being a steaming train on the moors railway (f/7.1 at 1/400 sec – shutter priority mode for a relatively fast shutter speed)

and the second being a turbulent cloudy sky (underexposed 2 stops at f/25. 1/1600 sec).

On the sky image I adjusted the Raw image, increasing the exposure by 0.55, decreasing the white balance temperature to 4300 ^oK, increasing the blacks (22%), highlight recovery (30%) and contrast (69%). The layer was duplicated and treated with Topaz Adjust 5 in ‘solarized dreams 2’ mode. This was placed in ‘lighten’ mode. I then stamped up the layers.

I selected the train from its background, using Topaz Remask3 and then detailed erasure using small brushes on the layer mask. Some cloning was necessary to remove foliage from the tracks and rear carriages. The selection was then dragged onto the sky layer.

I duplicated the train layer and used Edit > transform > warp to make the train sweep down from a height. I then duplicated this layer and treated the new layer with Eye Candy 6 – gradient glow, with an orange colour and used ‘Color’ blending mode. The two ‘curved’ train layers were then stamped up after hiding the sky layer. The sky was then made visible again.

The stamped up layer was duplicated and the top layer treated with Redfield fractalius in 50% glow mode. This layer was placed in ‘saturation’ blending mode – I used a layer mask to bring back the detail of the front of the engine.

I wanted to have a portrait orientation for the book cover, so I increased the canvas size by 50%, leaving the train pegged to the centre. This allowed the image to be cropped to the required format. I filled the blank parts of the canvas with sky, using the clone tool on a duplicated layer of the sky. I was aware that this additional area could be used for text.

I then created two blank layers to paint in smoke / steam, using white for the steam on one layer and grey for smoke on the other. I used a large soft brush on both layers and erased the parts not required using a very large soft eraser.

For the author’s name I the horizontal text tool, with ‘Bright red bevel’ style and treated it with Eye Candy 6 ‘Drip’ filter. For the Title text I used the same style with Eye Candy 6 ‘glass’ filter.

The layers were then flattened and saved as tif, Hi res jpeg and lower res jpeg.

The creation of this image went as I expected. I usually experiment with the blending modes as I work through this type of image, so this was always part of the plan. The parts that were added to the original plan were the use of the Eye Candy and Redfield Fractalius plug-ins, as I thought they would enhance the image as it progressed – I’d planned to use Eye Candy for the text. I didn’t think about the orientation of the image until later in the proceedings so the changing of canvas size and cloning of the sky weren’t planned.

Regarding the ethics of this image, I don’t have any problems – it’s a fiction book with a fictional cover – all I’ve done is manipulate and combine images to provide a cover which may stand out in the bookstands.