About the Image(s)

Taken with my Canon R5, 100mm macro lens. 1/30sec, f/16, ISO 250
I was in my garden with my macro lens and saw these "palm trees"!!! I think they are the flowers on a sort of moss. They are about three millimeters tall and the lens struggled to get them in focus so I ended up focus stacking them with a white card behind. My immediate thought was a seaside scene image. First I selected the subject and placed them on their own layer. I then used levels to dampen down the highlights on top of the palms and lighten the shadows. Recently I went with the camera club to take some sunset images of the Severn Bridge and used one of those for the sea effect. Using marquee tool I selected the sea area from this image and placed that at the base of the trees. I then did the same with the sky which I placed behind the trees. I had to do a lot of cloning and masking to get rid of the bridge in the sunset image and make sure all the trees were brought through. I then decided the image needed a water break. So using a wave image I took few years back I just selected a sliver and stretched it across base of trees and blended it in. Using a brush in overlay mode and white I lightened the trees where the sun was coming through. Finally I made a stamp copy of all the layers and used a LUT preset to blend the whole image together something I have never used before!.