About the Image(s)

This lady demonstrated some of the Japanese warrior moves at the Japanese festival in Phoenix AZ, back in 2014. I’ve always wanted to do something with her image. So I decided to put her into battle at night, against a bright moon background, as she pushed her way through the underbrush.

1. Removed dark lower right side

2. Used NIK Viveza to selectively brighten lady

3. Selected the background to a new layer and darkened it, and then merged up to merge 1.

4. Added a moon layer.

5. Added a texture layer with an image of tangled bushes, at Multiply8 blend mode and 87% opacity.

6. Copied Merge 1 layer (lady) to top of layer stack and put it at Lighten blend mode, 100%. Merged up.

7. I still wasn’t happy with the lady’s image, so I selected her from the original image and copied that selection to the top of the stack. I put her layer at Darken blending mode, 45% opacity, and added a layer mask. I painted at 11% opacity on the mask, pulling out and alternately shading parts of the lady from the underlying layers.