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Digital Photo Manipulation

Deconstruct, Reconstruct and Combine

Digital development makes photos suitable for a variety of graphic applications.

Photograph-to-background image: step-by-step


dragonfly_tule

Original photo

The photo of the dragonfly in the top box on the right serves as our example. It was a nice enough picture, taken at California's Tule Elk State Reserve, and I thought its pastoral shading and ready-to-fly subject would make a good background.

dragonfly_pencil

Filter applied

In this middle box, an artistic Photoshop filter is applied to the original photo. This smooths the colors to create a more even surface and lends an impressionist quality to the scene.

dragonfly_textured

Transparency and texture

In this third frame (and floating subtly behind this text), a solid-color background is placed behind the filtered photo and the transparency is adjusted. The result: a subtly textured, paper-like image that adds character to a page without obscuring the text.