Julia Anthony Favorite Compositing Techniques.

Inspiration: Finding inspiration was one of my most difficult task, I didn't want to feel I copied anyones art. In class, professor Protz helped me explore the art of many artist like Jerry Uelsmann and Jim Kazanjian. Exploring other artist has enabled me to expand upon what kind of artist I want to be. Brooke Shaden is one of my favorite photographers, she is a fine art, self-portrait artist. Her images inspire me because they tell a story, and that is what I try to do. I love the textures and painterly style she adds. I love her technique of photographing as well, she doesn't use flash photography, most images are shot with natural light, and taken at the golden hour.

Textures: for me, textures are the most import part to the finishing touches of my images. I use Jessica Drossin’s texture packs for most of my images, you can make your own as well. Just drag the texture layer on top of your image and change the blending mode to Multiply, Soft light. Overlay or Screen. You can change the opacity to your desired strength and use the brush tool to remove the layer off skin tones if you wish. If I am doing a series, I always use the same texture for each image.
   

When I am in the process of designing one of my images, I only use my own images (except the textures) and blend them together using the blending mode. I never know what is going to look good together. I do love to add birds to all my composites, but not all the time.

Tutorials: Phlearn and Joel Grimes on Youtube. I also get lots of free education from Creative Live.
     
Favorite keyboard short cut for Photoshop: moving through the blending modes. Select the move tool hold the shift key and click the plus or minus key.

Check out Julia's work:  http://www.juliaanthonyphotography.com