Levitation Tutorial (and giveaway!)

It’s been a while since my last tutorial but I wanted to wait until  I had the right photo in mind before writing one, I hope that you find this one as informative and fun as the previous ones

So this is what I think is the easiest way to do a levitation type photo, there are endless ways for you to interpret this style and editing and I hope that it gives you a good starting point for creating your own floating, flying, levitating photos.

First off, I’ll say that the most important parts of doing a levitation photo are basically to have a base image with nothing in it, and your main focus image. For the tutorial I’ll break it down into three main points; the set-up, the photos, and the processing.

Part 1: The Set-Up

So one of the key points of doing a levitation photo is to have something to sit, stand, lean, lay on. I’ve used anything from stumps, stools, chairs, even an ironing board. Use what you think is going to give you the best height, and will be the easiest to bring in and out of your setting. Keep in mind you want the surface of what you’re going to be on, to be rather small that way you don’t have to worry too much about creating a large flat section of your clothing when you’re laying or sitting on your item.

this is what I found in the field to lean on….probably not too safe

Part 2: The Photos
Once you have your scene set up with your resting item (we’ll call it your seat),  you can start shooting. I usually take a lot of images at this point just so there are more to choose from, change your pose often so that in case you want to borrow parts from one image and add it to another, you can (like flying scarves, different hand positions etc…) If you’re wearing something that’s loose try to drape it over the edge of your seat so that when you are editing, you can create a more natural looking line. Also, try not to hide anything behind your seat, make sure your hands and legs aren’t hiding behind the seat!

Once you’re done shooting what we’ll call your “focal image” go to your camera and set the focus from Auto to Manual (usually on the side of the lens, switch to MF). That way from now on, your photos will all have the same focus length. Now you’re going to need to take your base image which is going to be the exact same as your “focal image” just without you in it. Remove your seat from where it was and then take a few pictures without moving your camera, you should have the same image as your “focal image” just without anything but a background. From this point you can take any additional images you need to fill the frame or expand.

Part 3: The Processing

In your editing program, open up all your images. We’ll be working with your “base image” (aka the image with just the background).  If you’re expanding your frame using stitching presets or manually do that now with your “base image”.

expanded frame

Now, open up your “focal image”, select the whole thing and copy it. Now paste it in as a new layer onto your “base image”. Lower  the opacity of your “focal image” and then get it to match as closely as possible to your “base image”, then you can put the opacity back up to 100%.

matching both layers

With a soft eraser tool, start to erase your “seat” from the “focal image”. You should be seeing the background starting to show up. Erase all of your seat and any other parts of that layer that you don’t need. This is pretty much the basics of doing a levitation image.

You can at this point do any other editing like changing tones, curves, levels etc…you can also add in other parts of other “focal images”. For this photo, I liked the flying scarf from another photo so I pasted it in as new layer and softly erase the hard edges until it matched  the rest of the image. At this point I also added the snitch and the “broom” part of my broom.

after the "seat" has been erased

I hope that this short tutorial helps you out and I’m really excited to see you try it out. In fact, I’m offering a give-away of some custom made Harry Potter props if you try out this tutorial and share it either in the comments below, on my facebook page or linked on Flickr. All you need to do is let me know that you’ve tried this tutorial and I’ll add your name to the hat and 3 weeks I’ll pick a winner! I made the “golden snitch” in this photo, as well as some other Harry Potter props like a wand and some other goodies and I’ll send them to the winner

Open Happiness

Well this is it! The big reveal of my brand new project that’s been next to impossible to keep a secret for the past month or so!

The short of it is that I’m doing a flickr-based project with…..Coca Cola!

Here are the details.

Coca-Cola is looking for ways to engage their fans and to encourage them to create imagery and content in an fun and inspirational way, which is the purpose of this brand new project. Using inspiring and motivating key words, fans and photographers can share their photos and stories through the official Coca-Cola Flickr group, hopefully growing a community of like-minded, supportive and talented artists creating fun and exciting new works of art inspired by Coca-Cola.

My role in this new adventure will be a kind of moderator to the Flickr community in the group, I’ll be introducing the new themes which will be posted every 2 weeks and in doing so I’ll be presenting my own photograph inspired by the key-word as well as explaining my inspiration behind the image and a bit of the process of how it was created.

I’m honestly still a bit stunned that I’m going to be working alongside such a well known and respected company and that they appreciate my work enough to have me be a part of this new project. Coca-Cola has always had distinct and beautifully crafted advertisting campaigns and imagery and to know that my work, even in the tiniest way, can be a part of such a great history is really a huge confidence boost in regards to photography.

The best part of this whole project is that it’s not just me partaking in it, the group is open to everyone and I REALLY want to see you join and play along, while I can’t say too much about the upcoming themes, I can say that they should prove to be inspiring and fun photo prompts!

The first key word or call-to-action is

TOGETHER

You can see my interpretation as well as my thoughts on the theme and submit your own image inspired by “Together” at the flickr group which is located here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/thecoca-colaco

Hope to see some of you playing along and creating more beautiful pieces of art!

Branches, Roots, and Me

For the month of January I’m holding a contest based around trees. To enter all you need to do is link a photo you’ve taken that fits the theme to my Facebook page and on the last day of the month, I’ll be putting together a little parcel with all sorts of tree goodies and mailing it off to one lucky winner!

I’m a bit late on explaining why I chose trees as my contest theme (of which I plan to do more) but better late than never right!?

I grew up and still live in a rather small town, built in a valley between two mountain ranges that seemingly go on forever, I never noticed growing up how much I valued all of the nature that surrounded me, I just took it for granted and kept doing my homework and watching cartoons. Then once I hit my late teens and early 20′s something changed. I started to look at the endless expanse of green in a new light. I travelled to bigger cities and saw them in a new light too, I saw all the grey….all the glass and concrete and cars and all I wanted to see was green again. Once while on a cross-country road trip, I remember looking out the window to see the prairie fields and the endless sky and not a tree in sight…for hours it seemed I didn’t see anything that even resembled a tree, that was the first time I felt homesick.

 

I remember the exact day that I realized that the forest would be a place of solitude, reflection, and inspiration for me. I was jobless and had found myself feeling depressed and frustrated and getting sucked in to watching horrible daytime television in the comfort of my air conditioned basement suite. Then all of a sudden, I felt a sudden urge to just be out in nature, anywhere…just out. I grabbed my journal, a granola bar and apple and hopped on my mountain bike and within a few minutes I was away from everything manmade and surrounded entirely by nature. I sat in the warm summer grass and wrote. I wrote about how mad I was that I couldn’t find my passion, how disconnected I felt from the rest of the world, and how I just wished I could feel alive again. I went back the next day and rode a little longer, and then the day after that I tried some new trails and pretty soon I was spending hours every evening exploring every inch of the 9,000 acre community forest adjecent to my town. I found my place to be free.

A few years later when I started training for my first marathon I was looking for long stretches of running routes to carry me through the 20km runs I was doing every weekend. I remembered the community forest and the old logging road that winds it’s way from one end to the other and pretty soon it became once again, my nightly ritual. I’d run from one end to the other and back and when I turned my music off all I could hear was the crunch of my feet on the dirt, smell the wildflowers blooming in the fields and feel the warmth of the sun hitting my arms and neck through the breaks in the trees. Again I found myself thinking about my future, planning what I wanted to do with my life and feeling my body changing physically and mentally. The forest became yet another place for me to be free.

When I started to become interested in photography I would venture out into the forest, which is now about a 50metre walk from my door. When I step off the pavement and into the trails I feel like I’m leaving the outside world and entering into a space that I’m supposed to be in. It’s hard for me to explain but I look out at the trees and grass and birds (and sometimes bears) and I feel more inspiriation in that simple glance than I do spending days at home thinking. I feel that my thoughts are linked to the leaves and pinecones and that when I’m in the midst of all that organic goodness I’m recharging my brain and soul.

 

So yes….that’s why I chose trees. Because they make me feel alive and they make me feel like I’ve taken a deep breath of inspiration.

What do you consider to be your place of inspiration?

Sameness vs Style

Last week I received a comment through Formspring from an anonymous person letting me know that they thought that all of my work has the same look to it; “you doing something in the middle of a bunch of grass against the skyline”.  At first I was a little offended and kind of embarrassed but then after I got over it, I started to think about it.

This person hit the nail on the head and brought my attention to something that I had been neglecting in the last few months, trying new things and putting my creativity to the test. It’s no secret that I like to shoot in wide open vistas with lots of space and nice backdrops. I have a favourite field that I visit often for photographs and I kind of rely on it a little too heavily at times. While thinking about this whole topic I was trying to find ways of defending my “sameness”. The field is close (about a 5 minute walk), its nice to shoot in (well, yes but so are other things), it’s familiar (ah yes it is, but when was photography about being familiar?).  I tend to want my photos to turn out exactly as I see them in my mind, which I think is a normal desire for any photographer, and typically my mind pictures these images in familiar settings and that’s where I end up shooting them, and returning over and over again.

  

It’s a balancing act to develop a style without becoming boring and to try new things without losing your own vision. I think in the past few months I’ve become a little complacent with shooting in the same locations. I go to these spots because I know that they work, it’s like a favourite recipe that you make every week because you know that it tastes good. Well, sometimes you need to dust off the cookbooks and try something new, which is what I think I need to start doing in my photography. Granted it’s easier to fall back into the “field” or “bunch of grass” photos, I need to try to let my mind create images that allow me to explore more of my natural surroundings, to develop new areas of my photography and to not get stuck in the same old photo.

I might argue that it’s in my style as a photographer to shoot in wide, grassy spaces with the subject in the centre and while that may be true on some level, I want to be known for more than just that. I want to try to express my ideas or thoughts in new ways that people might not have seen before and that lights a creative spark in themselves and in me. I don’t want my portfolio to look like the same photo over and over, but in that breath I also want to develop a style that people can see as “Joel’s style”. The trick I suppose is learning how to do both. To walk both lines without leaning heavily onto one side.

What are your thoughts about developing your own style versus being too similar?

Patronus Tutorial!

It’s not exactly a secret that I’m a big Harry Potter fan, I’ll admit that it took me a while to actually read the books but once I did, I was hooked! It’s a story that has so much visual goodness that it’s easy to get inspiration from it and create art based on it’s characters, words, and themes. Back in July when the final movie was being released I did a few photos based around the books/movies and one of my favourites was one based around the Patronus Charm mentioned in the books.

Patronus Charm:  “Conjures an incarnation of the caster’s innermost positive feelings, such as joy or hope, known as a Patronus. A Patronus is conjured as a protector, and is a weapon rather than a predator of souls: Patronuses shield their conjurors from Dementors or Lethifolds, and can even drive them away.”

When I was coming up with a list of tutorials I’d like to do on my blog, the patronus tutorial was one that jumped right to the top. Last week I wanted to work on the image and thankfully my dear friend Sabby agreed to my model! Hopefully the tutorial is easy to understand, I’d LOVE to see you guys create your own Patronus images

Step 1 (optional) -
I’m starting from the very beginning of the photo, this is the ”bare” image straight out of the camera. Because I used a fixed focus lens, I always expand my frame which essentially means that I take the main photo you see here, and then change my focus to manual and then take about 20 photos of the background. Then in photoshop, I expand the canvas size (for some reason 300cmx300cm is my number, and then add each photo onto a new layer and work at getting them all to match up.  You don’t have to worry about this step, but I thought I’d start from the very beginning.

you can click on the images to make them bigger

^—– before expansion

^——- after expansion

Step 2 (Flying Scarf)
This is another optional part, but I think it adds a bit of dramatic flair to the final image. While taking the main photo of Sabby, I also took another one of her scarf in the air, just by using my timer and flipping the scarf up to catch it flying. Then I just added the scarf on as new layer and matched it as closely as I could to the original photo.

 

Step 4 (Light)
This is where the fun part comes in, and the part that you can start to be creative. To achieve the “bright light” that a patronus charm would give off, I use a series of “fractal brushes” from deviant art (link below). The brushes are used on a new layer with screen as the blending mode. I use a light bluish green tone, but really you could any vivid colour, play with what looks best for you. Same with the brushes, you can use a variety of different brushes to get different effects.

In this layer, I also added a dark gradient (add a new fill layer and set it to radial gradient and then to forground to transparent mode). Then you just drag and click to add the gradient to the part of the image you’d like to be a little darker, for this type of image I usually like to make the outer part of the photo quite dark to highlight the lightness of the spell. Play around with this step and you can create neat effects.

Step 5 (Adding your patronus)
This is another creative part! Sabby chose (well, actually I chose based on our conversation) to have a white horse be the animal that is coming out of her wand. Once you choose your animal, locate a silhouette image of that animal. Add it into your image on a new layer. Invert the image so that the animal is now white (CTRL-I) and then get rid of the black (I use the magic brush and delete). Then duplicate this layer and blur the duplicate using a Gaussian blur, you dont’ want a large blur but enough that it takes away the rough edge of the silhouette.

Step 6 (Fancy Stuff)
Now, duplicate your animal layer again and this time colour it in (paint bucket is fine) with the same hue as your lights/brushes from step 4. You should have a blue/green animal. Set the blending mode to screen and blur this layer to give the silhouette a coloured-hue around it. As you did in step 4, play with different brushes (on screen mode and using a bright colour) and try new things. I like to give off little trails of light so I use brushes that give that effect. You can find links to all the brushes I used at the bottom of the post. I usually end up applying a soft blur to this layer as well just to get rid of any harsh lines.

Step 7 (Final Touches)
Now that you have the hard part out of the way, it’s time to have some more fun. It looks like a big jump from the last image to this one but it’s really only a few small steps. First a couple of radial gradents, the first was that same blue/green colour that should match your other colours from the last steps, I use this just to create a nice radial blur of colour, set this layer to screen mode and have the gradient  positioned over the wand/brush/animal . Then I add another radial gradient set to muplitply mode and with a darker tone, this radial gradient should cast a darker tone over everything but the wand/brush/animal. Blur both these layers.

In my image I played with the curves, levels and colour tones of the image but you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. It’s interesting to use the colour balance tool to give everything an even hue but you certainly don’t need to do this. I also added some cloud textures to enhance the sky, but again not necessary. To add another dimension to the sky I painted over the clouds with a pink brush set to “soft light” and on a low opacity just to give it some colour.

Final Image:

Resources!
Fractal Brush
Sparkle Brush

- Sihouette-

How to Load Brushes

Favourite Images of 2011

I must admit, one of my favourite parts of the year coming to an end is reading “Best of ____”  posts and articles. For some reason I’ve always loved seeing what people consider the “best movie” or “best song”, I like to look at what happened over the course of the year and what contributions were made during the past 12 months. I’m hoping to do a post about my own adventures in 2011 but  I also wanted to share with you some of my favourite images by other photographers this year, here is my own personal Best Of 2011. These artists make me want to be a better photographer and I hope they inspire you as much as they have me.

Enjoy!

The Parting Part ii – Luke Sharrat
I love the drama that Luke created in this, the levitation is seamless and works so perfectly in this image.

The City Beautiful by The365SpiritSearch
One of my favourite photographs ever, so much so that I have a print of it hanging above my desk! I love the layers that the buildings create and it almost makes me want to live in a big city….almost…..

 

I read the news today, oh boy – David Talley
It’s almost impossible to pick one favourite image from David’s collection of photographs, his eye for detail and concepts are brilliant. I love how he uses space and you can tell from images like this one how much work he puts into his images.

 

the world above -Brooke Shaden
What would a favourite images post be without an appearance by Brooke? She is a magician with a camera, creating new worlds showcasing her unique perspective and distict style. I love the whimsical concept behind this image.

just another day – Andrea Pun
When I first saw this photograph it was like “BAM! Perfect” and to me that’s the sign of a great peice of art, that you recognize it’s beauty and quality right away. This is such a simple and beautiful piece that looks so natural and calming.

First Contact – Marwane Pallas
The stories that Marwane tells through his images are captivating, you almost feel that you’re reading a vintage book on the history of civilizations. The amount of skill that he has to pull off his cloned images is absolutely incredible.

Alice’s broken tea party – Sarah Ann Loreth
This is one of my favourites from Sarah’s collection of work, her style is so vivid and so full of contrast and I love how she manages to make images just pop.

rorshach – Robby Cavanaugh
This is just a simple and beautiful photograph that seems so real yet so full of whimsy and fantasy.

draft – FiddleOak
Ah, the wonderful brother and sister duo that is FiddleOak have developed such a wonderful genre in conceptual photography, their perspective has certainly opened my eyes to the tiny areas of the world that can be filled with art.

More to check out:
I could keep going for a long time so here are some more incredible artists to check out!

Sean Wright
Casey David
Misconception Photography
SuperPipo2010
Brad Wagner
Gurbir Grewal
Rob Woodcox
Nichlas Boysen
Seanen Middleton
Nicholas Max Scarpinato

Photographer’s Wish List

With Christmas on it’s way, I remember back to when I was a kid flipping through the christmas catalouge (taking turns with my brothers) and writing out my christmas wish list for Santa. Written in crayon, in that little kid scrawl I’m sure I had quite the list. Now as a ‘grown up’ I don’t really write out those lists, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have things that I’d like. Now, of course I wouldn’t mind a new camera, some lenses, maybe a lighting setup but my Photography Wish List is actually a list of things I’d like to photograph rather than material objects. Here’s my wish list of what I’d like to photograph next year

1. The Ocean

I grew up and still live in the mountains, in a valley about 10 hours away from the nearest ocean. I think for that reason, I’ve always been intruiged by taking photos next to the open water. I find something so isolated and beautiful about the vast landscape, the backdrop providing the most surreal negative space. I feel that my mind naturally wanders to visions of water, boats, and seascapes so being able to shoot images with an ocean as my muse would be awesome.

2.  Animals
I’m not just talking about a cat or dog, I’m sure I could borrow my parent’s pets with no hesitation, I would really love to shoot a photo of something bigger, or wild! I’d love to incorporate a horse into an image, I don’t exactly have an idea for what I want to do but being able to include the magic of an animal into an image would be something that I would really enjoy. I secretly wish that I could include something wild like a real elephant or a bear or (going back to my first wish) a whale….wouldn’t that be awesome?

3.  Collaborations
This year I’ve been fortunate to meet up with a few flickr-ites from other cities and a few from my own neck of the woods and I really loved the experience of getting to see another person work with a camera, I would LOVE the opportunity to meet up with more photographers and work on some images together.

4.  Abandoned Buildings
I have always had a soft spot for those secret places that are long abandoned but still seem to have so much life left in them, unforuntately so few of those places exist where I am, but I would love to explore an old factory, hospital or school to use a backdrop. I’m slightly jealous of those that are able to visit these places and create such amazing pieces of work within their walls.

That’s not a big wish list is it? Here’s hoping that 2012 brings with it some awesome photography experiences for all you! What is on your photography wish list?

Before/Afters

It’s been a tad quiet over here in blog-land, this past week has been quite busy with all sorts of random things on the go, but hopefully over the holiday’s I’ll be putting up a few more tutorials and posts!  In the meantime, I’ve put together a few before/afters of some of my recent images. I have a terrible habit of deleting images from my camera to save space  so I don’t tend to keep a lot of the before photos….must get in the habit of doing that!

All of the before images are before I’ve done the expansion, adding in about 10-20 more images to expand the frame and get more space to work with.

 

Extra Extra Read All About It!

About a month ago I had a nice interview/conversation with a reporter from my local newspaper. I’ve done short interviews over email but never face to face so I was a tad nervous but excited about the possibility to have my name and images in print. I waited and waited but the article didn’t show up, until today that is!

Let me just say that I am beyond surprised that it’s an entire page and that it is so wonderfully constructed! My town can sometimes focus heavy on the sports (hockey) and light on art so it’s amazing to see such a prominent article (I even made the header of the front page!) I’ve linked the image so that you can read it on the larger size, but I’ve also typed up the interview below

p.s. on an unrelated note, I am BLOWN away by the support and enthusiasm by my leaf tutorial. It’s been so amazing to see the beautiful creations that have come out of it and I am hopefully going to have another one up soon!

Happy reading!

 

(from the Cranbrook Daily Townsman)
Up, Up and Away with Joel Robison
by Annalee Grant

Joel Robison sometimes finds himself weightless, suddenly inspired by something that caught his eye. His body distorts into a seemingly impossible position, inverted over the Cranbrook Community Forest, and strange images emerge from the ground. This isn’t real life, though. This is Joel’s impossibly beautiful conceptual self-portraits playing out on a Photoshop document. What was a hobby has turned into a part-time job for the budding photographer, who spends two to three hours each day turning simple ideas and quirky thoughts into digital imagery that is slowly gaining an international cult fan base online.

“I’m a visual learner,” Joel says. “I really like to see pop culture kind of flipped around.”
Joel has never been taught how to use Photoshop, but simply learned through trial and error; anyone who has tried to self-teach the program knows this is a  daunting idea. When Joel was in high school he learned about film photography, not digital, but it seems he has adapted well.”It’s like learning to paint,” Joel says of the program. “The opportunities are endless.”

Endless, just like the worlds Joel has created from familiar scenes in the community forest, which is a short walk from his Cranbrook home. Joel is his own model, photographer, graphic artist and public relations person – and he likes it that way.”It’s kind of like my time to be in my head,” he said.

To build an image, Joel sometimes takes hundreds of photos before he’s satisfied. The shots where he’s floating in the air are sometimes made up of many different images all patched together, with objects he is leaning against cut out. He uses a hand-held remote so that he doesn’t have to run between the camera and the scene, and get into position before the shutter releases. “I don’t have to worry about running back and forth” he said. Joel enjoys showcasing the natural beauty of the scene around him and loves that the community forest is just a short walk or bike ride away from his house. “It’s a perfect place to take photos.”

Joel uses inspirations that are close to home. Throughout his childhood, Joel says his family encouraged reading and he grew up loving Disney characters. Images from books and popular literature appear in his art. In one image taken in Joel’s living room, Kermit the Frog sits next to him on the couch. In others, Joel rides a broom with a Gryffindor scarf, chasing after the golden snitch just like Harry Potter. “I enjoy reading,” he says. “Books are like an escape.”

Ideas that Joel uses can be simple, from sometimes on the table to a more profound idea. ”What if I made that cup really big, or really small?” Sometimes Joel takes on the world, and uses his favourite quote of all time to speak his mind. “You must be the change you wish to see” appears in many of his images”

The idea to use himself as the subject of his photos came out of the 365 project, a photography challenge that asks people to take a picture of themselves everyday to document small moments in their life that would otherwise be forgotten. The goal is learn how to use a camera and document life faster than with a blog or diary. Through the 365 project, Joel has managed to build a fan base and has launched pages both on Facebook and Flickr for his photography. Word of mouth has been spreading, and Joel’s been contacted by international photography magazines for interviews that have further lifted his burgeoning career. “I’ve been really fortunate,” he said.

What Joel hasn’t done much of since launching his photography online, is local promotion. He is branching out into some freelance work and hopes to someday turn his hobby-turned part-time job into a career. “It’s a hobby, so anything above it being a hobby, I’m open to try,” he said.

When he’s not out snapping photos in the community forest, Joel is an education assistant at Mount Baker Secondary School who works with students with special needs. The job itself is a constant source of inspiration and creativity for his images. “It’s a great opportunity to be creative, it’s a perfect fit.”

To view Joel’s images, visit his Facebook page, Joel Robison Photography.

Playing With Leaves Tutorial

I’ve been planning this tutorial for a few weeks, ever since I took the last of my “leaf” images.

 

I saved all the different photos that I took for that image and decided that I would just use the same base photos to do another image, this time explaining how I did it. The same method applies to all the other leaf photos I’ve done, but if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask. Hopefully I can explain myself in a clear enough way!

Step 1:

Your photo! Here is the base image that I’m using (without the leaf for now). This image in itself is composed of 9 different photos stitched together to give a bigger canvas to work with. You don’t need to do that if you’re trying this out, but I did since I like lots of space. Aside from adding the images all together, this is straight out of the camera.

Step 2:
Adding the leaf. In theory you could use almost any thing leaf-like for this kind of image, like a piece of paper or fabric or even a feather…anything that is flat and would be able to disperse. I had a few different leaves to choose from, but I went with this one and just pasted it on as a new layer. It’s important to have your leaf or paper on top of the base image as a new layer, don’t merge anything until the last step!

Step 3:
This is where the fun part begins! For this image, I’m using a butterfly brush but for the other ones, I used bird brushes and leaf brushes. This is the creative part where you can choose what silhouette you want to use in your leaf. You could have a tree, a balloon, a cityscape…it’s up to you! You can easily find brushes of almost anything (try DeviantArt).

The first part of doing this step is to pick the brush that you want to use and then choose the clone stamp tool.    Select a sample of the leaf ( pressing alt and clicking on the part of the leaf you want to sample) then you point to part of the image you’d like to see that butterfly shape appear and just click your mouse. You should get a butterfly with a leaf texture. Now, using the eraser tool select the same butterfly brush and click the mouse once on the leaf to erase a clear butterfly shape. 

 

Repeat this step using a variety of brushes and sizes. For this image, I did the cloning first and then went back and deleted the sections of the leaf. You can do as many or as little as you want. I always make sure that, using the eraser tool and the brush that I’m using, I erase the edge of the leaf,  leaving little details like parts of wings. I also use the blur tool on low opacity just to soften the edges a bit.

(this is before erasing the butterflies from the leaf)

Step 4:
It looks pretty good even at this point but it needs a little bit of extra pop to give it the impression that the butterflies are actually coming alive and leaving the leaf (ha!) I looked through my brush collection and found  this brush set (from deviant art) that is a set of paint splatter brushes. I tried it on a little bit of the leaf and it looked neat. I used the same technique as the butterfly step. Using the clone stamp tool, I used these splatter brushes (on a small size) and cloned the leaf texture near the edge of the leaf to make it appear that the leaf was breaking apart. You could use smaller butterfly brushes or other brushes if you like, I just thought that this worked pretty well.

 

 

 

Step 5:

The hard part is over, now you can tweak it to your liking! All I did for this after the brushwork was increase the contrast and brightness a bit.

 

I hope that made sense, if you decide to try this out I would love it if you leave me a comment or message so that I can see!