Mobile Photography Tip Of The Day – Number 28

Hi everybody! My tip of the day is about opacity. Oftentimes when I create composite images I’m placing an object to fit a scene that shows some distance in the background. When a composition is such, it really helps make the image more believable if you adjust the opacity of your top layer. Let me show you an example so you know exactly what I’m talking about . . .

Above is an image called “Turbine Troubles” in its not quite finished state. See how sharp and solid the rhino and her balloons are? Looks pretty awful, doesn’t it? She’s so solid in fact that she looks as though she should be more in the foreground and not off in the distance in relation to the turbines. However, if she were more in the foreground, she’d be larger in scale. This is where opacity saves the day!

You can do this in any layering app that allows for opacity adjustment, such as Blender or Superimpose. I create all my composite images in Juxtaposer and it’s such a pain that they don’t allow for opacity adjustment; really hoping they add that feature one day, so in the meantime I use Superimpose for this purpose. All you need to do is in three easy steps: 1) upload your base image into your preferred layering app with opacity functionality, 2) add your saved composited image on top and bring it fully in alignment with the base, then 3) lower the opacity to the level that matches the objects in the distance.

Viola, a more believable composition!