Week 8: Effects

This week's post involves using different effects to create a space-based image, with a planet and nebula, so I felt it was time to have a bit of fun with things. I'm not completely content with the "nebula" part of this one, but I can work on that once Mom has finished loading the Uhaul and hit the road, in roughly 3 hours and some change. For now, though, I offer this:

Yes, that's the Earth there. At least that part looks ok. :) The lens flare isn't positioned quite right, but fixing that entails deleting the layer that the second lens flare gets put on and recreating it again, with the flare in a different position. The dialog box used for the lens flare effect is tiny, and can't be resized, so I have to guess at placement. Oh well. I'll try again after my nap. :)

 Update!

While taking a short walk outside, I had an idea that I wanted to try, so I made a few minor changes, and I think that the work stands improved. First, the image, then the explanation:

I think that this version's nebula looks a lot better. What I ended up doing is taking the nebula's color dodge layer and applied a Gaussian blur, to meld the colors together a little. Sadly, this also had the effect of washing out the colors, so I tacked on a couple of adjustment layers (vibrancy, to boost the colors, and brightness/contrast, to boost the overall effect). I ended up having to recreate the 2 composite layers, including the 2 lens flare effects, but I think that those also benefited from the process. I'm much happier with the outcome now, so I think it was worth the effort.