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jane-mirage — The Dreams of the Innocent
Published: 2007-10-14 02:26:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 1726; Favourites: 47; Downloads: 0
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**Please full view**Edit 20/10/07: Thanks to Shayne, Helen and ~SongSprite for the feedback. Have made the sky darker, landscape lighter, fixed the shading and shadow for the rabbit and moved him out of the grass a bit, removed some distracting shadows in the grass, flipped and tweaked the rainbow and added a touch of sea mist! A little less of a fantasy feel to it but I'm much happier with the more realistic result.
Previous version here [link]
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I really loved the drama of this place and the original image (similar to this [link] ) but the sky was a bit boring and I was itching to do another manip. The original shot has a path running through the grass and I had planned to put a person into the shot but that would have obscured the rocks and cliff in the background so I decided on the rabbit instead. First I tried a very dark stormy sky but to make it look natural I had to desaturate the image and it lost part of what makes it special to me...so three skies later I found one that I was happy with!
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Many thanks to the stock artists:
lighthouse
textures
flower brushes
rabbit © Photographer: Robin Arnold | Agency: Dreamstime.com
all other stock and textures from personal stock
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I give permission for the following clubs to post this image in their galleries:
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Comments: 40
Just had to mark this as a 
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Thanks. Yeah I'm really glad I went with the bunny in the end.
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Thanks. Glad you like it.
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Congratulations! This work has been featured in the "Visual Senses" article this month: [link]
Thank you for the wonderful art and keep up the good work!
Nathalie
Please, do not comment here, but under the news article.
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Thanks very much. Glad you liked it.
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Thanks. It was definitely worth going back and redoing it, even though I often find that difficult. I tend to rush the end of jobs and probably should sit on them a lot longer before I release them. I'm getting better at that but I'm still impatient! Though in this instance I doubt it would have progressed further without the feedback I received.
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A great atmosphere. That's i call a true photomanip! You created a new world.
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Thank you very much. Sometimes you see a scene and in your head it's another world before you even take the photo!
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From the impression of the lay of the land I get from the shadows of the clumps of grass, it looks like the rabbit is sitting in a bit of a depression, and more of his lower body should be cast into shadow by the rise of the ground behind him.
I'm trying to figure out the lighting in this picture.... but I think it has defeated me 
Umm, I don't know much about lighthouses, but for its beam to show up like that against a sunbursty sky, I think it would have to be quite a hazy day (so the light has something to bounce off of). I don't know, maybe you could add some mist or at least haze, so that the furthest part of the shorelines fades into lighter browns and greys?
Just suggestions... It's still way better than I could do with photomanip, I'm only good for traditional media
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Ooh, thank you so much. Yes I debated making the rabbit shadows a little darker (though I think in this case I'll make the scene lighter instead as I've lost quite a lot of light and detail in the texturing). I will try moving him up a little whilst I'm there too. And the mist is a good idea too. The beam from the lighthouse is a bit of a hangover from an earlier version with a much darker sky. I was aware that it was a little out of place here but didn't want to lose it completely so a little mist will help justify it being visible...it would also help justify the rainbow.
The sky and the landscape have similar light sources (low on the horizon to the right) but the clouds complicate things. The original light source for the rabbit was relatively even and I've used levels and curves to try to adjust the light to the scene. Deepening the shadows here should help a bit.
I really appreciate your feedback. Thanks very much.
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Always happy to please ^_^ The sun coming from low on the right was my first impression too, but if that's the case, then I'm pretty sure the rainbow should be swinging in the opposite direction.
And the light falling on the rabbit works too, without any great stretch of the imagination, except that I think its shadow should be longer and falling directly to the left (9:00 or at least 8:30, as opposed to what looks like a 7:00 shadow right now, no pun intended). Compare it for example with the light on the hill and on the lighthouse tower.
Another thing you could maybe try is darkening the whole sky a few tones, even as you lighten the land. That would give the impression of being in the midst of a small sunlit patch on a dark day.... you could even cast the upper third of the far hill into a cloud's shadow by removing the warm sunlight from it. That would also justify the light coming from the tower more...
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Well you learn something new every day...I didn't know rainbows faced a particular way! Having said that I'll probably leave it facing the existing direction so it curves into the image (I know, typical designer!).
I've started work on the new edit (not posted yet) where I've lightened the landscape and darkened the shadow on the rabbit but it needs more work. Changing the lighting is making the rabbit less of a focal point and I think I need to fidget it a bit more...somehow it's lost some of it's fantasy feel. I'll try moving the shadow a bit and see if that helps, though I was thinking the light source for the rabbit comes more from behind than from the right as the light on the right is obscured by clouds at that point in the depth of field.
I tried the mist but to make it work enough to justify the light beam it ended up obscuring a lot of the detail that I'd rather keep. I might try a really light version...just a hint...and I've reduced the opacity of the beam. More fidgeting, more tweaking!
Thanks again for your feedback. This is really good for me, to go back and keep working on it to get it just right. I have a bad habit of getting to a certain point and then rushing through to the end.
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haha I'm glad I can help in spite of my ignorance
I forgot to mention before , I really like how you have the rainbow reflected in the water on the ground, nice attention to detail ^_^
From the look of the shadows of the clumps of grass, the sun is really low in the sky, so the rabbit could have quite a long shadow... like four or five rabbit-lengths... that would emphasize him...
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Okay so the thing about the rainbow being the wrong way was haunting me every time I looked at it so I've flipped that too! lol New version now up! Thanks for all your help
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hehehe. Most people would never have known 
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I've learned the hard way to keep earlier unflattened versions just for this purpose! Keeps the file sizes smaller for working (though they still seem to be monsters!). There's now 9 progress versions of this file!
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Thanks, yes it's a beautiful spot.
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That is incredible! I love how the scene looks so vast and deep! Great work! Thanks for using my stock!
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Thanks very much...next time I'll try to pick an image where I don't squeeze your stock down to tiny size lol!!
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Haha! It was squeezed nicely though!
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What a gorgeous spot! I think it was a wise choice to keep the background and just add the rabbit, it's adorable!
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Thanks. I'm glad I went with the rabbit...my first choice was a dingo or a fox but I couldn't find the right stock to fit. They would have given it a completely different feeling and I like that this has stayed fairly light in mood.
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It's really original and full of emotions. Fantastic job, my dear.
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Thanks very much. I'm really pleased that people are responding to the story of the image so well.
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Reminds me of the Velveteen Rabbit. Happy, and yet kind of sad at the same time.
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Oh wow I love that book. Yes I know what you mean, though I wasn't consiously going for that look.
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