More, Ever More on Blending: The Wind

Sometimes layouts take shape based on a photograph; sometimes on an item or goodie you want to display; this one was all about the words. When that wind started howling last night, I just had to drag out Notepad and start typing away my nerves...

I had no idea what the layout would look like. The colored pictures were just totally detracting from the text. Furthermore, I couldn't figure out what relationship the photos could have between each other -besides- the text--and the viewer/reader would have to read the whole thing before being able to figure out what those photos were doing there. But if you don't hook the viewer visually, their eyes will just slide on over to the next layout...

I hunted through my photos until I finally found this poor barren tree from up on Cape Perpetua. The winds up there, at 800 feet, are easily one and a half times what they are down near the shore, and the winds really rip these guys to shreds. But that photo didn't work in color either. So then began the game of finding the right saturation, hue, etc. Once I found that, I could apply it to the two smaller photos. I finally clued in to using blending after trying to find some way to tie the smaller pictures together--and then it all fell into place. I really like the slight transparency of those smaller pictures--without any drop shadows anywhere, the page still has some feeling of depth because of it. Remember, the blending is achieved by giving the images a mask in the layers palette, then filling with a gradient. Black will let the photo show through, white will hide it. Gray will give you varying degrees of transparency.

Doesn't look like the wind left us any gifts last night, thank goodness... (click on the photo to get the full journaling, if you can't read it here).