Double Rainbow Photo Composite
The sky is more spectacular here in semi-rural Colorado when compared with
more urban or suburban areas. Lightning storms are a showy display, cloud formations
are more easily noticed and the full expanse of a rainbow can be appreciated.
Until I relocated here I had never seen both the beginning and end of one single
rainbow and I certainly never saw 2 at the same time.
I snapped a photo of this lovely double rainbow and had to do so quickly before
it dissipated. There was not time to position myself to capture a more appealing
shot. Personally, I prefer photographs of natural landscapes minus the buildings,
roads, cars, etc. and so the original photo was destined to be reworked into
a more pleasing image.
The double rainbow is real but the rest of the photo is contrived. Not pleased
with the original composition, I decided to create my own memory the way I would
like to have seen the rainbows, that being with the mountains in the foreground.
Two photographs were used to render the finished project. The first one, with
the double rainbow sky, was the base image for the composite. It is the original
in which the rainbows appear. The unsightly vehicle parked in the street and
the houses had to go.
The second photo gave me mountains to work with but the houses framing them
on each side also had to disappear.
By outlining the parts of the photo I wanted to use along with cut and paste,
cloning and erasing techniques, various elements from the 2 photos were blended
into one final design.
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Base Photo with the Double Rainbow Sky and foreground tree. |
This photo provided the mountains and the canyon dotted with a few ranches and rural homes. However, because it was raining and overcast, only the mountains to the right, without the sunshine highlights, could be used. |
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