I thought this started off with promise, but it went nowhere fast. Its about 8 layers of magic wand images lifted off of a flash photo of branches in the dark. Whatever background I add just gets busy, but it looks somewhat empty as is. I tried a various blend of filters, but it only looked like I was trying various filters just for the hell of it. Actually I was out shooting for Orbs (another story) and I got this instead (so much for the planning thing). What got my attention is that at this time of year, the dogwood tree shows two seasons: the last remaining leaves from this year, right next to the flower buds for next spring that are already there. If anyone gets an idea flash, Im all ears, or perhaps eyes. Thanks!

As understand, your original is a tree branch(S)with an empty background (black). If you mask the background and select the branch, can you copy the branch in sharp focus to a different background? You might use a paint on mask to isolate the featured items. Bill

the foreground has a really "cool" tone to it, while the background has a warm tone to it. Nothing wrong with the contrast, I'm just wondering what would happen if the background was slightly "colder", hope ya understand what Im gettin at, hard to describe... ry

for what it's worth, my feelings;
The bold outlines on the branches make you imagine them to be really close. The paler back ones seem too pale and therefore too far back. What about paling out the dark ones or 'bolding' up the light ones, just to bring the perspective closer?
well, it might work.......

(",)

What does the original look like?

Thanks guys, and Misha, after lifting all the layers I wanted, I then deleted the original layer to keep the file size down. The background was just black.