Reflection of the Manger Scene in a Christmas Tree Ornament at St. Bronislava Church
Ok, I admit it, this is a heavily Photoshoped image. The Choir sang at 4 PM New Years Eve Mass tonight. After Mass, Cathy stayed with another member of the choir to practice a piece they will sing on Sunday. It sounded very nice but I had a fair amount of time to kill and started wandering around the church. I noticed a nice reflection in one of the silver Christmas tree ornaments. I tried to get a good angle on the ornament, but alas, I only could see my own reflection. Then inspiration hit me.
Take the image of the ornament, kind of a self portrait.
My self portrait in a Christmas Tree Ornament.
Crop the image that will be the reflection in the ornament. Then apply the distort > spherize filter.
Find an image of the church interior that could be an appropriate reflection in the ornament. Crop it square then apply the photoshop distort > spherize filter. Copy and paste it as a second layer into the main image. Transform it to the correct size. Apply a layer mask and hide all the insert image outside of the ornament. Finally mask out the side of image closest to the tree so tree branches and lights are reflected in the ornament. Including some of the original reflection helps make the effect seem more authentic.
Tags: Christmas, Christmas ornament reflection, how to, photoshop, photoshop how to
January 1, 2013 at 3:51 PM
Nice job Pete, but FYI, I also like the self portrait in the ornament as well! Happy New Year!