red car - green car

 Over on Flickr we have a surrealist image group called  Man Ray
In this group we run image contests, where a donated start-off image is used by everybody who enters, to be manipulated in a surreal way.
Its a great way to flex your photoshop skills and learn from some real post production masters. Jill's Rabbit caught in Car Headlights - featured in this blog went on to win last weeks contest!

This weeks start-off image is a red hot rod car. The base shows the car slightly desaturated, and above is my finished manipulation.
Firstly, I selected Flypaper Leadenhall as a background, to this I added some winter bushes and Lime Plaster to beef it up.
I then desaturated the red car, changing the colour with the sliders and carefully cut it out, placing it into the background, as above.

Next I followed the recipe below, I used my free green water texture to brighten and pull the colours together.
Other tweaks followed, like adding the missing shadow at the back of the car.

Stone carving layer - Luminosity @ 34% (desaturated) brushed from car
Leaden Hall - Linear Light @ 22%
Free Water Texture - Soft Light @ 62% (link below)
Volcanic Larva - Soft Light @ 33% brushed from car
Labyrinth - Hard Light @ 86% brushed from central area & car

Don't forget our earlier packs...click on the sidebar links, the combo offer for packs One and Two is still running too :-)

Combo Pack Offer

Only $65 for Tex Box One and Two!

Fly Edges Pack

Only $40

Please note that this is big, almost 400 mb file so the download may take a while. Average reported download time for this pack varies from 15 to 20 mins.
Free water texture is from my flickr free water textures, here:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/3694983482_926bd7f95d_o.jpg