Benz World Blog » Layers

Xavier Rudd

Jason Benz — Tue, 10 May 2022 07:40:31 +0000

This is multi-instrumentalist, Xavier Rudd, on the Crossroads stage at Bluesfest 2022. The set began in a chilled soulful way with him playing 12 string guitar, didgeridoo, lap slide guitar and harmonica, before getting behind a drum kit.

Browndog used his track “Follow The Sun” in their Monday Bluesfest Montage. Since then it has been stuck in my head, as it has good navigation advice for those living in mobile photon catchers. I bought his 2012 album “Spirit Bird” and listened to it as I reviewed his photos.

The album uses samples from Australia’s diverse and musical songbird populations. Since I moved here in 2011 the variety of their tunes has been a constant wonder. As songbirds originated in Australia and they predate humans anywhere, this land probably heard the first music.

This shot captured his smile, but the background was a dull dark brown. I was inspired to get creative by another photographer Jason Rosewarne, who produces artworked festival images to a very high standard.

This image cannot be used as editorial due to localised adjustments, so this is purely a fun exercise in Photoshop for the blog. I used a sunset shot from South Australia called Solar Nuke to add the yellow, orange and red spots. Difference blend mode was used with a soft, scattered brush to create the blue, purple and green fireflies.

(unedited image download here)

Xavier Rudd will return one last time for the final Byron Bay Bluesfest in Easter 2025. Tickets are available via the Bluesfest Website.

UPDATE: In 2026 Bluesfest will be the last in a line of major festivals closed from increasing headwinds. This began before covid, with the previous state government’s legislative “war on festivals“. The new government risks letting this trend continue through inaction. However, you can change this. If 20,000 signatures are received, the NSW Parliament must debate Bluesfest’s future. #savebluesfest if you live in the state Sign up here. For everyone else, there is an international petition on change.org Sign up here.

UPDATE: Due to the success of Bluesfest 2025, its future has been confirmed. Xavier Rudd will return to the festival in 2026. Tickets are available via the Bluesfest Website.

Byron Bay Bluesfest 2026
1st artist reveal

Peace Bell

Jason Benz — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 12:30:21 +0000

This is the World Peace Bell in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia. The Bell is made from coins provided by 103 countries and is a replica of the one that stands in the forecourt of the United Nations Headquarters. Events in France remind us of the need for greater understanding between people of the world. It is sad that someone could believe terror attacks on France would be a solution for anything.

To process this image Red and Blue layers were used in Photoshop to add colour. A lightened Black and White layer was used in the centre to finish the flag.

Pimped Classic

Jason Benz — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 10:10:21 +0000

Karen photographed this classic car in Cuba. If anybody knows the model please leave a comment. I used fractalius and photoshop to pimp it up.

Night Heron

Jason Benz — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:37:13 +0000

This bird is a Nankeen Night Heron. We saw it one morning at a campsite called Ban Ban Springs in Queensland, Australia. This image needed some work in Photoshop so I have shown the layers below. I added some blur and desaturation to the background and used a multiply layer on the heron to bring out some more detail.

Fractal Owl

Jason Benz — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:39:25 +0000

This bird is a Tawny Frog Mouth Owl. The animal was in a nature park near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia.

To process the image I ran fractalius several times and built up the image with layers and masks.

Hassan Rifa’i

Jason Benz — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:46:18 +0000

These are the Al Hassan and Al Rifa’i Mosques of Cairo in Egypt. The image was created from two separate exposures stitched together in Photoshop. A mask of the sky was made to add some blue however it clashed with the warm tones of the buildings. By changing the blend mode to Exclusion the blue sky layer added a soft brown which looked like a dust storm and balanced with the other colours in the image.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Swimming Pyramids

Jason Benz — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:12:00 +0000

This was created by compositing three separate images. The Pyramids of Egypt, The Seas of Dahab and Rutland Water. Many adjustment layers and masks were needed in an attempt to balance the shot as each component was taken with different lighting conditions at different angles with different cameras in different countries.

Braunston Village

Jason Benz — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:44:34 +0000

This is Braunston in Rutland, UK. It is a beautiful old English village. To make it look a little older I removed all the pylons, wires, concrete and tarmac. To add some colour to the sky I used the color range tool to select the bright areas of the sky. This selection was used to create a mask which was applied to a gradient. The Blend mode Multiply was used as this is the most forgiving when it comes to masks of light colours over dark colours. A rough mask set to Multiply will not cover the branches or leave a halo. The worst that can happen is the thinnest branches get a slight hint of blue. Even this could be argued as a natural effect of soft focus so the end result looks natural.

Ladybird Spot

Jason Benz — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:02:53 +0000

This simple use of spot colour is achieved by painting black on the layer mask of a Black & White layer. The Hue/Saturation layer above was used to make the ladybird nice and red. It was a little orange in the original capture. Vignette was achieved using a gradient layer and lens correction.

Hawthorn Blossom

Jason Benz — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:22:09 +0000

This is the Hawthorn Blossom at the end of our garden in the UK. I tried to get the focal plane through the Stamen but is in front of the petals. To emphasize the anther at the tips I needed to increase the mid range contrast. This can be done with the clarity slider in Camera RAW or In Photoshop by using a high pass layer set to overlay blend mode. I never realized these two methods use the same technique until I read about it in this book. Thanks to Fliss and Alex for the birthday present. In this example I imported the image as a smart object. This means you can edit the RAW camera data in Photoshop and you reduce the chance of degrading the image. In this example I used a smart filter also which allows you to go back and change settings after they have been applied.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.