Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition

In my Photoshop class we are working on a project that is supposed to channel the art of photogravure.  Photographs done in this style are often soft images with a sepia tone and a textured look to them.  To say that is really simplifying things, and the link I provided goes into much more detail and gives many examples if you are interested in taking a peek.

This week I have been busy creating a series of images that hopefully reflect that style.  Here is one:

ISO 200 18mm 0ev f/5.6 1/400

I will show you the original image at the bottom of this post so you can see where I started. It was very cold this week, but I went for a quick walk in a local park looking for an image like this that I could work with.  This photo I shot with my point and shoot camera, because I knew that it could capture an image like this one well.  I also knew that my final print for my project will be a small one, no larger than 8×10.

When I got home, I opened this image in Photoshop.  I created a duplicate layer and then used the Filter-Blur-Field blur to create focus on the plant but blur the background. Then I created a Gradient Map layer. My gradient goes from dark maroon to blue to pale yellow.  Then on another layer I brought in  a background I had that is a journal page.  So those are my three layers, they are stacked in the order that I mentioned them. The plant is in a normal blending mode with an opacity of 45%.  The Gradient Map layer is also in normal blending mode but set at 67%. The journal layer is set to blending mode multiply and 80% opacity.

Here is the original image I was working from:

ISO 200 18mm 0ev f/5.6 1/400

The theme this week for the WordPress photo challenge is juxtaposition, and my take on this theme is to create a single image out of the snowy scene and a journal page, something that you might not think of as being complimentary.  Do you think this combination works? What do you think of my editing? Feel free to leave a comment below. This photo has also been added to my Picfair portfolio.

Cheers!