Help with Swamps

[redleg7]

Hello All,
I'm trying to create a swamp layer on my Alaska map but as you can see it just doesn't look right.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using Photo Shop CS4.

[Ascension]

I took a look at the Everglades in Flash Earth and the thing about swamps is, they're all different than what we expect them to look like. The color you have there (grayish-green) looks pretty darn good. The only thing I would add is lots of little creeks flowing through the area in a very dark teal and more spotty ponds about the area. The vivid blue ponds should be a dark teal too.

[redleg7]

I took a look at the Everglades in Flash Earth and the thing about swamps is, they're all different than what we expect them to look like. The color you have there (grayish-green) looks pretty darn good. The only thing I would add is lots of little creeks flowing through the area in a very dark teal and more spotty ponds about the area. The vivid blue ponds should be a dark teal too.

Thanks, I kind of stumbled into that combination by accident.

Do you think there's a better way for me to blend the swamp areas with my ground layer?

At a minimum break up the swamp "shapes".

[Tom_Cardin]

definitely feather out the edges of your swamp layer where it meets the ground layer. In addition to feathering I would go in with a small hard brush eraser at about 20% opacity and cut into the edges in places to rough it up some.
This gets a more realistic look or artsy look but you will lose some clear delineation of "now you are entering the swamp" it would be more gradual and broken up. So it depends on how you want your map to read.

[redleg7]

definitely feather out the edges of your swamp layer where it meets the ground layer. In addition to feathering I would go in with a small hard brush eraser at about 20% opacity and cut into the edges in places to rough it up some.
This gets a more realistic look or artsy look but you will lose some clear delineation of "now you are entering the swamp" it would be more gradual and broken up. So it depends on how you want your map to read.

Thanks will give it a try.

I definitely want it to blend in some.

[redleg7]

Hmm, stupid question.

How do I apply feathering?

Here's what I'm doing:

1. Control click on my swamp layer which selects all my swamp shapes.
2. Goto Select -> Modify-> Feather.
3. Enter a value for example 10.
4. Click ok on the feather dialog.
5. The selections change in response to the feather value I entered.
6. Now what? How do I actually apply it.

[ravells]

If you're using photoshop, you won't see the feather since it's sampling the swamps and the layer below it. Hit delete after 5 (if your swamps disappear, invert the selection and then hit delete).

A more controlled way to feather is to select your swamp shapes and then create a new mask (swamps white, everthing else black). Alt click the mask layer and then use some gaussian blur on it. Using this method you can control where you want the feather and where you want to keep hard edges by using a brush with black / white or gray.

best

Ravs

[redleg7]

If you're using photoshop, you won't see the feather since it's sampling the swamps and the layer below it. Hit delete after 5 (if your swamps disappear, invert the selection and then hit delete).

A more controlled way to feather is to select your swamp shapes and then create a new mask (swamps white, everthing else black). Alt click the mask layer and then use some gaussian blur on it. Using this method you can control where you want the feather and where you want to keep hard edges by using a brush with black / white or gray.

best

Ravs

Ravells could you point me to a tutorial on how to do this? Setup the mask etc.

Sorry to be a pain.

[redleg7]

Here's my new and improved map.

Think it looks a lot better then the first one I posted.

Thanks for all the tips it really made a difference.

I'm going to call the blue areas marshland. Needs some vegetation, going to play around a bit see what I come up with.

[Ascension]

You're right, not too shabby.